Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
Leigh RMI are no more. Gary Andrews struggles through the marketing speak and reports on their new identity
Renaming a team after one of Britain’s most derided soft-rock bands may not be the most conventional method of attempting to revive a club after two relegations in three years. But then Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute, now Leigh Genesis, are anything but conventional.
He's a big name, but Chelsea's new manager has fallen one step shorter of glory each time with Portugal and Luiz Felipe Scolari's critics are well stocked with ammunition, as Phil Town reports
Third time lucky, then, for Luiz Felipe Scolari: courted by Benfica at the time of Euro 2004 and by England at the last World Cup, now Chelsea’s riches have lured him away from the Selecção. But Blues fans may wish to study closely Felipão’s final report card, after his five-and-a-half years as Portugal’s Seleccionador.
The focus was on Paul Ince becoming the first black Englishman to manage a Premier League club but, believes Bruce Wilkinson, the headlines masked what is going on behind the scenes at Blackburn
Under the sensible stewardship of chairman John Williams, Blackburn Rovers have become the model of how far a well run team can be taken on limited funds. This stability is now threatened. With an increasing number of clubs prepared to risk millions to cling on to a Premier League place, Blackburn fans have been demanding more activity in the transfer market. But this pressure has come at a time when the trust that owns the club, set up by the late Jack Walker, is looking for buyers. The trust is said to be close to selling up to a consortium led by Chris Ronnie, chief executive of JJB Sports, which makes it unlikely that significant cash will be released over the summer. Ex-manager Mark Hughes admitted in a recent interview that he might have shunned Manchester City’s approach if the prospective takeover of Blackburn had gone through.
Three years after the Americans' takeover, Manchester United's season might appear to vindicate the Glazers. But Ashley Shaw remains suspicious, despite their dramatic European Cup win
As the dust settles on Manchester United’s “Golden Double”, there is a feeling that, unlike the victories of 1999 and 1968, Moscow 2008 will come to be seen as the start of a great era rather than the end of one. Both those previous European Cup-winning teams were predominantly British, but this time around the players are largely from overseas or have racked up sufficient experience to make the transition from domestic domination to European success that much easier. Unusually, this United team have suffered only one major catastrophe in Europe (the under-strength humiliation at Milan last year) and there’s cause to believe that there won’t be another nine-year wait.
Problems when England visited Moscow suggested the Champions League final could be a mess, but Chelsea fan Terry Daley enjoyed more or less his whole excursion except the result and the trip home
Much had been made of Moscow by the British press in the run-up to the Champions League final, and none of it made particularly good reading for those of us who had started planning trips to the Russian capital 30 minutes after Liverpool were beaten in the semi-final at Stamford Bridge. Supposedly English supporters would have to contend with baton‑happy military police and hordes of neo-Nazi hooligans patrolling the streets. Then we would be forced to pay £25 a beer at gunpoint by a one-eyed veteran of the Afghanistan war – if our pockets hadn’t already been picked by a shoeless orphan. Why didn’t they just cancel the whole operation, moaned the English press, and move the damn thing to Wembley?