Jacob Hansen
Senior Journalist
With more than 25 years of experience in the football industry, Jacob is Football Presse's senior journalist. Based in Denmark and fluent in English and German, he has spent decades interviewing some of the biggest names in the game. From Ståle Solbakken and Thomas Frank to Mario Basler and Michael Owen, Jacob continues to bring exclusive insight and opinion from football's leading figures to Football Presse.
Articles by Jacob Hansen
→Paul Parker exclusive: How Eric Cantona gave Man United another (and decisive) dimension
When Eric Cantona arrived at Manchester United in November 1992, Paul Parker and his teammates did not quite know what they were getting.
23 September 2026
→Exclusive: Paul McVeigh on why football still struggles to measure the mind
Paul McVeigh has spent much of his life studying performance from both sides of the football pitch.
23 September 2026
→Richard Chamberlain: Why Coventry legend Jimmy Hill was ahead of his time
Richard Chamberlain believes Jimmy Hill would have loved seeing Coventry City back in the Premier League, but says the former manager deserves to be remembered for far more than his later career as one of football's best-known television personalities.
22 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: Brazil becoming the Premier League of South America (and it's not all good)
Brazil is trying to slow the growing influence of foreign players in its domestic league, with the CBF approving a gradual reduction in the number who can be included on matchday squads from nine currently to five by 2030.
22 September 2026
→Paul Parker exclusive: The Chelsea spell that ended with a clash with Ruud Gullit
Paul Parker did not arrive at Chelsea with any grand plan for the final chapter of his career.
20 September 2026
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Exclusive: The Tottenham superkid who told Paul McVeigh he hated football
Paul McVeigh has spent much of his life trying to understand what makes elite performers tick.
20 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: From monsters to Jorginho, how Brazil lost its midfield
Tim Vickery first arrived in Brazil just after the country won the 1994 World Cup. More than three decades later, one of the biggest changes he has witnessed is not a shortage of talent, but a change in the type of footballer Brazil produces.
17 September 2026
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Exclusive: Paul McVeigh on Speakify - changing the way footballers and experts get heard
Paul McVeigh has spent almost two decades learning how to perform in front of an audience.
17 September 2026
→Chris Whyte - the Leeds champion who deserves more recognition
Rocco Dean believes Leeds United would not have won the 1991-92 title without Chris Whyte, a defender whose importance has been largely forgotten.
16 September 2026
→Tony Gale exclusive: The Bobby Moore education I never forgot
Tony Gale was 16 when Fulham began preparing him to replace Bobby Moore.
16 September 2026
→Coventry’s lost generation: The talent they could never afford to keep
For all the pride Coventry can now take in reaching the Premier League, Richard Chamberlain remembers another version of the club — one that repeatedly produced talented players only to lose them before fans could discover what they might have become.
16 September 2026
→Paul Parker exclusive: Why Gazza was impossible to coach and impossible to forget
Paul Parker saw Paul Gascoigne before the rest of England truly understood what they were watching.
15 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: Davide Ancelotti is ready to step out of his father’s shadow
For most of his coaching career, Davide Ancelotti has worked in the shadow of one of football’s most recognisable figures.
15 September 2026
→Paul Parker exclusive: The QPR education that shaped a Manchester United defender
Paul Parker’s football education began in London, but it was at Queens Park Rangers that he learned how to become the defender he would eventually be for England and Manchester United.
13 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: Neymar was Brazil’s greatest talent and its biggest burden
For more than a decade, Neymar was Brazilian football’s answer to every question.
13 September 2026
→When Leeds were champions but football was changing
For Leeds supporters, the first Premier League season was a strange mixture of pride, anger and disbelief as champions found themselves fighting relegation.
11 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: Ancelotti survived, but Brazil’s patience has limits
Carlo Ancelotti was given a four-year contract extension before the World Cup. After Brazil’s elimination by Norway, however, there was a serious question over whether he would remain in charge long enough to use it.
11 September 2026
→Tony Gale exclusive: Why Lou Macari was completely wrong for West Ham
When John Lyall’s 15-year reign as West Ham United manager came to an end in 1989, the club was not simply replacing a manager. It was breaking with an identity.
11 September 2026
→Martin Wengrow: The day Arsenal's super fan witnessed England's World Cup triumph
Martin Wengrow has spent almost 75 seasons following Arsenal, but one of the most extraordinary days of his life came away from Highbury.
11 September 2026
→Paul McVeigh exclusive: From Cloughie to Lambert - the leadership style football keeps reinventing
Paul McVeigh arrived at Norwich City in 2000, but one of the most important lessons he learned about football leadership came from a manager he never played under.
10 September 2026
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Tim Vickery exclusive on Selecao's crisis: Brazil’s greatest strength has become its biggest burden
Carlo Ancelotti has begun the long road towards the 2030 World Cup with a Brazil squad containing eight uncapped players and a clear emphasis on the next generation.
10 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: What Man City fans can expect from Allan Elias
Tim Vickery does not see Allan Elias as another Brazilian wonderkid arriving in England with a reputation built primarily on what he can do in the final third.
9 September 2026
→The missed Wilkinson transfers that left Leeds chasing Tony Yeboah
Leeds United had just won the English title, yet Howard Wilkinson entered the summer of 1992 with a problem that would haunt his team for the next two years.
9 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: I worry about Estevão at Chelsea under Xabi
Brazil may have lost faith in some of its old certainties, but Tim Vickery believes it still has a player capable of restoring some of its belief.
8 September 2026
→Mark Robins: The man who gave Coventry their belief back
By the time Mark Robins returned to Coventry City in 2017, the club had lost something more important than football matches.
8 September 2026
→From Prem champions to 17th: The rule that blew Leeds apart
Rocco Dean believes the 1992 back-pass rule exposed a fatal weakness in Howard Wilkinson's champions, turning Leeds from the best side in England into a team that could not win away.
6 September 2026
→Tim Vickery exclusive: Why Brazil believes Man United can unlock Andrey Santos
Andrey Santos needs something he has rarely had since leaving Brazil: stability.
6 September 2026
→From Highfield Road to the CBS: Coventry are finally home
For years, Coventry City supporters had a complicated relationship with the stadium they called home.
4 September 2026
→Geoff Twentyman exclusive: Recovering from Liverpool rejection to build a decade-long career
At 24, Geoff Twentyman was working in a bank, playing non-league football and wondering if the chance to become a professional had already passed him by.
4 September 2026
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Leeds' forgotten heroes: The players who made Wilkinson's champions
Chris Whyte, Gary Speed, David Batty and Mel Sterland were not always the names that defined Leeds United's 1992 title triumph.
3 September 2026
→David Bernstein exclusive: I saw opportunity in a broken Manchester City
David Bernstein arrived at Manchester City at one of the lowest points in the club’s history, but rather than seeing a club in terminal decline, the new chairman saw something else: opportunity.
3 September 2026
→Alfie Conn exclusive: Doc wanted me at Man United - joining Nicholson's Tottenham was a shock
Alfie Conn thought he was going to Manchester United.
2 September 2026
→How Doug King has transformed Coventry City with £127m summer gamble
Coventry City owner Doug King has backed Frank Lampard with more than £127 million in reported transfer fees this summer, turning the club's return to the Premier League into an ambitious attempt to establish themselves rather than simply survive.
2 September 2026
→Exclusive: Paul Clement on Ronaldo, Zlatan and football’s biggest personalities
For Paul Clement, the greatest players are not simply the ones with the most talent. They are the ones prepared to make the sacrifices required to turn that talent into extraordinary careers.
31 August 2026
→Tony Gale exclusive: Fulham are in a very good place now
Tony Gale spent seven years at Fulham, breaking into the first team as a teenager and eventually leaving Craven Cottage in 1984 in search of the First Division football he felt his career demanded.
31 August 2026
→David Rocastle: The Leeds move that never gave a great player a chance
David Rocastle remains revered across English football, but his brief spell at Leeds United is one of the great unfinished stories of his career.
30 August 2026
→Gordon Strachan was playing the best football of his career at Leeds, says Rocco Dean
Leeds author Rocco Dean believes Gordon Strachan reached the peak of his career at Elland Road, even as the champions stumbled to 17th in the first Premier League season.
27 August 2026
→Paul Clement exclusive: The two Chelsea wonderkids who defied the odds
When Paul Clement thinks back to Gaël Kakuta, he does not remember a player who failed. He remembers a teenager with extraordinary talent who found the hardest part of football: turning potential into a senior career.
27 August 2026
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Why Leeds sold Eric Cantona — and why Manchester United made it so painful
Rocco Dean explains why Leeds felt they had to sell Eric Cantona in 1992 — and why the £1m fee and decision to let him join Manchester United still rankled with supporters.
26 August 2026
→Tony Gale exclusive: Blackburn title winners deserve greater recognition
Tony Gale arrived at Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 1994 expecting a serious title challenge.
26 August 2026
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Paul Clement exclusive: The Ancelotti lessons that shaped my career
For Paul Clement, Carlo Ancelotti has been far more than a successful manager he happened to work alongside.
25 August 2026
→Alfie Conn exclusive: I chose Celtic (and the abuse) because of Stein
Alfie Conn knew he was taking a huge risk when he crossed the Old Firm divide and signed for Celtic.
25 August 2026
→Martin Wengrow: ‘It just doesn't happen’ — Arsenal's '89 Anfield miracle
Martin Wengrow had already seen Arsenal win trophies, but nothing in his 75 seasons as a supporter could quite prepare him for Anfield on May 26, 1989.
24 August 2026
→David Bernstein exclusive: Leaving Main Road was sad, but Man City went beyond every dream
David Bernstein still misses Main Road.
24 August 2026
→Tony Gale exclusive: West Ham players told Paul Ince to reject Man United
Tony Gale still remembers the moment Paul Ince came to him and Alan Devonshire for advice about Manchester United in 1989.
23 August 2026
→Alfie Conn exclusive on British giants Sir Alex, Hoddle and Dalglish: Just incredible players
Alfie Conn played alongside three men who would go on to become giants of British football — Sir Alex Ferguson, Glenn Hoddle and Kenny Dalglish — but each left a very different impression on the former Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic star.
22 August 2026
→Paul Clement exclusive: How Ancelotti managed Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema to click for Real Madrid
When Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Real Madrid in 2013, he inherited three extraordinary attacking talents who still had to be made into a functioning unit.
22 August 2026
→Jimmy Burns: Abramovich changed Chelsea — and English football forever
Jimmy Burns believes Roman Abramovich was the catalyst for a new era of Premier League ownership, while his Chelsea reign also exposed the uncomfortable moral questions surrounding football's pursuit of money.
20 August 2026
→The night Arsenal won European glory to end 17 years of waiting
For Martin Wengrow, there are plenty of Arsenal nights he could choose.
20 August 2026
→Exclusive: How Paul Clement saw Chelsea’s golden generation before the world did
When Paul Clement was working at Chelsea's academy, Reece James, Mason Mount and Declan Rice were still children.
19 August 2026