Mike Whalley explains a bizarre Cup tie of multiple postponents and managerial intrigue
Glaswegian striker Alex Williams’s career has taken in ten clubs over the last decade, mostly in Scotland’s lower leagues, but also including teams in Australia and Ireland. But, even if he stays only briefly in the Scottish Second Division with Stenhousemuir, he will be remembered for sparking one of the oddest Cup sagas in recent memory.
Simon Tyers looks at how football coverage on Sky Sports has changed since it was first introduced in 1991
Without fully raking over the Gray-Keys saga, two further points. One is to note the irony in Sky considering Andy Gray’s last straw to be remarks of a sexual nature towards Charlotte Jackson, who promoted the new season on Sky Sports in August by doing a shoot for Loaded magazine. The other is to consider that they were keen to get rid of Gray because pundits are ultimately replaceable – think of Ron Atkinson and remember that Sky did it themselves five years ago with Jeff Stelling’s primary sparring partner Rodney Marsh – while main presenters aren’t.
Cameron Carter describes how English television is coping with losing a World Cup bid
No one came out of the World Cup bid very well. BBC, ITV and Sky News presented the visit to Zürich of David Beckham, David Cameron and Prince William as if it were a modern-day nativity play: three revered men (bear with me here) travelling east on a semi-religious quest to bring England home advantage at a future World Cup. On December 1 the BBC showed the three, plus a more-than-usually irrelevant Alan Shearer, self-consciously networking at what could have been a Lutheran non-alcoholic cocktail party.
Graham Hughes recounts the only season of English League football to have been played during war time
The long-term significance
This was the only time that a full English League programme has gone ahead during wartime. Since its formation 26 years earlier, the Football League had been growing in membership and popularity. It now faced its first real setback, with a barrage of criticism over the decision to play on while Britain’s young men were being asked to go to war.
Gavin Barber feels the need to warn us all about The Football League Show, before it’s too late
Manish Bhasin, Steve Claridge and Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes are on a mission. Their mission is to convince you, the viewer, that the Football League is really, really great. They’re going about this with an evangelical zeal, offering up praise, worship and persuasion through the weekly ritual of the Football League Show.