Tuesday 2 Chelsea gazump Man Utd over PSV’s Arjen Robben, who will join them in the summer for £13 million. PSV chairman Harry van Raaij accuses United of cutting their original bid in half: “We were very disappointed over how low they believed they could push us.” The top two in Division One, Norwich and West Brom, draw 0-0 at Carrow Road. Forest, unbeaten in five games under Joe Kinnear, go four points clear of the drop zone after a 1-0 win at Wimbledon. Plymouth stretch their lead in the Second to four points after beating Sheffield Wed 2-0, as Bristol City are held 1-1 at home by Wycombe.
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Stories
In January the editor responsible for the creation of Roy of the Rovers, the most famous of all football comic strips, died. Neil Rose looks at the life of Derek Birnage’s brainchild, while there have also been more recent developments in the industry
He lost his wife in a mysterious car crash, his left foot in a helicopter accident, eight of his team-mates in a Middle Eastern terrorist attack and in January Roy Race suffered further loss when the man who brought him to the world died, almost 50 years after Racey’s Rocket first slammed into the net.
Ruud Gullit may have failed to bring “sexy football” to Newcastle, but he won’t try that when he takes over at Feyenoord. And the fans there won’t care, Ernst Bouwes writes
Situated at the “arse” of the Netherlands, where several rivers come together to spit Europe’s chemical waste into the North Sea, Rotterdam is a place where people love winning football matches by a dubious penalty or a deflected free-kick in the last minute. A world removed from the entertaining and high-quality football associated with Holland, Feyenoord fans mainly care for industrious, tough and ruthless players, the type who have won all sorts of trophies for their club since 1970. It is no surprise, therefore, that Ruud Gullit will be in charge for the start of next season.
It’s 14 years since Napoli were Italian champions led by Diego but, as Roberto Gotta explains, while he has grown ever larger the club and crowds have shrunk alarmingly
Diego Maradona has not come back to Naples for a while. He’s visited Italy a number of times, accepting fees of up to £10,000 for appearances on local television stations, ski slopes (he stood in the snow in shorts), carnival parades and – although this was for free – children’s hospitals, the latter probably having made nurses and parents happier than the kids, who obviously had no idea that the chubby figure was once one of the world’s greatest footballers.
Nottingham council have called Forest’s bluff over their cash crisis, leaving Al Needham and many fellow fans in no doubt as to who is to blame for the problems at the City ground
It’s no fun at all being a supporter of Nottingham Forest these days, but their latest twirl on the morbid carousel of financial mismanagement takes the biscuit, if not the whole packet. You’ll remember Forest – big club last century, won a few things, endearingly bonkers manager, held the world’s most jubilant relegation party, yo-yoed between the Premiership and the First Division for a bit under assorted bosses. At time of writing, they have just hauled themselves out of a winless streak spanning 18 games and are staring relegation to the Second Division squarely in the face – but at least we could take comfort in the fact that we weren’t as financially ravaged as Notts County.