Huddersfield Town equalled the record for the earliest relegation in a Premier League season as second-half goals from Luka Milivojevic and Patrick van Aanholt earned Crystal Palace all three points at Selhurst Park on Saturday. The Terriers' defeat, combined with victories for Burnley and Southampton, confirmed the visitors' demotion back to The Championship after two seasons. Huddersfield, who have propped up the table since December, join Derby County and Ipswich Town as the only teams in Premier League history to be relegated with six or more games left to play. Fulham, who were beaten two-nil by Sheikh Yer Man City, their eighth consecutive Premier League defeat looked likely to join then - something which was subsequently confirmed by their four-one hiding at Watford on Wednesday. Some woeful defending from Fulham - who have now conceded seventy six goals, the worst record in the top flight - contributed to both goals against Sheikh Yer Man City, with Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Joe Bryan both guilty of gifting the ball to City near their own goal. The Cottagers remained second bottom, sixteen points from safety with six games remaining. On Sunday, Moscow Chelski FC staged a remarkable late recovery to snatch a controversial two-one victory at relegation-threatened Cardiff City and ease the intensifying pressure on beleaguered boss Maurizio Sarri. The result was a major blow to Cardiff's bid for Premier League survival, leaving them on twenty eight points, five points adrift of safety although they did, at that time, have a game in hand over Burnley. A series of highly contentious decisions by referee Craig Pawson late on left Cardiff's manager, Neil Wazzock, purple-faced with impotent rage and looking for all the world like someone who'd just down a pint of curdled milk. Which, to be fair, was geet funny to watch. Burnley, Southampton and Brighton & Hove Albinos all have thirty three points although Brighton had two games in hand over Burnley and one over the other teams in the relegation battle, including this blogger's beloved, though still unsellable Magpies whose defeat to The Arse on Monday means they remain on thirty five points and still in danger of getting sucked into the relegation dogfight.
The subsequent midweek games had a significant effect on both the top and bottom of the Premier League; in addition to the long-expected confirmation of Fulham's relegation on Tuesday, the following day saw further defeats for Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albinos at Sheikh Yer Man City, Stottingtot Hotshots and Moscow Chelsi FC respectively. Thus, leaving the bottom of the table looking like this.
So, anyway, back to Neil Wazzock who had a right stroppy lip-on after Moscow Chelski FC's come-from-behind theft of the game at Cardiff. Ordinarily, one would have felt a great deal of sympathy for a manager in such a situation but then, this is Neil Wazzock we're talking about. Wazzock criticised referees' boss Mike Riley, saying that officiating standards 'have gone backwards' under his watch and that Riley 'struggles to understand the game.' Wazzock 'expects to be contacted' by the Football Association over comments made following Sunday's defeat. Wazzock labelled Premier League officials as 'the worst in the world' and targeted Riley, who is head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited. Wazzock, who has escaped any charge for a stand-off with Craig Pawson at the final whistle, said: 'I'm sure they'll ask for my observations and I'll send them. I'd imagine people in the FA feel sorry for me if I'm honest. I don't think Mike Riley and myself are close Christmas card list-wise. When I see people like Paul Durkin, Graham Poll and Mark Clattenburg - who were top referees and know the game as well as the laws - I think it's criminal they're not involved. Mark Halsey, he knew how to handle players and he could give major advice to some of these referees. I always thought Mike Riley was a manufactured referee from day one when he refereed a game at Hartlepool against me. I don't think he's changed since then. He's been manufactured, almost like a robot. He knows everything about the rules but I feel these people struggle to understand the game and the human element.' Wazzock suggested that Premier League referee Michael Oliver's approach to the job was a better one to follow. 'Referees should be looking at the way Michael Oliver referees because he doesn't do everything by the book,' Wazzock added. 'That's why he's going to be one of the best in the world. [With] some of the younger ones the personality comes before the refereeing. Lot of referees are like Mike Riley, that's why we have gone backwards a bit and it's disappointing because there are enough ex-referees who can give education and knowledge to make our referees the best.' Wazzock says his players were left 'broken-hearted' by the weekend loss. 'You just have to get on with it and get onto the next one,' Wazzock said. 'You realise not many more things could go against us, apart from an earthquake or something. It was only a game of football, I'm sure a lot of the country would be happy, especially the teams around us. It shows how fine a balance football is.'
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says that he will ask referees to 'be brave' and stop matches where there is racial abuse from fans. Moscow Chelski FC and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was subjected to sick racist abuse in games against Dynamo Kiev and Montenegro last month. 'The moment a match is stopped, or it's not played, I think that ninety per cent of normal people in the stadium would kick the asses of those idiots,' said Ceferin. 'It's 2019, it's not one hundred years ago.' Sheikh Yer Man City and England forward Raheem Sterling suffered alleged racist abuse from Moscow Chelski FC fans in a Premier League game at Torpedo Stamford Bridge in December, while a study published in November found that half of football supporters in the UK have witnessed racism while watching matches. Sterling has called on football's authorities to 'take a proper stance' and 'crack down' on racist abuse. Moscow Chelski FC boss Maurizio Sarri, Liverpool Alabama Yee-Haws's Jurgen Klopp and Stottingtot Hotshot's Mauricio Pochettino are among the managers to say they would be prepared to take their players off the pitch to combat racist chanting. 'We will speak to the referees again and tell them to be confident, not to be afraid to act,' said Ceferin, the head of European football's governing body. 'This is a huge problem. Not just the Balkans, all Eastern Europe. There's not much immigration there because everybody wanted to go to Western Europe because of economic reasons, jobs, a better life. So it takes some time. But of course you see Italy, one of the biggest problems with racism, sexism and homophobia. You have England, where you have problems. It's a problem of intolerant people, not a problem of nations.' Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said last week that 'it's time for UEFA to take strong, decisive action - fines won't do,' adding: 'Extended stadium bans or tournament expulsion are what's needed.' Ceferin does not believe that UEFA's punishments need to be tougher. 'I don't see any tougher sanction than forbidding the fans, matches played in front of empty stadiums, which has happened in Croatia a few times and the money sanctions,' he said. 'If it's chronic, we could throw out a club team or a national team from a competition. Everything is possible. But that is a last resort.' Football Association chairman Greg Clarke says it must take 'a default position' of believing those reporting racism or discrimination. 'One of the first rules is to listen to the person who has been affected and believe them,' said Clarke at the UEFA Equal Game conference at Wembley where Ceferin was also speaking. 'I worry that there is an undue burden on the player to report incidents themselves. I would like to see a review of on-field incidents too. I understand completely that when two people are involved in an exchange it is often the word of one person against another. But actually that's not the case any more. The grounds that competitions are played in are full of cameras, recording every angle. We should go that extra mile. We owe it to our players.' Clarke believes it is 'time to examine' UEFA's three-step process for halting matches. 'The protocol asks the referee to stop the match if "racist behaviour is of a strong magnitude and intensity." I don't now think that is good enough and we should take this opportunity to revisit these thresholds,' said Clarke. 'There should be no judgement call on whether something is of a strong magnitude. Racism is racism.'
Northumbria Police are reportedly investigating an alleged incident involving England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Video published on social media appears to show the Everton player 'involved in a fracas' on a Wearside street. 'At 12:19am, police received a report of a disturbance involving a large group of individuals on Tunstall Road, Sunderland,' a spokesperson said. 'Enquiries are ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident and locate those involved.' They added: 'Nobody is believed to have been seriously injured and no arrests have been made.' Everton had earlier confirmed that they are also investigating the incident. The FA is aware of the incident but it is seen as a club matter. 'The club has been made aware of an alleged incident involving one of our players and we are looking into the matter,' Everton said. Pickford played on Saturday as The Toffees beat West Hamsters United two-nil at The London Stadium. He became the most expensive British goalkeeper in history after Everton paid twenty five million smackers to sign him from Blunderland in June 2017.
A Sheikh Yer Man City fan has been forced to resign from his new police job due to 'embarrassment' after he ran onto the pitch at an FA Cup match. Harry Eccles pleaded extremely guilty to going onto the playing area during the Swansea versus Sheikh Yer Man City game at Swansea's Liberty Stadium on 16 March. He was given an eighteen-month conditional discharge at Swansea Magistrates' Court. Three other fans were given football banning orders. The court was shown footage of Eccles, a police room operator, running onto the pitch after City striker Sergio Aguero celebrated his goal in the eighty eighth minute. Lee Davies, defending, claimed that Eccles was guilty of 'over-exuberance' and added that he had to resign from his new job with North Wales Police due to 'embarrassment.' And, committing a crime, obviously. Superintendent Steve Jones, from South Wales Police, said: 'I hope they serve as a stark reminder to anyone attending a football match in South Wales with the intention of committing offences that this behaviour will be dealt with robustly.' A fifteen-year-old from Bury and a sixteen-year-old from Swansea were also arrested for pitch encroachment during the match and have received youth cautions.
The pilot of the plane which crashed into the English Channel with Emiliano Sala on-board, was not qualified to fly at night, BBC Wales has reported. David Ibbotson is 'thought' to have been colour-blind and his licence restricted him to flying in daytime hours only. Sala died when the plane carrying him from Nantes to Cardiff crashed late on 21 January. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said that licensing 'continues to be a focus' of its current investigations into the causes of the crash. Regulatory authorities have confirmed that Ibbotson, from Crowle in North Lincolnshire, did not hold a 'night rating' on his UK private pilot's licence. His UK licence was mirrored by a US pilot's licence - enabling him to fly the US-registered Piper Malibu in Europe. The public record of his Federal Aviation Administration licence states Ibbotson 'must have available glasses for near vision' and that 'all limitations and restrictions on the United Kingdom pilot licence apply.' Alleged 'sources' have allegedly told BBC Wales that Ibbotson's licence restricted him to 'flights by day only.' An alleged 'aviation source' allegedly told BBC Wales that the ability to be able to 'differentiate between green and red lights' is 'key' to flying in the dark. 'Anything that's on the UK licence applies to the US licence as well, so he couldn't do anything more than the UK licence allows. Flying outside the restrictions of your licence is illegal and that's likely to affect the insurance cover for the flight.' European aviation rules define night as 'the time from half-an-hour after sunset until half-an-hour before sunrise.' Flight plans seen by BBC Wales indicate the flight scheduled to take Sala for his first training session with Cardiff City had been due to leave Nantes airport at 9am local time on 21 January. But, the flight was postponed until 7pm, at the request of Sala, to allow him to spend the day saying goodbye to his former Nantes teammates. By the time that Ibbotson taxied a Piper Malibu plane on to the runway ready for take-off shortly after 7pm, it would have been around an hour and ten minutes after sunset. Speculation about the legality of the flight has so far centred around the question of whether it complied with restrictions concerning private pilots flying passengers in Europe in a US-registered aircraft. As a private pilot, Ibbotson was not allowed to carry passengers 'for remuneration or financial reward.' A preliminary report from the AIIB, released in February, stated that he could only fly passengers 'on a cost-share basis.' As the aircraft was US-registered, pilot and passenger must have 'a common purpose' for making the journey and the pilot 'must dictate when a flight leaves.' The report adds that the flight 'must not be made for the purpose of merely transporting the passenger.' In an interview in February, the football agent Willie McKay, who commissioned the flight, told the BBC that he and his family had paid for the flight. He was not involved, he said, in selecting the plane or the pilot and it was not a cost-share arrangement. The plane disappeared off radar North of Guernsey in the Channel Islands just after 8pm. Sala's body was recovered from the wreckage of the plane in early February but Ibbotson's body has not been found. The European Aviation Safety Agency states that to obtain a night rating, a pilot must undergo five hours of theory and five hours of flight training. In their preliminary report, the AAIB said that because Ibbotson's pilot licence and log book had been lost in the crash, it had 'not yet been able to establish what ratings he held' or how many hours he had flown recently - although it was known he had completed approximately three thousand seven hundred flying hours. Investigators would normally look to establish how many hours a pilot had flown in the last twenty eight and ninety days before a crash. The AAIB is expected to publish its full report into the tragedy early in 2020.
Portsmouth beat Blunderland on penalties to win The Checkatrade Trophy following a compelling two-two draw in front of a competition-record crowd of eighty five thousand punters at Wembley. Blunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole was the only player not to convert from twelve yards in the shootout as Craig MacGillivray saved to his left. The game finished one-one after ninety minutes as Nathan Thompson's header cancelled out an Aiden McGeady free-kick. Jamal Lowe's exquisite lob over Jon McLaughlin looked to have won it late in extra-time for Pompey, only for McGeady to pounce again in the one hundred and nineteenth minute to take the game to a penalty shoot-out. Oli Hawkins struck the decisive spot-kick as Portsmouth won five-four on penalties. Cattermole, the sole surviving Blunderland player from the club's previous Wembley appearance in the 2014 League Cup final, was the only player not to score from the spot, allowing Hawkins to net the decider.
Casper the snake is looking for a new home with the news that Queens Park Strangers have extremely sacked Steve McClaren - and his infamous hair island - following a run of but one win in fifteen Championship games. The fifty seven-year-old, who was (disastrously) England coach between August 2006 and November 2007, was appointed at Loftus Road in May 2018. Strangers have won just once in the league since 26 December and are currently seventeenth in the table, eight points above the relegation zone. McClaren's assistant John Eustace has been placed in interim charge while the club search for a new boss. 'Making a decision such as this is never easy, particularly when you are talking about someone as professional and dedicated as Steve,' chief executive Lee Hoos said in a statement on the club website. 'It is well documented that we are in a period of transition as we work hard to make the club financially stable. As we look to the future, and taking recent results into account, we feel now is the right time to re-evaluate where we are.' McClaren, who won sixteen of his forty six games in charge of The R's, had been working under financial restrictions at Loftus Road following the club's forty two million knicker settlement with the English Football League last summer for breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations during the 2013-14 season. The club only made two permanent signings last summer, bringing in defender Toni Leistner and veteran full-back Angel Rangel on free transfers, before signing thee players on season-long loan deals. The R's began the Championship season with four consecutive defeats - including a thigh-slappingly hilarious seven-one loss to West Bromwich Albinos but - despite appearing to be McClaren's latest 'infiltrate, destroy and exit' job - recovered during the autumn and, after beating Ipswich Town on Boxing Day, were two points off the play-off places. McClaren guided Queen's Park Strangers to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1997, but ultimately paid the price for their poor league form in 2019, with a seven-match losing streak in January and February seeing The Hoops slide down the table. 'I would like to thank our fans for their patience and unwavering support during what has been a very difficult run of results, at a time when the club faces well-documented challenges,' Strangers chairman Amit Bhatia said. 'We must now work towards ending this season positively and building for the future.'
The club's director of football, Les Ferdinand, added: 'Steve has worked incredibly hard during his time with us but as we start to make plans for next year we feel this change is necessary now, rather than wait until the end of the season, or risk having to make such a decision early in the new campaign.' McClaren's departure from Loftus Road adds yet another disappointing chapter to his mostly very disappointing managerial career, which has seen him take charge of five English clubs and two other sides in Europe. He won the League Cup in 2003-04 with Middlesbrough, who he then led to the UEFA Cup final in 2006, before leaving Teesside that summer to take charge of the national team. However, his spell with England only lasted eighteen games and he left the role after England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 following a calamitous three-two defeat by Croatia at Wembley. He rebuilt his career in the Netherlands, guiding Twente to the Eredivisie title in 2009-10 and then became the first Englishman to manage in Germany's Bundesliga in 2010 - but was very sacked by Wolfsburg in February 2011 with the club one point above the relegation zone. A short stint in charge of Nottingham Forest followed - he resigned after one hundred and twelve days after three wins in thirteen games - before he returned to Twente for a second time in 2012. He then had two spells in charge of Derby County, either side of a truly disastrous spell mismanaging this blogger's beloved (though unsellable) Newcastle United, guiding Th' Toon to the brink of relegation with the sort of rank incompetence which, frankly, had to be seen to be believed. McClaren lost a Championship play-off final with The Rams in 2014 and won just six of twenty eight Premier League games in charge of The Magpies during 2015-16. His second spell at Derby lasted a mere five months and came to an end in March 2017, with the club ten points adrift of the play-off places in the second tier.
One person who, seemingly, was neither surprised or, indeed, overly upset by McClaren's sacking was his predecessor at Loftus Road, Ian Holloway who sneered that he has 'no sympathy' for McClaren. 'He took my job,' Holloway whinged on talkSPORT. 'I still had another year left at the club. I'm still being paid by them now. [McClaren] was talking to the chairman while I was in the job saying what he'd do. He hasn't been able to do that. What goes around comes around. He had my babies and took my kids,' Holloway added. 'It means the world to me. I felt I was in the best position to do that job. The owners made their choice and that’s football at the end of the day. Would I go back? It depends who calls me. Les [Ferdinand] didn't want me to go.'
Notlob Wanderings' next two Championship home games - against Ipswich Town and The Middlesbrough Smog Monsters - are 'in doubt' after the club were issued with an order preventing fans from entering the ground. The area's Safety Advisory Group met on Tuesday and said it 'was not prepared to put the public at risk.' Notlob players went on strike on Monday after staff were not paid on time for the second month in a row. The EFL said that they 'hoped' the fixtures would take place as planned. One option could be to play the matches behind closed doors. 'We will work with the club and offer them any practical assistance that is available to us in an attempt to find a successful and timely resolution to the issue,' an EFL statement said. Notlob, who are up for sale and battling relegation, said that they would be 'unable to meet the obligations' of their safety certificate until after Wednesday's High Court appearance over unpaid debts. Staff will not be paid their March wages until Wednesday at the earliest, with owner Ken Anderson claiming that talks 'are ongoing' with potential buyers. SAG members agreed it 'would be a challenging timeframe' to put an 'adequate operation in place to protect the safety of spectators' for the games against Ipswich on Saturday and The Boro next Tuesday. 'We recognise that Bolton Wanderers is at the heart of our community and this is a deeply regrettable situation,' a spokesperson for SAG said. 'We have done everything we can over recent weeks to support the club at this difficult time. Every effort has been made to give the club enough time to put adequate match day operation standards in place, but regrettably the law gives us no alternative but to issue a prohibition notice. Safety and security remain our primary concern and while we recognise that spectators may be disappointed, we are not prepared to put the public at risk.' It is the second time in as many months the SAG has highlighted 'concerns' over safety at the University of Notlob stadium, with the game against Millwall on 9 March eventually given the green light to go ahead three days before. Notlob's squad are refusing to train until at least Wednesday in support of other staff who are still waiting for their March salaries, while payments were also late in February. Earlier on Tuesday, Anderson said that he had 'accepted an offer' for Wanderings that was less than what he paid for the club. 'I sincerely apologise to everyone, unreservedly, for this and would again request their continued patience during these difficult times,' Anderson said. 'Fortunately, [club staff] did not choose to go on strike and their loyalty to the club cannot be questioned, unlike the players' decision which, unfortunately, has a negative rather than a positive logic behind it. I am not quite sure what the players think striking will achieve.' Getting paid? Just a wild stab in the dark, obviously.
Gatesheed have been kicked out of their ground because of money owed to the local council, but have now 'agreed in principle' to a takeover deal by the former Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy. They will be allowed to play this season's remaining home games at the International Stadium, but cannot train there and have vacated their offices. That will remain the case until the club and council reach a settlement. Current owner, Doctor Ranjan Varghese put Gatesheed up for sale in early March. 'This action follows a protracted period of negotiation with the current owner to settle outstanding debt,' said a Gatesheed Council spokesperson. 'To be clear, the issue is with the company, not the club. Gateshead Council is a long-time supporter of the club and it remains our wish that Gateshead FC has a long and prosperous future, preferably with the stadium as its home.' Gatesheed's players and staff have not been paid this month, but the club hopes to rectify that by next week. Varghese only took over The Tynesiders in July, but financial issues have seen the club operate under a transfer embargo for a large part of his tenure. It is unclear how soon the takeover deal will be completed. 'We're not there yet and [the takeover deal] is only in principle, but there is enormous potential in the club and the town,' said Dunphy. 'One thing we're looking forward to is working with the people up here. A football club is about the supporters, not the person who owns it.'
A burglar who broke into an FA Cup-winning footballer's home has been extremely jailed for five years. Luke Stuttard stole a car and jewellery from former Ipswich Town player Mick Lambert in January. He was jailed at Ipswich Crown Court after admitting one count of burglary. Twelve other burglaries were 'taken into consideration.' Lambert initially thought his 1978 FA Cup winner's medal had been stolen, but he later found it under his bed. The defender, now aged sixty eight, came on as a substitute for Roger Osborne, who scored the only goal in the victory over The Arse. Stuttard was arrested following a burglary in the town on 13 January when a patio door was smashed and key stolen from inside. After being charged, he was interviewed by police and admitted twelve other offences, including the burglary at Lambert's house. Stuttard's bad and naughty crimes took place between 3 January and 23 January and resulted in sixty grand's worth of items being stolen and fourteen thousand smackers of damage. One of these was at Lambert's home in Ipswich on 18 January, when a Ford Fiesta, a TV and jewellery was stolen. The day before Stuttard had broken into a house in Belstead and stolen jewellery and a Mercedes E220. Detective Constable Duncan Etchells said: 'Hopefully the sentence given in this case will provide some peace of mind to Stuttard's victims and also act as a deterrent to other would-be burglars.'
Bert Trautmann was born in Germany but he went on to have one of the least likely careers in British football. The former prisoner of war from Bremen became one of the most acclaimed goalkeepers of his generation, playing eventually for Manchester City. Now the film The Keeper tells his story to a new generation. David Kross is twenty eight. As a teenager in Germany, his first big film was Knallhart. Then in 2008 his role in The Reader, opposite Kate Winslet, brought international fame. But, as a child, what he really wanted to be was a professional footballer. 'I always loved the game,' he says. 'From five years old until I was fifteen, I was totally sure I'd be a footballer. It was the same with most of my friends but for me, it didn't work out. So I became an actor.' In The Keeper, hehas been called upon to revive his skills on the pitch. It's the true story of Bernd Trautmann, born in 1923, who was in the Luftwaffe in World War Two. In 1944, Trautmann was captured by British troops and ultimately sent to a prisoner of war camp near Wigan. Somewhere along the way, the name Bernd became Bert. His talent as a goalkeeper registered and he ended up playing for local side St Helens Town in the Lancashire Combination League. In 1949 he moved to Manchester City as a professional and stayed until 1964, turning out for the club more than five hundred times. He died in 2013. The film is a German-British co-production and in Germany it's called Trautmann. But director Marcus Rosenmüller admits that few Germans under sixty five would know who the central character is. 'But, that's not a big problem because the story really has to work as a love story and a family drama. It's not just a sports bio-pic, although of course the football scenes have to be convincing.' A lot of the hard work of giving the story emotional depth rests with Freya Mavor, who made her name playing Mini McGuinness in the final series of Skins on E4. She plays Trautmann's first wife, Margaret. Mavor can't claim to compete with her co-star's passion for football but says: 'I've lived quite a lot in France, so when France won the World Cup last summer, I did go a bit mad.' From the ages of nine to thirteen Mavor lived in La Rochelle on France's Atlantic coast; at nineteen she moved to Paris. Her fluency in the language means that she has been in several French films. 'I've always loved French cinema and I was obsessed with not sounding like a tourist. So it's brilliant to be accepted as an honorary French person in film.' But was it hard to produce a convincing accent for post-war industrial Lancashire? 'The big test was to sound authentic for people in St Helens and Manchester now,' Mavor says. 'But, I also wanted to understand the society which Margaret came from historically. There's a fascinating book by Norman Longmate called How We Lived Then. It was a huge help in understanding what the war was like for most people.' Kross confesses that, though much of the film is set there, he never actually went to St Helens. 'A lot of The Keeper was filmed in Northern Ireland and our football ground was in Belfast. But that's how films work. Later, when you see me at Wembley with Man City, that's mainly CGI: we were actually filming at Augsburg in Bavaria.' It was in the 1956 FA Cup final, when Manchester City were playing Birmingham City, that Trautmann took on legendary status. Fifteen minutes from the end, with city leading three-one, Trautmann dived at an incoming cross and was knocked out in a collision with Birmingham's Peter Murphy in which he was hit in the neck by Murphy's right knee. No substitutes were permitted in those days, so Trautmann, dazed and unsteady on his feet, carried on. For the remaining minutes he defended his net, making a crucial interception to deny Murphy once more. Trautmann admitted later that he had spent the last part of the match 'in a kind of fog.' His neck continued to cause him pain, and Prince Philip commented on its crooked state as he gave Trautmann his winner's medal. Trautmann attended that evening's post-match banquet despite being unable to move his head and went to bed expecting the injury to heal with rest. As the pain did not recede, the following day he went to St George's Hospital, where he was told he merely had a crick in his neck which would soon go away. Three days later, he got a second opinion from a doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary. An X-ray revealed he had dislocated five vertebrae, the second of which was cracked in two. The third vertebra had wedged against the second, preventing further damage which could, potentially, have cost Trautmann his life. The film starts with a short, but powerful section, in which we see Trautmann fighting in World War Two where he won an Iron Cross fighting on the Eastern Front. Kross says that those scenes were essential. 'We have to understand the times he grew up in and the criminal regime which dominated Germany. Bert was part of the Hitler Youth and he went through a sort of brainwashing. He absolutely wanted to be a soldier. But there are interviews Bert did near the end of his life in which he talks about seeing civilians shot in Ukraine and how that changed him.' Kross says The Keeper is, basically, about a man 'seeking a new home. I think that's the emotional centre and that's what I needed to get right as an actor.' In the last part of his life, Trautmann lived in Spain and it was there that director Rosenmüller went to talk to him, several years before filming began. 'We spent a week talking to him and as I sat there, I wondered why no one had filmed his story already. There is such drama in how Margaret accepts him and then how his teammates accept him and then England accepts this man they thought was a Nazi.' Rosenmüller always knew there would be a German release for the film but he resisted the temptation to reshoot Kross's scenes in German. 'Visually the German and English versions are ninety eight per cent the same and David was in the odd position of dubbing himself into his own language. Almost all the German is spoken early on and in fact that helps the drama - the audience sees that Bert is lost in a world he doesn't understand.' Kross comes from Schleswig-Holstein, near the Danish border, but he now lives in Berlin. For a year he was at drama school in London but he has worked in German and English-language films. So where does he now see the centre of his acting career? 'I would love to do more British-German co-productions. But that doesn't really happen much: it has to be a story which will interest both audiences and the film industry doesn't very often come up with these stories.' Mavor, meanwhile, has been filming a four-part fantasy in French called Il était une seconde fois for Netflix.
