Villa's autocratic chairman, as seen by Brad Woodhouse
Distinguishing Features: Aside from the Mr Whippy wavy quiff (and a faint air of campness), he looks like any other 73 year-old self-made West Midlands businessman – rotund, besuited, drives a Rolls Royce with personalized number plate (AV 1).
Friday 1 Brian Laws is sacked as Grimsby manager, the writing having gone up on the wall in large, luminous capitals after his side's last match, a 3-0 home defeat to bottom-placed Oldham earlier in the week. Paul Gascoigne is included in the England squad for the match in Georgia, with Glenn Hoddle using a variety of means to justify his decision including religious faith: "One of the big teachings of Christianity is that of forgiveness – I hope that in not casting him aside I have given him a chance to change," and abject bullshit: "Had I not picked him at this stage then I feel it would have been detrimental to him and his family in the long run."
Saturday 2 Man Utd are getting careless: now they lose their 35-match unbeaten home record in the Premiership, going down 2-1 to Chelsea. "I know the thread of what is wrong and so do the players," says Alex Ferguson. Word is that it's something to do with letting in more goals than you score. Arsenal stay top after a heated, injury-strewn draw at Wimbledon, who didn't impress Arsène Wenger: "Today they deliberately avoided playing football and for our defenders it was a heading session." Forest's slide continues with a 2-0 defeat at Villa, which leaves them firmly anchored in the bottom three with Frank Clark admitting that his days could be numbered: "I need some wins under my belt before the takeover, otherwise someone else will be spending the money." In Scotland, Celtic go top after beating Aberdeen while Rangers can only draw at Raith.
Dear WSC
As one of the few people in Scotland, outside of Glasgow, still supporting my own club I feel I must display a hopeless bias against Rangers.It is about time they played in England, as I for one have had enough of them ruining Scotland’s reputation in Europe. As a country we are seen as having limited success with even more limited resources, but every year Rangers go out and make Europe think Scotland are shit. Having seen Hearts lose on away goals to Red Star Belgrade (who were one of the best teams in Europe a few years ago), Aberdeen go out after putting up a good fight (visits to Wales excepted) and Celtic not exactly disgrace the whole nation, we must watch Rangers get stuffed by any team that fancies a go, except Alania Vladikavkaz. Rangers were beaten by Juventus, Ajax, Auxerre and Grasshoppers of Zurich along with another few teams I can’t be bothered naming. Add this to their stunning 1-0 aggregate victory over the champions of Cyprus two years ago and it becomes obvious that Rangers lack the fighting spirit displayed by the Scots in Europe (remember Motherwell v Dortmund?).Secondly, what is this assumption that Rangers would automatically join the Premiership? Any team that plays Richard Gough, Stuart McCall, Erik Bo Anderson and Peter Van Vossen on a regular basis should be playing in the Second Division at best.
Graham DR Lee, Heriot-Watt University
Mike Ticher explains why Terry Venables' appointment as Australia's new manager caused as much consternation there as it did here
Australia fulfils an odd role in Britain’s unofficial list of foreign stereotypes these days. Because the vast majority of its inhabitants are white, it’s become one of the last places on earth which the so-called quality press, as well as the tabloids, feel free to patronize without fear of being called racist. What’s more, there’s a vast lexicon of symbols associated with Australia and Australians which are instantly recognizable to British people: marsupials; soap operas; conspicuous alcohol consumption; comical words and phrases; boomerangs; the bush; most of the words to Waltzing Matilda.
Matthew Brown reports on the importance of the football vote to the main parties at Westminster
When Terry Venables was interviewed by Radio Five Live recently the interviewer, only half jokingly, suggested that if Venables had stood for election as Prime Minister during the height of euphoria back in June he may well have been elected. At the beginning of October the man hoping to take the top job in the land ended his rally rousing call to the troops by proclaiming, “Labour’s Coming Home”.