Search: ' Lex Gold'

Despite recent problems at both Rangers and Celtic, Glasgow's dominance of Scottish football is unlikely to change soon. Neil White explains

The new Scottish Premier League season marks a depressing anniversary for that competition – it is now 25 years since a team other than the Old Firm won the championship. Since Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to their third title in six years, in his penultimate season as their manager in 1985, an entire generation of supporters and players have known nothing other than the dominance of Celtic and Rangers.

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Taylor Parkes reads a controversial and much-delayed book on England's key player and tabloid star. And then wishes he hadn't

It’s known on the back pages as a “moment of madness”. Probing the Church of Scientology on behalf of the BBC’s Panorama, John Sweeney – investigative journalist of some repute – is harassed by sharp-suited goons. No surprise to anyone familiar with that organisation, but too much for Sweeney, who blows his top.

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This could be a critical summer at Old Trafford. Ashley Shaw looks at the Glazer protests so far and wonders what lies ahead

By the time Manchester United next kick a ball, they could be playing under a benign coalition of wealthy fans, backed by a support confident of a bright future. There would be a fans’ voice at the upper echelons of the club, with a “golden share” allocated to them to ensure that the pillage of the club never happens again. The £790 million debt loaded on to the club will have been assessed and plans put in place to pay it down. Management fees and dividends would be waived in an emergency budget in order that the club return to an even keel. And before an ecstatic crowd, Wayne Rooney’s first act under the new owners would be to take the kick-off, beat every member of the Liverpool team before backheeling the ball into an empty net…

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Dear WSC
I was very interested in the letter (WSC 276) discussing the topic of the Duckworth-Lewis of football that is stoppage time. Are there any WSC readers who are aware of stoppage allowance for cheating ball boys? I attended Colchester v Southampton in December 2009. The home side took a two-goal lead before the Saints slowly clawed their way back into the game. However, our momentum was thwarted by a series of ingenious defensive set-pieces that can only be attributed to hours of practice on the training ground. They went like this: ball goes off for a Saints throw or goal-kick, ball boys strategically placed around the ground retrieve the ball in exaggerated slow motion or, if the pressure was really on, then not at all. One very clever set-piece saw the ball rest at the feet of the ball boy. He then sat motionless on his stool causing Kelvin Davis to have to race 20 yards to retrieve the ball. Should the fourth official have added stoppage time to thwart this cunning plan? And have any other away teams been subjected to such coaching genius?
Tony Cole, Leigh on Sea

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Martin Warrillow warns West Ham fans of what to expect now that Birmingham City's former owners are in charge of their club

It was the jacket that did it. The spectacularly naff claret-coloured jacket David Sullivan was wearing when he swanned into Upton Park having, as he put it, “defied commercial and financial sense” by buying West Ham United despite their reported £110 million debts.

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