Search: 'transfers'

The title race was over by Christmas, but in the end it wasn't that bad a season in League Two, writes Ron Hamilton

Over recent seasons it has become an increasingly popular pastime for League Two aficionados to point and sneer at the lopsided and avaricious Premier League, scoffing at the hype and hoopla in comparison to the somewhat earthier charms of football’s basement division. Yet while much of this scorn is predicated on the assumption that the lower leagues represent the last vestiges of football’s soul, the 2007-08 season has seen the fourth division’s occupation of the moral high ground somewhat ­undermined.

Read more…

Three years after the Americans' takeover, Manchester United's season might appear to vindicate the Glazers. But Ashley Shaw remains suspicious, despite their dramatic European Cup win

As the dust settles on Manchester United’s “Golden Double”, there is a feeling that, unlike the victories of 1999 and 1968, Moscow 2008 will come to be seen as the start of a great era rather than the end of one. Both those previous European Cup-winning teams were predominantly British, but this time around the players are largely from overseas or have racked up sufficient experience to make the transition from domestic domination to European success that much easier. Unusually, this United team have suffered only one major catastrophe in Europe (the under-strength humiliation at Milan last year) and there’s cause to believe that there won’t be another nine-year wait.

Read more…

Zaire’s 1974 World Cup experience can be seen as comic but, as Jonathan Barker explains, reaching those finals was actually a high point in a country’s tragic history

If he were alive today, perhaps a chunk of former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s dubiously acquired fortune would be invested in a Premier League club. Instead his claim to football infamy is the role his government played in the dramatic rise and fall of his country’s football team. The Leopards were African champions in 1968 and 1974, but have gone down in history as the fall guys of the 1974 World Cup.

Read more…

The mid-season money-go-round has been and gone but who are the real winners?

You know what to expect in the new year these days. Several clubs will field weakened sides in the FA Cup. A couple of high-profile players or their agents – this year it’s Dimitar Berbatov and Nicolas Anelka – will let it be known that they are looking for a move to a club “that will match my ambition”. And a couple of managers at least will complain about the transfer window. Step forward Steve Coppell – “I cannot see the logic in it, it brings on a fire-sale mentality” – and Gary Megson who, mirroring the outlook of the Europhobes who complain about the metric system having replaced imperial weights and measures, wants to see the window challenged in court. “Football clubs are told they have to do their business in a certain time, not when they would like to do it,” said Megson, who also echoed Coppell’s view that the window helps only the biggest clubs.

Read more…

The Making of a Modern Superclub
by Alex Fynn & Kevin Whitcher

Vision Sports, £16.99

Reviewed by Cameron Carter
From WSC 260 October 2008 

Buy this book

At last – a football book that reflects the spirit of the age. Arsènal – The Making of a Modern Superclub is a forensic account of the boardroom rumblings that have produced a world brand that sells property in London, beer in India and credit cards in Hong Kong. And 90 minutes of football in England on a Saturday.

Read more…