Filing through their multi-tier in-tray for nothing in particular, magazine editor Andy Lyons, writer Harry Pearson and host Daniel Gray discuss One-Off Champions, from Riva’s Cagliari to West Bromwich via Betis Balompié. WSC Deputy Editor Tom Hocking talks us through the pages of magazine issue 426, Record Breakers brings a lullaby from Lucerne, and we continue our sprightly feature, The Final Third, in which a guest contributes a match, a player and an object to the WSC Museum of Football. Joining Dan as our visiting curator this time is football writer and novelist, John Nicholson.
A sold-out Maiden Castle hosts Durham and Sunderland in the FA Women’s Championship earlier this season. Alamy
Interest has soared after England’s Euro 2022 win but, with only 12 teams in the top division, huge chunks of the country have no access to elite matches
Translated by Liz Waters
Simon & Schuster, £25
Reviewed by David Stubbs
From WSC 426, November/December 2022
Buy the book
The sacked Mark Lawrenson; Gary Lineker chats with the last of the old school, Alan Shearer, and one of the new breed, Micah Richards; Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville share a joke. Getty Images, Alamy (2)
The ousting of TV’s most miserable football “personalities” marks the end for a bland generation whose insistence on complacency and jingoism made them ripe for replacement
The foothills of Ben Nevis rise up behind Fort William’s Claggan Park. Iain Ferguson/Alba Photos
After propping up the league in 15 seasons out of the last 20, including conceding 184 goals in 2017-18, demotion has allowed the club to make a fresh start