Wrighty, Ceefax and trilbies: join us for an FA Cup journey back in time

Grab your tinfoil trophy, rattle and big rosette, because the Proper FA Cup is back! We’re at the quarter-final stages, and things look very different this year with most of the usual suspects having already crashed out. Manchester City are the obvious playground bullies – although in their current state, the kind who can be seen off with a swift kick in the swingers. Still, even if we disregard the three FA Cups won in their Abu Dhabi era, City are still the most recent winners. So without further ado, let’s climb into the time machine and revisit each team’s Cup highlights ...

1990: With all due respect to Crystal Palace’s 2016 vintage and Alan Pardew’s fateful self-aware shuffle, 1990 still feels like the pinnacle of their Cup dreams. Red and blue stripes, blazing sunshine. Brighty, Wrighty, hmm, isn’t it? Fly Virgin to LA, marvellous. Palace led twice but Manchester United fought back and then won the replay to keep Alex Ferguson in the Old Trafford hot seat.

1984: Bournemouth have never reached the FA Cup semi-finals, a statistic that might just change on Sunday. For now, their greatest Cup day remains 7 January 1984, when the third-tier Cherries shocked holders Manchester United at Dean Court. “It’s got to be the greatest day of my life,” cheered young Bournemouth manager Harry Redknapp. Wonder what he’s up to these days … oh good lord.

1983: Spandau Ballet’s ‘True’ rules the hit parade, Maggie Thatcher is about to win a second term, and Football Daily is newly available on Ceefax. In the FA Cup final, Manchester United face relegated Brighton. The Seagulls unexpectedly force extra time, when the ball falls to Gordon Smith in front of goal … but he muffs the finish, United win the replay and Brighton drift into the wilderness. Oh, football.

1975: Traditionally a sort of almshouse for fading football stars, second-tier Fulham make an unexpected run to the Cup final, where the Cottagers come up short and Bobby Moore has to watch his beloved West Ham lift the trophy in his final match at Wembley. Oh, football!

1969: Three months before Neil Armstrong walks on the moon, Manchester City lift the FA Cup as Neil Young (not that one) scores the winner against Leicester at Wembley. Having won the title the previous year, City would add a European trophy in 1970, setting the club up for years of trouble-free local domination.

1959: In one of Wembley’s stranger finals, mid-table sides Nottingham Forest and Luton duke it out in a game riddled by injuries. Forest hold on with nine fit players to win 2-1; at the final whistle, manager Billy Walker is mistaken for a pitch invader. Forest would go on to win trophies galore under Brian Clough, but never the FA Cup, even managing to lose a final to Spurs.

1957: In Britain, Harold Macmillan tells voters they’ve never had it so good. In Brazil, 16-year-old Pelé gets his first international call-up. And at Wembley, Aston Villa land their seventh FA Cup, beating Manchester United 2-1. Absolutely nobody predicts Villa will lift the European Cup before they win the FA Cup again. (And please enjoy this lovely interview with Peter McParland, scorer of both Villa goals that day, who is now 90 years old.)

1938: Preston North End face fellow pre-war heavyweights Huddersfield Town in the first televised final – a major blow to circulation figures for tea-timely football pink paper, Ye Olde Fyver. With the game goalless deep into extra time, BBC commentator Thomas Woodrooffe offers to eat his trilby if either team score. Preston immediately get a penalty, George Mutch scores, and Woodrooffe delivers on his promise by eating a hat-shaped cake live on TV. Absolute scenes.

“I left 40 degrees in Rio to go to -5 … the first time I trained I couldn’t finish the session because I was too cold. When I finished I would put my hands in like boiling water because they were almost frozen” – Evanilson tells Ben Fisher about his journey from Brazil to Bournemouth, via Slovakia and Portugal.

May I be the first of one to correct your prize-winning correspondent Jacob Zelten’s correction of Daniel Harris. In Hebrew (and in Yiddish which borrowed it) davka is not an adjective but actually an adverb that means ‘actually’. From which derives its use of someone who does something davka, to be contrary” – Yonatan Ginzburg (and no others).

Not one but two (!) transfer windows this summer. I’m looking forward to the slight desperation of 24-hour sports reporters standing in stadium car parks, repeating for the 15th time that no, they don’t have an update on Jadon Sancho’s rumoured new loan deal” – Nick Kinsella.

Re: Big Website’s story on Arsenal’s wooden shed – ‘A football kicked into it would be returned in an unpredictable direction, forcing the player doing the kicking to improvise a way of controlling it’ – being a secret weapon in training to win them the league. If this logic applied my team, Clyde, we would be in Big Cup rather than fighting a relegation battle in Scottish League Two; given that almost every pass in matches and, presumably training, lacks any kind of predictability” – Steven Rice.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Steven Rice, who gets a copy of Engulfed: how Saudi Arabia Bought Sport, and the World. It’s available in the Guardian Bookshop. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, can be viewed here.

The second leg of Brazil’s Campeonato Paulista final between Corinthians and Palmeiras featured four red cards, a missed penalty and – you guessed it – an almighty stoppage-time brawl. It all kicked off midway through the second half when Palmeiras were awarded a penalty. Their coach, Abel Ferreira, was furious that Félix Torres was not sent off for the foul and ended up seeing red himself. Hugo Souza saved Raphael Veiga’s spot-kick, and Torres made amends by earning a straight red 10 minutes later for a clumsy lunge. With Corinthians leading 1-0 from the first leg, Memphis Depay tried to kill time by standing on the ball, Kanchelskis-style, sparking an inevitable melee which saw a player from each team sent off. Depay’s Corinthians side held on to win the regional trophy for the first time since 2019, breaking their arch-rivals’ run of victories after one of the liveliest goalless draws in history.

Newcastle have produced a glossy promotional video of a new 65,000-capacity stadium at Leazes Park in the strongest indication yet that they are planning to leave St James’ Park, their home since 1892.

The former Brazil international Dani Alves has had his conviction for rape overturned on appeal after a court ruled unanimously that the conviction was unsafe because of what it described as a “series of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies and contradictions over the facts”.

Chelsea overturned a two-goal deficit against Manchester City to set up a mouthwatering Women’s Big Cup semi-final against holders Barcelona (who crushed Wolfsburg in their own quarter-final). “It was a perfect night for us”, roared Blues manager Sonia Bompastor. “The mental aspects in terms of performance are sometimes 70-80% of the performance and result”.

In a move that all first-time buyers can relate to, Chelsea risk missing out on the chance to move to Earl’s Court if they fail to submit a bid for the site quickly enough. Here’s Jacob Steinberg’s exclusive. And not content with buying every young footballer going, Todd Boehly is now keen to splash the cash on news organisations. Yikes!

Uefa has opened an investigation into a possible breach of disciplinary regulations by several Real Madrid players at the end of their Bigger Cup match at Atlético Madrid, which could lead to suspension for Real’s quarter-final against Arsenal.

A USA USA USA-based consortium is closing in on an £18m majority takeover of Leyton Orient as part of a plan that could lead to an American football franchise being established in east London.

And Pep Guardiola reckons his Manchester City players and staff haven’t done enough to warrant any extra perks this season. “The [£96m] bonus, if you win [the Club World Cup] … the managers, the backroom staff, the players – we don’t deserve [anything], not even a watch.”

Chelsea’s Women have booked a date with the all-conquering Barcelona. Here’s Jonathan Liew on the Londoners’ win over Manchester City and what they must do to upset the natural order of things in their Big Cup semi-final.

Fresh from that win over City, Chelsea’s Millie Bright sat down for a big ol’ chat with Suzanne Wrack to talk about the power of football and praise her teammate Luzy Bronze for talking about her ADHD and autism diagnosis.

Fulham sold their best player in the summer but they keep getting better and have two routes to European football. Ben McAleer dissects how Marco Silva has got to this point.

Simon Burnton’s forgotten story about Arsenal’s wooden training shed is as good as it sounds.

Read ‘em and weep: here are (a maverick) six FA Cup quarter-final talking points!

Zinedine Zidane pictured at home with his son, Enzo, in Bordeaux in 1995. Enzo would follow his dad to Juventus and then Real Madrid, joining the Spanish club’s academy in 2004. Twelve years later, Enzo made scored first-team debut for Madrid in 2016, scoring in a Copa del Rey victory, but left for Alavés in 2017. Further spells followed at Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland, Portuguese side Aves and Almería, before Enzo retired in 2024, aged 29. Zinedine Zidane has three other younger sons – Luca, Théo and Elyaz – all of whom are professional footballers in Spain.