Top-flight champions as both player and manager
"I was asked this question recently, but found myself stumped," says John Alley, before firing off this poser:"Who are the nine individuals to have won English football's first division or Premiership title both as a player and manager?"
Well John, having delved deep into the archive we have our nine, opening up with Ted Drake, who collected three championships with Arsenal in 1934, 1935 and 1938. As a striker, Drake terrorised defences even more than Thierry Henry, cracking in 42 goals (still a club record) during the Gunners' charge to that second crown. He even managed to score all of Arsenal's goals in the 7-1 trouncing of Aston Villa that season. Some serious va-va-voom, there. In 1952, Drake was appointed manager at Chelsea, who were fighting against relegation at the time. "Ted forecast that it would take three years before we started winning 'pots and pans' and he was spot-on," said his captain, Roy Bentley. That 1955 success remains Chelsea's last championship - well, at least until their impending Premiership coronation.
The year after Drake won his final title as a player, Joe Mercer achieved on-field glory with Everton, before repeating the trick at Arsenal in both 1948 and 1953. He went on to bring the first division crown to Manchester City, the last of their two successes, in 1968.
Next up is legendary Liverpool figurehead Bob Paisley, who won a top-flight winners' medal at Anfield in 1947. But it was as manager that he is best remembered, leading the Reds to six league titles between 1976 and 1983. It could all have been so different had he taken his intended path of leaving Liverpool to set up a fruit and veg business. The club persuaded him to stay on in a coaching capacity in 1954, a decision that finally paid dividends over 20 years later.
Similarly feted at White Hart Lane, Bill Nicholson also achieved the player-manager double as part of the 1951 league-winning team, alongside Sir Alf Ramsey, before managing the double-winning 1961 team. Ramsey himself is another high-profile name on our exalted list, having gone on to glory in charge of Ipswich in 1962. Dave Mackay also played for Nicholson's 1961 side and he followed this up by managing Derby County in their 1975 championship campaign.
Ten years later Howard Kendall added himself to the list, securing the first of two titles in charge of Everton, the second coming in 1987. He had, of course, already tasted league glory as a player at Goodison back in 1970. Across Stanley Park, Kenny Dalglish also sealed the double, albeit as a player-manager in 1986. Further managerial titles came in 1988 and 1990, before he took Jack Walker's millions and used them to lead Blackburn past the Premiership winning post in 1995.
That leaves just George Graham, the last man to complete this venerable double. Having collected the first division title with Arsenal in 1971, he eventually left the club, worked part-time as a barman, before returning to win the league as manager on that famous 1989 evening at Anfield and then the league-cup double in 1993.
SEEING IT THROUGH
"Are there any players still playing Premiership football who played on the first day of the first Premiership season?" asks Raymond Tierney.
Indeed there are: nine of them, to be precise. Back on Saturday, August 15, 1992, when 'Alive and Kicking' was ruling the airwaves as the official sound of the Premiership's inception, there were nine fixtures (two more were played on the Sunday and then Monday night). And of the nine hardy players in question who started that day, three of them even managed to score: Alan Shearer, Gareth Southgate and Kevin Campbell.
Shearer (now Newcastle) found the net with two screamers in Blackburn's 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace, for whom both Nigel Martyn (Everton) and Southgate (Middlesbrough) figured - Southgate scored for the home side. Across London at Highbury, Campbell (West Brom) was busy firing home for Arsenal, but it wasn't enough to deny Norwich a 4-2 victory. Now of the Canaries, Graham Stuart was also playing on that famous day, this time for Chelsea, who were unable to get the better of Oldham in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Elsewhere, Jason Dodd lined up in Southampton's goalless stalemate with Tottenham at the Dell, a game that also saw Darren Anderton (Birmingham) make a rare performance for Spurs. Bolton's Gary Speed helped Leeds overcome Wimbledon 2-1, but Ryan Giggs couldn't stop Sheffield United sinking the Manchester version by the same scoreline at Bramall Lane.
It would have been ten, but Middlesbrough's Ugo Ehiogu, then of Aston Villa, was an unused substitute at Ipswich.
IT'S ALL IN THE NAME
Has any match ever involved two goalkeepers with the same name?" asks Tom Brodrick.
Plenty, is the answer to that one. OK, better divulge some of the culprits.
Most recently, Alan Marriot's fine display earned Lincoln a 1-0 League Two win over Bury on New Year's Day. His opposite number? Andy Marriot. There was also a Marshall in each goal when Celtic defeated Motherwell 2-0 on August 8, 2004: David for Celtic and ex-Bhoy Gordon for Motherwell. James Walker, before his switch to West Ham, kept goal against namesake Ian when Walsall played Leicester twice in the 2002-03 season.
But taking things a stage further, two goalkeeping brothers have actually played against each other. Siblings Gary and Alan Kelly lined up against each other in January 1990 while in goal for Bury and Preston, respectively. To compound the confusion, the match was watched by their dad, also called Alan, himself a former goalkeeper.
A similar occurrence happened in January 1967 when Sheffield Wednesday, with Ron Springett between the sticks, met QPR, who had younger brother Peter in goal. They were also both involved in a unique transfer when Ron moved to Rangers from Hillsborough, with Peter heading in the opposite direction as part of the deal.
Several of you have pointed us in the direction of the two Phil Parkes and though we can't confirm whether they lined up against each other in competitive action, the pair did feature on opposing sides for a Wolves XI and a Don Revie XI in Derek Dougan's testimonial on October 20, 1975.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"Which professional footballer in the English league has been sent off the most times?" asked Walid El-Saleh back in 2003."I think it was Roy McDonough. If it wasn't him, how close was he to the record?"
Walid was indeed correct. As a player, Roy "Donut" McDonough was sent off a staggering 21 times, but received - cough - only 13 of his red cards while playing in the Football League. Fiery former Scottish international Willie Johnstone is another player who saw red 21 times in his career, but he only got seven early baths while playing in the Football League, as a player for West Bromwich Albion.
And while we're not entirely certain how many of his cards came while he was a League player, we can tell you that former Leicester City hard man Steve Walsh notched up an impressive career tally of 13 red cards, closely followed by former Southampton left-back Mark Dennis, with 12.
However, the current League leader with the most sendings off to his name is Mr Dennis Wise, player-manager at Millwall for the time being at least, who has also been on the receiving end of 12 red cards. Naughty boy.
For more classic knowledge, clickhere.
SITTING AT THE TOP TABLE
Bayern Leverkusen are members of the elite G14 yet their trophy cabinet is rather bare since they have managed to collect only the Uefa Cup and one domestic cup in their entire history - along with languishing seventh in the Bundesliga, writes James Mason.How many clubs in Europe, that are not members of G14, have better records?
James, you're right to point out that Leverkusen's history is far from glittering regarding domestic and European silverware. The German side lie in a miserable 54th place, below Nottingham Forest and Aberdeen, in two forms of European rankings - the category of cup wins and number of cup wins.
Interestingly, Chelsea are probably the highest profile club currently not on the G14 list of members; presumably they are forwarding an application form to The Bridge as we speak. 'What is G14?' we hear you ask. A band from X Factor? A type of sun block? According to their website (www.g14.com) they are the "voice of the clubs". They are actually 18 - no, really - of Europe's biggest clubs who lobby to protect their own interests in competitions such as the Champions League by basically demanding more money.
One can only presume Leverkusen's recent Champions League appearances rather than their poor European pedigree resulted in their G14 inclusion. History counts for nothing - just ask the people of Pittodrie.
Can you help?
"Is it true that the much-vaunted left peg of Juventus and Italy defender Gianluca Zambrotta is really half a foot longer than the right one?" enquires Laurence O'Toole.
"In the interests of winding up a Scot in our office, which club has the worst record for qualifying for the European Cup/Champions League without ever winning it?" asks Paul Griffiths. "My money's on Rangers by a distance!"
And Adam Hurrey bizarrely ponders: "On March 9, 2002, Leicester City had a 'Nicole Wright' on the bench for their Premiership clash with Charlton. Can anyone shed any light as to he/she's identity?"