Chris Ramsey is a successful black English manager – but he's working in South Carolina, where Gavin Willacy found him bitter at his treatment in his homeland

Chris Ramsey spreads his arms out wide, palms up to the cloudless sky, and looks around him at the neat yellow stands of Blackbaud Stadium. “Just think about it,” he asks. “Where would I want to be? Here or Rochdale?” The coach of Charleston Battery, arguably the best club in America’s A-League (one level below the MLS), expects the answer to be “here”, in idyllic South Carolina, where the air rarely dips below 70 deg­rees. But challenge him and he admits he would love to be coaching back home in England. The pro­blem is, he’s black. “Being black has certainly been a stumbling block in my career,” he claims. “Put it this way, I’ve had obstacles to overcome that other coaches haven’t.”

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The transfer window system has found few friends in England – but Barney Ronay believes it can help save the critics from their own excesses

Chairmen are raiding their piggy banks, agents are warming up their fax machines and all over the coun­try costly foreign imports are nervously checking their passports. The transfer window is open and no one knows quite what to expect. Although, those with most to lose have already had their say on the matter.

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Walter Zenga's short time as a manager in Romania looks set to end soon, as Ben Lyttleton notes

When former Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga was appointed coach of Romanian side FC National last summer, he explained that one attraction of making a fresh start was to help him get over a broken heart after his split with Italian actress Hoara Borselli. Four months later, Zenga, rumoured to have had a fling with Madonna after Italia 90, cannot wait to leave Bucharest and he looks set to do so at the end of the season. The reason? Another woman. A drugs bust. And a potential smear campaign.

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John Fashanu's latest venture is the small Welsh team Barry Town. Simon Price outlines the reasons behind the new arrival

When John Fashanu popped up on Talk Sport in December to announce proudly that he had bought the champions of Wales, there were many patronising references to “little Barry Town”. In some respects, this is understandable. Barry, for the uninitiated, is a seaside town at the southernmost tip of Wales with a population of 50,000. The town is a microcosm of the Old Wales: sheep farms to the north, Bhopal-sized chemical plants to the east, dying dock­yards to the south, and a third-rate mini Blackpool called Barry Island to the west. Most peo­ple with the means to do so get the hell out. Why, then, is Flash Fash moving in?

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Two of the biggest clubs in Brazilian football have been affected in different ways by the strange nature of the game there. Robert Shaw investigates

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Botafogo v Santos games were titanic struggles involving the cream of Brazil’s talent, with Garrincha and Pelé taking top billing for their respective sides. In 2002 the two clubs had divergent fortunes. Santos won the championship, beating Cor­inthians 5-2 on aggregate in December’s play-off final. The team were coached by Emerson Leão, the former goalkeeper renowned more for modelling swimming trunks than for a less-than-successful spell as national coach during World Cup qualifying.

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