Barney Ronay examines why average players often make good bosses while star names struggle
It is a footballing axiom that great players rarely make great managers. No swag-bag of playing honours, no bulging armoury of international caps can prepare a middle-aged footballing man for the vertiginous leap into management. In fact, the most successful managers in English football currently – Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier – all eked out relatively mediocre playing careers.
Ian Plenderleith goes looking for football collectibles and comes back without any bargains, but with an insight into a weird world where Eva Perón rubs virtual shoulders with middle-aged Surrey saddos
At DC United’s final home game of the season you could have your match ticket punched in exchange for a Bobble Doll of United and US defender Eddie Pope. Eddie is modelling the black kit of his club side, who that evening finished bottom of the US professional league, and has a star-spangled banner draped around his neck. He is also, according to the box, “genuine” (meaning the doll is either honest, or is the actual Eddie Pope), “hand crafted and hand painted”, and his oversized head jerks around on a spring like he’s having some sort of a seizure. What’s more, he’s collectible.
John Secker talks about his club Blackpool – the best players he's seen play for them, their local rivals success and the struggle to get out of Division Two
How do Blackpool fans view the current revival of other Lancashire clubs? Is it seen as an encouraging sign or there a sense of frustration that Blackpool should be in there too?
Blackpool fans hate their local rivals, but the amount of venom varies. There is little apparent rivalry with Blackburn, perhaps because it is so long since we were in the same division. It is very different with Burnley, and above all with Preston, who are definitely the team Blackpool supporters love to hate. The other thing is that Blackpool have had their own revival recently – in late 2000 we were next to bottom of the League, and now we are fairly comfortable in the Second Division.With a little luck we could be playing Preston or Burnley again before long.
When Holland visited Hudderfield in 1946, they met one of England's best ever teams. But, says Cris Freddi, the result also had more to do with the experiences of the two countries during the war
Like England, the Dutch had started their postwar schedule with a glut of goals, winning their first two matches 6-2 – but no one was unduly fooled. Strictly amateur, with no great international pedigree, a football that hadn’t survived the war as well as England’s – there was nothing false about Holland’s pre-match modesty.
Photographer Tony Davis was commissioned to take pictures of all 92 League grounds for the new national football museum in Preston. On his travels he found squalor, splendour and some terrific shopping
I’m at Deepdale, home of the national football museum, trying to arrange a trip to Blackpool to photograph Bloomfield Road. But they don’t want me. Could I come back when the ground has been knocked down and redeveloped? With only a few weeks in which to finish the project, I tell them it has to be today. A series of phone calls later, I’m on the road to Blackpool.