Prime Minister’s Question Time: The Results Are In!
Last week’s Prime Minister’s Question Time challenged readers to find as many American players as possible who had made a league appearance for a club currently in the English Premier League, Championship, League One, or League Two since the beginning of the Premier League “era,” that is, starting with the 1992-1993 season. Four the purpose of this challenge “American” meant born in the United States or eligible to play for the USMNT (born to an American parent, a naturalized citizen, five years of schooling in the U.S., etc.). A daunting and intriguing task judging by the feedback I received!
After a week of fierce competition and Google-Fu which produced as many “Eureka!” moments as it did, “Oh Crap, what were the rules again!?” moments there were a few clubs that stymied us. They are as follows:
Missed By Everyone
- Aldershot Town
- Arsenal
- Bristol City(1)
- Bristol Rovers
- Burton Albion
- Chelsea
- Cheltenham Town
- Colchester United
- Crewe Alexandra
- Doncaster Rovers(2)
- Exeter City
- Fleetwood Town
- Morecambe
- Notts County
- Sheffield United
- Swansea City
- Wigan Athletic
- AFC Wimbledon(3)
- Yeovil Town
- York City
1. Andrew M. had Boaz Myhill but he never made a league appearance.
2. Andrew M. had Jon-Paul Pittman but he never made a league appearance.
3. Andrew M. had Ian Feuer. Feuer played for Wimbledon F.C., but they are not a current League club, and, in any case, MK Dons are their successor, not AFC Wimbledon.
I’m sure I speak for all three of us when I say that if anyone out there knows of an American player who played for any of these clubs we’d love to hear about him- and more importantly, how you were able to find him!
With our “failures” out of the way let’s see who actually did the best! The names in parentheses are players who would have qualified for the “missing” club.
WeeFuse missed:
1. Blackpool (Paul Rachubka)
Andrew M. missed:
1. Barnsley (Chris Cleary)
2. Accrington Stanley (Darren Randolph)
Andrew B. missed:
1. Blackpool (Paul Rachubka)
2. Barnsley (Chris Cleary)
3. Barnet (Kevin Dearden or Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe)
So, simply put, I win.
Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are…sort of. You see, I had an advantage. In compiling various editions of “Prime Minister’s Question Time” (and before that the “Thursday Challenge”) I’ve come across obscure Americans playing in England. In this case, Chris Cleary was once an answer to the question, “Who is the only American to score a hat trick in an F.A. Cup match?” Knowing that basically gave me the win over Andrew M. (Although I’m convinced that I found an American connection for a player named Jonathan Howard at Burton Albion, but alas, I couldn’t find it when I went back to double-check it!).
So, there we have it. Many thanks to the Andrews- both participants of long-standing- for pulling out all of the stops and creating what was, for all intents and purposes, a dead heat.
(But I did win.)
I was iffy on Darren Randolph. I should have included him. I guess my line of thinking was “Born in Ireland, Played senior int’l for Ireland, can’t qualify for USMNT, not an answer”.
Also, I couldn’t find verification on Chris Cleary’s league appearance. (Of course I did just now in about 15 seconds). He was the “71! No, wait, 70″ player on Twitter last night.
And you got me on Feuer, I ballsed that one up.
I’ve learned that Marcus Hahnemann played for Rochdale for one entire month, and so my dreams of becoming the first American to play for RAFC are crushed*.
* By an incredible lack of footballing skill, talent, and physical fitness, combined with an advanced age. Oh, and the whole “work permit” thing.