Search: ' Lex Gold'

WSC readers and fanzine editors weight up the season to come

BIRMINGHAM

John Tandy

How will your team do next season? At best mid table; at worst it’ll end in tears.

Who will be the single most important person at your club? Probably the combination of owners and the Chief Executive. The names of the club and the stadium are up for sale, so by the time you read this I may well be watching Atletico Notcutts Garden Centre at the Bordesley Family Butchers Stadium (except if that ever happens, I won’t be). There’s money at the club, but it still has to be spent astutely.

If you had to come up with a new piece of merchandise to sell at the club shop what would it be? A Mark McGhee dartboard would sell like hot cakes.

Which player at your club most divides the home support and why? Probably, I’m afraid, Paul Furlong. There are those who say that he’s workshy, ineffective and inadequate – and there are those that really don’t like him at all.

What one thing would you most like to change about the matchday environment? I’d quite like the football to be more interesting.

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Tuesday 1 Bournemouth seem set to survive after being taken over by a community-run trust fund which will use money raised from a public appeal to acquire a controlling interest in the club. The rescue package has to be ratified by the League and the Inland Revenue, who have postponed a winding up order on the club. Nathan Blake says he withdrew from Wales' squad for their World Cup match at the weekend after being racially abused by manager Bobby Gould. "I have a total lack of respect for him," says Blake. "Perhaps we are of a different era. You learn, one becomes a little wiser," says Gould, unwisely.

Thursday 3 Scotland fans will be booking seats on Eurostar for Summer 1998 after two Kevin Gallagher goals secure a comfy win over Austria. Not so good for the Irelands, though, with the North losing 2-1 away to Ukraine and the Republic going down 3-2 in Macedonia, where nice, mild-mannered Jason McAteer is sent off after a last-minute dust-up. In England's group Poland and Italy share a goalless draw in Chorzow.

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Neil Rose wonders if the high profile involvement of lawyers in the administration of the game may be causing more problems than it solves

Graham Kelly and the ‘Gazza Rap’. An unsavoury pairing if ever there was. The connection? Lawyers. As a breed, lawyers may have committed many sins on this earth over the centuries, but these two surely rank among the greatest.

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Saturday 1 Steve Coppell is back as Palace manager. "I've been around here on and off for quite some time," he says, while Ron Noades reopens an old, unresolved mystery: "I don't think his leaving Maine Road was to do with ill health. I think that's something Man City put out." "If we do not receive an apology Mr Noades will reap the consequences of what he said," replies a City spokesman.

Sunday 2 Man Utd take a four-point lead at the top after a 3-1 win over a vaudeville troop from Coventry, who chip in with two own goals in the first five minutes. A Shearer-less Newcastle are beaten at home by Matt Le Tissier's goal for Southampton, but Arsenal keep their Champs and Runners-Up League hopes alive by winning at Everton, back on the slide again. West Ham and Middlesbrough tighten their hold on the bottom two places, following defeats at Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday. Meanwhile, Irving Scholar's Nottm Forest boost their survival hopes by beating Spurs 1-0 at White Hart Lane. "We are slipping into a bad area," says Gerry Francis, as though he'd never been 13th before.

Tuesday 4 The Grobbelgaate (copyright WSC) match fixing trial finishes with the jury being discharged after failing to reach a verdict. The Crown Prosecution Service will press for a re-trial. "Maybe we should decide this on penalties," says Bruce, in a clown-prince-of-soccer sort of way. Newcastle, unrecognizable with four forwards missing and Robert Lee up front, lose 1-0 at home to Monaco in their UEFA Cup Quarter Final first leg. Still, at least they won't be facing an intimidating crowd in the return.

Wednesday 5 Man Utd, with Ryan Giggs outstanding, put in one of their best home displays in Europe beating Porto 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League Quarter Final. "I would have been happy with 1-0 if we kept Porto at bay but 4-0 is just fantastic," says Alex Ferguson looking as close to cherubic as he'll ever get. Earlier in the day Alex confirmed that he would not be allowing Man Utd players to take part in England's Summer tournament in France which begins three days after the World Cup tie in Poland. Liverpool and Newcastle are expected to follow suit. Looks like a Spurs XI, then. Mike °ÆMr Controversy' Reed is taken off the Chelsea v Leicester League match which he was due to referee next week, "after careful consideration of the factors involved," according to a League spokesman, although neither club objected to Reed being in charge.

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Dear WSC
I recently attended the Blackburn Rovers v Coventry City delayed Fourth Round FA Cup tie. During the game the referee approached Gordon Strachan to warn him against coaching from the sidelines only to receive the reply that he was allowed to run up and down the touchline because he was sub. Aside from whether or not this is a valid defence, it occurred to me that the ban on coaches and managers issuing instructions from the side of the pitch is rather bizarre. Can explain why it shouldn’t be allowed? It seems to me that thousands of people in the ground are allowed to shout (often conflicting) instructions to the team, and to ban the coaching staff from doing so is unfair. In any case the chance of the manager’s voice being heard above the noise is slim, the chance of the instructions being understood by the players is very remote, and there is an ice cube in hell’s chance of them actually acting on the instructions and making a difference to the game. It may even add to the entertainment if, say, some of the more vocal managers were allowed to run up and down the touchline shrieking instructions. Imagine it’s the last five minutes of Manchester United losing to Wimbledon in the FA Cup – you’d have Alex Ferguson, Brian Kidd, Joe Kinnear and Sam Hammam vying for positions on the wing and shouting simultaneously, “Get it in the box!” and “Hoof it in the crowd!” You might even get the odd player losing concentration at a crucial time and missing the ball because, for example, he was trying to understand what Arsène Wenger had just yelled at him.  Surely everyone would like to see Arsenal lose like this?
Jeremy Barker, Tonbridge

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