Football Daily | Marko Arnautovic makes good on his solemn vow to an old friend

3 hours ago 6

RED STAR OF THE SHOW

As regular readers will be aware, Football Daily is normally in the business of peddling cheap and often unfunny yuks, and certainly didn’t get where it is today (specifically: unread and ignored in tens of thousands of spam folders) coming over all mawkish and maudlin. But occasionally, we stumble upon a heartwarming yarn we’re surprised we hadn’t already heard and feel compelled to share it with a wider audience. This tearjerker has its origins in Wednesday’s Bigger Vase opener between Red Star (AKA Crvena Zvezda) and Celtic, two fallen giants of European football, who pulled off the ignominious feat of losing their respective Bigger Cup playoffs to minnows so obscure even the most seasoned of football hipsters had barely heard of them. And so it came to pass that, with Pafos and Kairat Almaty currently lounging it up in the top tier of European competition, the storied champions of both Serbia and Scotland have been left to slum it, kicking off their campaigns with a match in Belgrade.

Now while Football Daily wouldn’t normally deign to muddy our designer spats in the Bigger Vase swamp until the 36 participating teams have played the 188 matches required to whittle them down to a far more manageable two, due in no small part to a sequence of events so embarrassing and unlikely that even the most unshockable A&E nurse would find them utterly implausible, we’re ashamed to say that last night we found ourselves deeply engrossed in the second half from the Marakana. While the sight of Kelechi Iheanacho scoring his first goal for Celtic prompted the mother of all double-takes, it was that of another well-known veteran target man banging one in for Red Star that had us scuttling off to Google.

And so it came to pass that we learned the answer to the query “When and why did Marko Arnautovic sign for Red Star Belgrade?” has its roots in a promise made by an ageing footballer to an old friend, former coach and mentor. During his days at Bologna, the Austria striker was coached by the legendary Sinisa Mihajlovic, who readers of a certain age will remember as the no-nonsense defender with a thunderbolt of a free-kick who won European football’s shiniest pot with Red Star in 1991, before going on to become a cult hero among an army of British Serie A fans seduced each weekend by the gelato-eating, pink paper-reading AC Jimbo. After retirement, Mihajlovic eventually had to juggle his role as Bologna head coach with regular bouts of treatment for the leukaemia that would ultimately take his life in 2022 at the age of just 53. The Serbian developed a special rapport with Arnautovic and regaled him with so many stories about Red Star that the striker made him a solemn vow that he would one day play for them.

And so in July, a tearful Arnautovic broke down at his unveiling as he recalled old conversations with a dear friend taken too soon. “I am here because in Bologna I promised him that I would wear this jersey one day,” he wept. “I promised Sinisa that one day I would go to Crvena Zvezda and here I am. In these two days that I have come to the stadium, I have cried more than I have cried in my life. I spoke to his family. I had promised Sinisa that I would go to Crvena Zvezda and here I am.” And that, reader, in case like us you didn’t already know, is the story of why at the ripe age of 36, Marko Arnautovic is playing out his dotage with Red Star.

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Join Daniel Harris from 8pm BST for hot Bigger Vase clockwatch updates, including Aston Villa 1-1 Bologna, plus Rangers 0-2 Genk.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I honestly believe if she weren’t there I’d be dead … I just drank for two days straight. Come training and at the weekend I’d score two goals and then I’d go back and go and drink for two days straight again. She’s helped me control that massively. She’s managed me because I needed managing” – Wayne Rooney says his wife, Coleen, helped save his life amid his problems with alcohol.

Enjoyed Stewart McGuiness regaling a couple of pearls of wisdom from Bill Nicholson (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Reminded me of Bill Shankly’s ‘if you’re not sure what to do with the ball, just pop it in the net and we’ll discuss your options afterwards’” – Martin Fisher.

Stewart quotes Bill Nicholson’s tenet about football, to ‘keep it simple but keep it quick’. That would also be a good tenet that Football Daily should adhere to” – Nigel Assam (and others).

I was part of the travelling Chelsea crowd watching our up-and-coming stars-given-an-opportunity being taken apart by League One opposition on Tuesday. Cue a b0llocking from Enzo Maresca at half-time, two quick goals and then a retreat into their shells for the remaining 35 minutes. But I was sitting quite close to the action in the first half as the long throws came raining in and I noticed something that no one seems to be picking up: they are usually foul throws. The assistant ref is so busy looking at the kerfuffle in the box that they can’t also watch the throws and several of them were clearly foul throws. Not even close. If I was an opposition manager facing Lincoln in the future I would be kicking up a stink. It’s an effective tactic, but one that needs to be within the rules … which it isn’t at the moment. Of course the player gets a huge throw into the box, but when both his feet are off the ground at launch it’s a foul throw! How the assistant can watch two areas at the same time that are visually opposed by 90 degrees is a question for someone else. Kudos for the Imps’ forward-thinking coaching staff for identifying that the assistant hasn’t got eyes in the back (or side) of their head” – Tom Hain.

If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Martin Fisher, who wins some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.