Book reviews

The appointment of a big-name Argentine manager has created rare excitement at Oxford, though Martin Brodetsky is not sure that he will entirely enjoy the ride

It was arguably the most surprising managerial appointment of the season so far. Ramón Díaz has a CV that would put most Premiership managers’ to shame: five times Argentine champions with River Plate, plus a Copa Libertadores win thrown in, after a very impressive playing record. Indeed, one some­what spurious web site (www.world-coach.com) ranked him the third best coach in the world (after compatriot Carlos Bianchi and Louis van Gaal), so it’s no wonder that the football world raised its collective eyebrows when news broke of his appointment as Oxford manager on December 9.

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For the second times in four years, Southampton have replaced a boss with no experience with a big noise. Tim Springett reports on some strange parallels

Unexpected as Harry Redknapp’s swift defection from Portsmouth to their nearest and bitterest rivals might have appeared, Southampton fans had a sense of déjà vu. The wheel began turning in the sum­mer of 2001 as Saints were moving into the St Mary’s Stadium, mortgaged up to the hilt and at risk of severe financial consequences if things were to go wrong on the field. Glenn Hoddle had deserted a few months earlier and a new manager was needed. What would have been on chairman Rupert Lowe’s mind at such a pivotal moment in the club’s history?

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Nottingham Forest have lost another manager and are playing their worst football of most fans’ lifetimes. Al Needham looks around frantically for signs of hope

When Joe Kinnear accused the supporters of Nottingham Forest of living in a time warp last month after resigning as manager, it was hard to deny that he had a point. After all, fans in pubs, factories and offices across the city have done little else this season than casting their minds back and trying to remember a Forest team as uniformly lamentable as the current one. The relegation teams of 1993, ’97 or ’99? The Matt Gillies-Dave Mackay-Allan Brown era of the early 70s, when Forest trod water in the old Second Division?

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Shogo Hagiwara tells us how Michael Owen has helped Real Madrid in the Japanese market

In Japan, A-list celebrities from overseas often endorse products – from canned coffee to cheap shampoo – that they would never purchase in their lives. Footballers are no exception. David Beckham is, of course, as ubiquitous here as everywhere else in the world.

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John Williams fondly recalls one of the games great characters

I last saw Emlyn Hughes in the summer of 2004. He was working for the Football Association on a fans’ roadshow in Manchester as part of the preparations for Euro 2004. Emlyn’s job was to leaven the necessary talk about train times, policing and fan embassies in Portugal with some humorous and stirring England football reminiscences. He didn’t disappoint. On wobbly legs and occasionally slowing in speech, Yosser offered both barbs and bouquets for current England players, while recalling his own past battles for Liverpool and England. He, deservedly, had the audience glazed in utter admiration. The physical and psychological signs of the illness that finally claimed him were clear then, but it was hard to know whether the old fighter was winning his battle or bravely carrying on regardless. Sadly, it proved to be the latter.

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