Has any recent transfer been as fateful as Leeds United selling Eric Cantona to Manchester United? Duncan Young recalls the Frenchman’s spell in Yorkshire
It’s difficult to imagine now, but in November 1992 selling Eric Cantona to Manchester United didn’t seem like such a crazy idea. Six months previously he had been the talisman of Leeds’s first championship success since 1974 and the near-mythical reign of Don Revie. The funny thing is, he didn’t actually play that much.
There are 763 footballers out of work and many clubs face an uncertain future. Barney Ronay looks back ten years to the bright sunrise of the Premiership era, the beginning of the boom when football was just money, money, money
In the summer of 1993 the tabloid press was in the process of acquiring a new footballing vocabulary. The first Sky TV-fuelled English Premiership season had just ended, and suddenly “come and get me pleas” were being issued, “want-away contract rebels” abounded, and Big-Spending Blackburn rubbed shoulders with Moneybags Man Utd as multi-million market madness descended. It all sounded extremely empowering for the soaraway red tops; and there would be plenty more to come. Topped and tailed by the Murdoch corporation, football had gone tabloid.
Conservationist Barney Ronay is worried about the squandering of natural resources by clubs such as Arsenal, whose players come in 57 varieties
When Bill Shankly said, “There are two great teams on Merseyside – Liverpool and Liverpool reserves,” he may well have had little more than Everton-baiting on his mind. However, more than ever, Shankly’s barb reflects a tendency among clubs at the top end of the scale to accumulate alarmingly large first-team squads.
In a dark season for the game as well as Stoke, Ken Sproat saw Newcastle inflict one of the Potters’ 31 defeats of 1984-85 – but can now see it wasn't all gloom
A football team cannot get much worse than Stoke City during the 1984-85 season. There, in the all-time records for being hopeless, they skulk alongside such Victorian disasters as Darwen, Loughborough Town and Glossop. The fewest points in a season (17), the fewest wins (three – all at home), the most defeats (31) and, with 24, the fewest goals (the leading scorer was Ian Painter with six, of which four were penalties). They failed to score in 25 of the 42 league matches. They suffered mathematically definite relegation with eight miserable matches still to play.
No promotion for Falkirk equals no interest for the fans, believes Dianne Millen, at a time when Scottish football can ill afford to be encouraging stagnation
“Have fun in Division One” was the visiting fans’ chant at Fir Park a few weeks ago: but despite the ritual abuse, it won’t be SPL bottom club Motherwell going down after all. Instead, champions Falkirk will stay in the Bell’s First Division next season, after their application to the Premier League was, as widely predicted, rejected by seven of the 12 clubs on May 23.