The ‘big’ teams that haven’t won a major trophy for at least 10 years - nile sport

“In case you haven’t heard, it’s been quite the week for those associated with Newcastle United but who are the big* teams that haven’t won a major trophy for at least 10 years?” asks Richard Goss (*desperately requires clarification).

“I’ve done the research on teams that have won a European trophy,” responds our very own Rob Smyth. “Here, that means a European Cup/Champions League, Cup Winners’ Cup, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Uefa Cup, Europa League, or Conference League (Intertoto Cup, alas, does not qualify). Obviously that means missing out some big clubs such as Wolves – one could maybe include them on the grounds that they beat Honved in a game that helped to catalyse the creation of the European Cup. But obviously you can keep going with this – Sunderland, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield, also miss out. To many people, they are all big clubs.

“We also need to clarify what constitutes a ‘major’ trophy. Here, this means any European trophy (except the Intertoto), a domestic top-flight league or established domestic cup (FA and League Cup, but not Community Shield, Full Members Cup, etc). On that basis, these are the big teams who haven’t won a major trophy for at least 10 years.”

Loadsa goals, no pots

“Harry Kane has scored over 400 goals for club and country without winning anything at senior level,” notes Michael Pilcher. “Assuming he breaks his duck this season, who will hold the record for most career goals without a major honour and most career goals without a trophy at any level?”

By our calculations, Harry Kane has scored a total of 438 career goals for club and country and is famously yet to win a major team honour. The Bayern striker recently took the unwanted crown for an English player from Steve Bloomer, who scored 420 for Derby, Middlesbrough and England between 1891 and 1914. “Bloomer is second on the English all-time top-flight top scorers list, behind Jimmy Greaves, as far as I can tell,” says Tom Paternoster-Howe. “The Derby County legend only won the 1911-12 Second Division. His Derby teams were also First Division runner-up once and losing FA Cup finalists three times. He also played for Middlesbrough, who naturally didn’t win anything.”

Bloomer was crowned British champion three times in the 1890s in baseball, playing for Derby Baseball Club. The Worcestershire-born forward – who started a coaching career in Germany in 1914 before becoming a World War I prisoner there – later managed the Spanish side Real Unión to a Copa del Rey success, in which they beat Real Madrid 1-0 in the 1924 final. So despite a goal-rich and trophy-barren playing career, he did at least collect some silverware before he returned to England, where he worked for the rest of his life as a groundsman and general assistant at the Baseball Ground, Derby’s now former ground).

Outside the top flight, John Whyte suggests Arthur Rowley, who scored 434 goals in England and never won a top-level trophy, although he won the Second Division title three times with two clubs, Fulham and Leicester City.

For the most career goals without a trophy at any level, though, Dirk Haas may have the answer: “Abe Lenstra (624 goals) never won a trophy. He narrowly missed out on winning the 1957-58 Eredivisie, losing the Championship playoff with SC Enschede against DOS.” Lenstra remains a Dutch legend, devoted to Heerenveen across 18 seasons (registering more goals than appearances in 13 of those seasons) and regarded as their greatest player – the club’s stadium is named after the striker. Lenstra did guide the club to nine regional titles (Northern Championship) in the 1940s and early 1950s before the professional era in the Netherlands, but was unable to earn a national championship, despite that near miss in 1958.

Overseas goalfests

Last week we asked what the highest-scoring Premier League game that didn’t feature an English-born scorer was, the answer being Everton 3-6 Chelsea in 2014; a game that featured nine goals by players from Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Ireland, Scotland and Serbia, but not England. We asked for your help for the equivalent question in other European nations and, as ever, you obliged.

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“I can set the bar at 10 for La Liga,” roars Sean DeLoughry. “When Real Madrid beat Sevilla 7-3 on 30 October 2013 the scorers were Karim Benzema (France, two goals), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, three), Gareth Bale (Wales, two), Ivan Rakitic (Croatia, two) and Carlos Bacca (Colombia, one).

Over to Ligue 1, and we think we have a winner. “I have 13 goals: Sochaux 12-1 Valenciennes on 25 August 1935,” Mykola Kozlenko triumphantly announces. “It’s the biggest victory in the history of French football and all goals were scored by foreign-born players: André Abegglen (Switzerland, seven), Leslie Miller (England, two), Roger Courtois (Switzerland, three) and Ignace Kowalczyk (Germany, one for Valenciennes).”

Knowledge archive

“What is the longest distance from where a player has scored a direct free-kick?” asked John Sandy in 2018.

Danny Michaux emailed in, although he was not alone, to remind us all of this wonderful effort – measured at 95 or 96 yards by most media outlets – from Paul Robinson in 2007 for Tottenham against Watford. He walloped a free-kick from deep inside his own half to then see it bounce over his former England colleague Ben Foster and into the net, much to his and the crowd’s surprise. Robinson felt only sympathy for his opposite number, but the Spurs manager Martin Jol found it much more entertaining. “You can say now that we really are scoring from all angles at the moment,” he chuckled.

Can you help?

“Uzbekistan are playing Kyrgyzstan in a World Cup qualifier this Thursday,” notes Ben Jones. “Is this fixture the highest combined Scrabble score for a pair of Fifa nations? Bosnia and Herzegovina might have something to say but I’m looking for a combined score from two teams who have actually played each other.” [We make the total for this fixture 55 – Uzebkistan scoring 25, Kyrgyzstan 30].

“As I write, the top six in this season’s Eredivisie table all have predominantly red home kits,” writes Darren Beach. “Since the first Dutch professional league in 1956-57, all but one of its champions – the now-defunct DWS Amsterdam in 1964, who played in blue/black stripes – won the title with red as its primary shirt colour. That’s seven red-clad clubs – Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, AZ Alkmaar, Twente, Sparta Rotterdam and FC Utrecht (as DOS) – sharing all but one of 67 titles. Can any other domestic league compete with this level of one-colour dominance?”

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“With Gareth Taylor being sacked by Manchester City five days before the Women’s League Cup final, do you know of any managers who have been sacked any closer to a major final?” asks Matt McBride.

“One fact I’ve always enjoyed is that in 2003-04, Marlon Harewood played 19 league games for Forest, then joined West Ham, who had a game in hand, for whom he played 28 times,” emails Simon Treanor. “Therefore he played 47 times in a 46-game league season (plus three in the playoffs). Can anyone beat this?”

“After 28 matches, Spurs are 13th, with a goal difference of +14,” sighs Christopher Zorn. “What’s the lowest a team has ever finished a season with a goal difference higher than their final league place?”