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The Archive

Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.

Decline and fall

Monaco were Champions League regulars a decade ago but now they are trying to avoid consecutive relegations, writes James Eastham

Eight years ago Monaco reached the Champions League final. They are now battling against relegation to France’s semi-professional third tier. It is a familiar story of decline. Since Didier Deschamps quit as coach 16 months after that European summit against Porto, a succession of managers, directors and presidents have been turfed out or walked away. Each has taken with him a blueprint for success that either failed or was dropped before coming to fruition.

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Million euro drop

Nassos Stylianou on how football, like every other sector of Greek society, has been demaged by the financial, political and social crisis

After a chaotic summer for Greek football, the Super League filled its last two places seven games into the season. The delay was caused by an investigation in match-fixing, which resulted in Olympiakos Volou and Kavala being demoted to the fourth tier. The investigation, which concluded in June, lasted ten months and looked into 41 games from the 2009-10 season.

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Critical masses

The ungrateful moaning directed at the game’s most successful managers only discredits the grumbling fans

“I very much support Arsenal. But to be honest, Wenger needs to coach another team now and Arsenal needs another coach.” So said Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, after Arsenal’s third successive defeat, 2-1 at home to Manchester United in late January.

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive

Gold Standard

Steve Menary on how the Great Britain team will have a past triumph to live up to when they take part in the Olympics this summer

A century is a long time for any side to wait to reclaim a trophy that once seemed their own. But should Great Britain’s controversial Olympic team win gold in London this summer, that will be the gap between their titles. Great Britain won the first proper Olympic football event – and the first proper international tournament – in 1908. They had home advantage and faced mostly weak opposition in the six-team tournament. Holding on to the title four years later was surely the GB side’s finest achievement.

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive

A presenter’s nightmare

Commentators and pundits on Britain’s flagship football shows make for awkward viewing, writes Simon Tyers

One could make a list of the things Gary Lineker is really good at – goalscoring, smiling stoically through undignified photo opportunities, keeping Mark Lawrenson awake and being a popular subject of pub conversations that begin “a mate of mine’s friend works for a paper and he reckons…” You would not necessarily put lightning-fast improvisation skills high in the list.

Thursday, March 1st, 2012 - The Archive

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