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In an edited extract from his new book, Morbo, Phil Ball explains how Spain owes its patient style of football to an Englishman, Fred Pentland

Fred Pentland came to manage Athletic Bilbao in 1923, following in the footsteps of another Englishman, a trained masseur by the name of Mr Barnes. The arrival of Pentland, who had played for Blackburn Rovers (among others) in the first decade of the century, coincided with the first clear signs of professionalism in the Spanish game. Pentland had been interned in Germany during the First World War and seems to have spent most of his time training German officers. In 1920 he managed the French football team at the Antwerp Olympics and then spent a year at Racing Santander, whereupon Athletic literally bought him from the Cantabrian club, offering him 1,000 pesetas a month – a decent sum in those days.

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In recent decades, few Britons have gone abroad and stayed. Phil Ball  profiles John Toshack, the only British coach working at the top level in a major European league

“Whether it’s with a bottle of claret, a good rioja, a glass of raki or a decent port, the attraction’s still the same – come away after 90 minutes with the three points,” said the peripatetic Welshman, John Tosh­ack, in an article penned just before Christmas from St Etienne for El Diario Vasco, the Basque newspaper with whom he had signed a contract at the beginning of the year to write a weekly column. His Bacchanalian references were, of course, a nod to all the countries in which he has managed a football team, although he seems to have had some problem recalling his Welsh spell, unless he was alluding in the opening clause to some new strain of Swansea claret.

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Monday 1 “It would be really embarrassing for us to lose it now,” frets Sir Alex as Man Utd’s lead widens to 11 points after their 3-1 win over West Ham, while Arsenal lose 1-0 at Charlton. Quite a day for goalkeeping mistakes, with pride of place going to David James, whose mishit clearance goes straight to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for the only goal of the game at Stamford Bridge. “I gather it was pretty horrific,” says an unsighted John Gregory. Nicky Weaver is beaten from very long range for Coventry’s equaliser against Man City and Tim Flowers lets a shot through his legs during Leicester’s 2-1 home defeat by Bradford. A rare defeat for Fulham – 2-0 at Stockport – allows Bolton, who win by the same score at Preston, to get to within seven points of the top of the First. Cardiff move into the promotion places in the Third with a 6-1 win over second-bottom Exeter, who will be glancing over their shoulders at Carlisle, six points behind but now with three games in hand.

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The signs are good for Japan's chances at the World Cup, but less so for anyone who might want to go and watch any of the matches. Justin McCurry reports on the co-hosts' preparations

For all their supposed organisational acumen, Japan’s foot­ball authorities seem to stumble whenever tickets enter the equation. Three years ago, thousands of Jap­anese fans who had booked on package tours to France 98 turned up at Tokyo’s Narita airport to find their tickets had failed to materialise. Just last month, refunds were being offered to 62,000 people who had bought tickets for a combined Korea-Japan v World All-Stars match on January 3 after stars such as Zin­edine Zidane and Paolo Maldini withdrew because of changes to the Serie A schedule.

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The vioence at Africa's Champions League final was the climax of a troubled year. Alan Duncan fears little will change as a result

The reputation of African football suffered yet another knock following December’s ill-fated second leg of the Champions League final between Tunisian outfit Espérance de Tunis and Ghana’s Hearts of Oak, in the west African country’s capital, Accra. The match, the climax of the continental club cal­endar, degenerated into scenes of pandemonium with 18 minutes of the second half remaining when security forces responded to a hostile, missile-throwing faction of Ghanaian fans by firing teargas up into the stad­ium’s north stand, with one canister landing above the VIP enclosure.

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