Search: 'Paul Ince'

Wednesday 1 “If you defend badly you deserve everything that happens to you,” growls Sir Alex as Man Utd concede two goals in three minutes in a 2-1 defeat at Stuttgart. After Chelsea’s 2-0 home defeat to Besiktas Claudio Ranieri defends his decision to make five changes from last weekend’s team: “It is easy to second-guess after the match but I did what I thought was right.” Rangers concede a late equaliser to draw 1-1 at Panathinaikos.

Thursday 2 “We like to think we are a caring and consulting club,” says Leeds chairman Prof John McKenzie, who decides not to sack Peter Reid after consulting with fan groups and shareholders. An Arsenal tenancy at Wembley could still happen after the board admit at their AGM to being £200 million short of the money needed for the new stadium at Ashburton Grove.

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Ian Farrell is puzzled by the lack of appreciation for one of England's most  decorated footballing exports, now looking to add to his medal collection at Manchester City

Upon returning to Britain from relatively brief spells at moderately successful foreign clubs, Paul Ince and John Collins were assumed to be better players, better people and an asset to any employer. Even Paul Gascoigne, whose time in Italy was mainly about in­juries and semi-public urination, was thought to be bet­ter for the experience. Steve McManaman had four years as a popular and at times very important player for the world’s biggest club, with two championship medals, two Champions League medals and the ex­perience of playing and training with the very best to show for it. He’s only 31, he’s dropped his wages by half and he’s free. Form an orderly queue, gentlemen, sure­ly? Yet, after Man­chester City won his signature ahead of another mid-table side, there were enough eyebrows raised for Kevin Keegan to feel the need to come out and defend signing him, like you would an unstable alcoholic or convicted match-fixer. Strange.

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Reading fan Roger Titford believes that, far from going on to greater things, by leaving for West Ham Alan Pardew has turned his back on a chance to really make his name

“West Ham swoop for Reading’s Alan Pardew.” It seemed a clear enough story for the media: swoop, birds of prey, tasty morsels seized, law of the jungle and all that. Except, this time, the prey fought back and, for a few days, a “mouse bites eagle” story looked possible.

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Harry Pearson reads two new books about David Beckham and is none the wiser about anything – except that there is nothing about Beckham to become wiser about

What can you say about David Beckham that hasn’t been said already? Well, OK then, apart from that he is an ugly waster with a great left foot and a string of failed relationships? Ever since Gazza imploded and Becks began to replace Ryan Giggs as the football cover boy of choice, we have been bombarded not so much with information about the midfielder as interpretations of him. Who Beckham is has been submerged un­der what he means.

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Tom Davies examines the day to day struggle for survival of three clubs in the lower leagues

The wheels have well and truly come off at Barry Town. Mounting debts have caught up with the seven-times League of Wales champions, forcing the club into administration and the team to the bottom of the Welsh Premier table. The crisis came to a head shortly after shy and retiring John Fashanu quit in August. As reported in WSC 192, Fashanu took over at the end of last year with talk of using the club as a gateway to European foot­ball for African players for whom he acted as agent. But none of this came to pass and fans now see his tenure as just a publicity stunt.

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