Search: ' Port Vale'

In a global game, it shouldn’t be a surprise that clubs such as Arsenal have so many foreign youngsters. But, wonders Barney Ronay, where are the youthful English expat stars?

Alan Pardew’s complaint was that not one of the Arsenal side that eliminated Real Madrid from the Champions League was born in this country. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA, was similarly exercised: “It’s not an English success. It’s tinged with disappointment. It would be more enjoyable if we saw Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell as part of it.”Alan Pardew’s complaint was that not one of the Arsenal side that eliminated Real Madrid from the Champions League was born in this country. Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA, was similarly exercised: “It’s not an English success. It’s tinged with disappointment. It would be more enjoyable if we saw Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell as part of it.”

Read more…

Russian influence on football is not just about buying clubs, as Garry O’Connor’s move to Moscow proves. He will be the first of many from these shores, predicts Dan Brennan

The transfer of Hibernian striker Garry O’Connor to Lokomotiv Moscow has caused quite a stir. In signing a five-year deal that will make him a multimillionaire, the Scottish international has become the first Briton to play in Russia’s Premier League. Now, instead of meandering off for a midweek trip to Motherwell, he finds himself negotiating tricky away fixtures 8,000 miles down the road in Vladivostok.

Read more…

This may have been Real Sociedad's first title but, as Phil Ball reports, their victory reflected a change in the country as a whole

The long-term significance
This was the first of only two league titles won by Real Sociedad in their 96-year history. More generally, their last-gasp victory signalled a radical shift in Spanish football that mirrored the changes that had taken place in the country since Franco’s death in 1975. Between the arrival of the enormously influential Alfredo Di Stéfano at Real Madrid in 1953 and Sociedad’s first title, there had been a three-pronged hegemony. During those 28 seasons, Real Madrid won the title on 18 occasions, Atlético Madrid on five, with Barcelona on a mere four. The only other team to have a say were Valencia in 1971. Real Madrid’s imperious strut in this era brought about an upturn not only in their own fortunes but of the country as a whole, thus reviving and consolidating a weakening military dictatorship. Subsequently accused of being the “regime team”, Madrid’s ceding of the title to a Basque side was seen as evidence that a new democratic period was opening up in the footballing arena as well as the political one. Sociedad’s win began a period of four consecutive Basque titles between 1981 and 1984, shared out evenly with Athletic Bilbao. It seemed like a new dawn.

Read more…

 
Dear WSC
I was on the Kop for the Liverpool v Manchester United FA Cup game and inadvertently found myself slap in the middle of a News of the World headline. As reported by that paper on the following Sunday, SICK and DISGUSTING fans brought SHAME on Liverpool FC by singing a celebratory lyric regarding John Arne Riise breaking Alan Smith’s leg to the tune of a recent popular record (I can’t remember its name, but it has Ooh-Ahh in the middle and the 11 to 16 age range love it). I would like to make three things clear to the News of the World journalist who reported this incident. First, it was a loud but small minority of fans who belted out the offending song; most ignored it, while others were shaking their heads sadly in disagreement with the sentiment expressed. Of course, shaking your head sadly, even by a group of people, can’t be heard across a football stadium. Second, there was no mention of Smith being applauded off by the Liverpool fans. This was a bit of an oversight, which I would put down to the tabloid practice of not letting detail or nuance interfere with damning judgment. Thirdly, I was only reading News of the World because I was hungover and couldn’t face the small writing in the broadsheets. As a postscript, the bloke who started the song off originally was only one seat to my right, one row behind me. I may already be being hunted down as an agent of SICKNESS and DISGUSTINGNESS by police who have trawled through CCTV footage of the crowd. And I didn’t even boo Gary Neville.
Rob Lawrence, via email

Read more…

The top two teams in the Deloitte Football Money League are Real Madrid and Manchester Utd. But as Roger Titford finds out, the income they rely on differs greatly

We live in an era when there are prizes for everything: player of the season, calendar of the year, the best pie, the most improved website and many more self-regarding baubles. Combine this with the obsession to put a value on anything in football – press red now for a cost-benefit analysis on that through ball – and we have (hopefully tongue in cheek but probably not) the Deloitte Football Money League (DFML).

Read more…