Dear WSC
Harry Pearson’s Riverside revisited (WSC 265) is undeniably trying to inflate Middlesbrough’s collective status and ego, as one would rather expect from a supporter of the club. He has tried to stretch the comparison just a little too far. Wealthy backers or otherwise, Manchester City have a history, status and, most importantly, a support Middlesbrough FC can only wish for. They, along with the the likes of Blackburn, Fulham and Wigan, are artifically sustained at an inflated level, due to wealthy indulgence from their owner/backer. It is quite clear their respective publics are unable to sustain a level of support home or away that would be expected, or indeed viable, for a club in the top tier. This is one of the consequences of the Premier League and the effect of wealth (one individual’s in these instances).The sole reason for Middlesbrough ever attaining Premier League status was down to the largesse of their chairman, rather than his selection of his “hero” as his first appointment as manager.
Steve Browne, Leigh-on-Sea
Search: 'Paul Ince'
Stories
With a familiar name and ambitious backers, Mike Woitalla finds the MLS’s latest team are already winning over the locals
The city known for Boeing, Starbucks, Microsoft and grunge rock is giving Major League Soccer a welcome boost as it copes with David Beckham’s jilt and a tanking economy. And if the Seattle Sounders ring familiar, it’s because they’re the reincarnation of a North American Soccer League (NASL) team that popularized the sport in the Pacific Northwest.
Enrico Preziosi has faced bankruptcy and a match-fixing conviction, but Paul Virgo finds he’s still a hero to Genoa fans
For someone supposedly banned from professional football, Enrico Preziosi is not doing too badly as chairman of Genoa. This season Italy’s oldest club have outshone Sampdoria, something of a rare occurrence since their upstart neighbours formed in 1946, and at the time of writing they were challenging AS Roma and Fiorentina for Serie A’s final Champions League slot.
Forest and Derby may not be closest neighbours but time has created a twisted rivalry. Al Needham reports
The relationship between Nottingham Forest and Derby Country may seem a little strange, but it’s actually no different to the ones you see on Jeremy Kyle on a weekday morning. So many elements bind them together, but it’s those very elements that drive them apart like inverse magnets.
How could the best player in the school end up doing DIY while an unknown captained England? Howard Pattison ponders the thin line between international stardom and obscurity
A friend once told me that at school he had been voted the boy most likely to become a professional footballer. We never had opinion polls like that at my school. Most of us never had opinions. But if we had been asked which of our classmates would go on to kick a ball around a field for a living, I can guess who it would have been. Captain of the school team, played with both feet, read the game brilliantly. Perhaps he was a bit on the short side, but he was stocky with it. “A low centre of gravity” they would say now, like Maradona. Had stamina too, what they would call a real box-to-box player. Bryan Robson, perhaps.