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Stories
Brighton finally win promotion but Huddersfield steal the headlines, while at the bottom Rotherham have a shocker – what WSC contributors got right and wrong last season
John Williams was down and his team were out in Istanbul. What happened next hasn’t solved all Liverpool’s problems, but certainly eased the pain
Six minutes. Think about it. What, exactly, can you do in six minutes? Run a bath, perhaps. Take that welcome half-time pee break – or, if you’re watching at home, make a nice cuppa. Or else cruise eBay for that oh-so-difficult-to-find special gift? It will probably take about six minutes for you to read this article – though you might consider doing it just a little more carefully than that. Six short minutes. They can easily disappear, even while you think. Or else while you dream.
Dear WSC
After reading Ian Plenderleith’s web review (WSC 219), I immediately logged onto www.standupsitdown.co.uk to add my support to a cause very close to my heart. Growing up on the Shelf at White Hart Lane, I eventually reached the age and height to leave my half milk crate at home and stand at the back and sing with the “Tottenham boys” I had idolised for so long. Then to my utter disgust the bastards made the last remaining terrace at the Lane all-seated. I am now one of the few season-ticket holders who stand in front of my seat where the Shelf once was and add my vocal support to the Park Lane’s efforts (still a lame substitute for jumping up and down on the terraces). But, not content with destroying a piece of my childhood, Spurs now seem intent on making me sit on my uncomfortable piece of Sky-sponsored blue plastic. Stewards are randomly throwing out the most vocal following because they won’t sit down. Health-and-safety jargon is boomed out of the jumbotron screens at half time, cheesily complemented by a James anthem telling Spurs fans to “all sit down”. Fans of other clubs from all over the country seem to be experiencing the same problem. As much as I love the “sit down stand up” campaign, we really don’t stand a chance against the advertising machines that once used be our clubs. I can’t see them forking out millions to change the seating areas back into safe terracing and then having to charge less for tickets.
Martin Gowers, via email
For a £30million footballer, Rio Ferdinand is going to need to start showing class off the pitch, writes Ashley Shaw, as well as on it
Any footballer who associates himself with Jody Morris is looking for trouble. The turning point in PFA player of the year John Terry’s career was probably the night he opted to stay in when Morris and his pals were urging him to join their latest bender. England centre-half Rio Ferdinand, by contrast, seems to court publicity and, following successive tabloid stings involving Peter Kenyon and a fight with a photographer on a night out with Morris, it seems he doesn’t learn. Ferdinand has the millionaire lifestyle – the car, the clothes and presumably the women – but he lacks the vital component required to take the next step to football greatness: common sense. Morris, who has a conviction for assault and was sacked by Leeds for being drunk at training, is the personification of the current football disease – so why would a player of Rio’s standing think that a night on the tiles with him in celebrity central was a great idea?