Book reviews

In the blue-and-white striped corner, Dave Allen; fresh out of the blue corner, Ken Bates. Graham Lightfoot reports on a ding-dong of a contest for ownership at Hillsborough

You can say what you like about Ken Bates, but he certainly draws the media in like wasps to a jam pot. His recent interest in buying into Sheffield Wednesday has meant that once again supporters can read about their club in the national press. For the past four years the club have slowly disappeared from main-stream media coverage. Languishing in mid-table in the Second Division there is no certainty that their matches will even get a few lines in the broadsheets’ divisional round-up column these days.

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Few clubs can be held responsible for the rebirth of a club, but Gavin Willacy believes Preston would not be where they are now without the Town End, which even enjoyed a moment of life after death

Most readers probably have no idea what the Town End at Deep­dale is. It’s now known as the Alan Kelly Town End, a steep modern stand with the face of Preston’s record appearance-maker usually covered up by season-ticket holders’ bums. Al­though the fans chose to name the stand after Kelly – a Republic of Ireland keeper who played 447 times for the club in the 1960s and 1970s – it is only in the last decade that the Town End has become an integral part of North End folklore.

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Southend United supporters have been given a rare dose of excitement after the Shrimpers reached the final of the LDV Vans Trophy. Steven Heath has already booked his ticket

Southend fans leaving Roots Hall after an extraordinary cup success in February may have reflected on the famous quote from John Cleese’s character in the film Clockwise: “It’s not the despair. I can take the despair. It’s the hope. That’s what I can’t bear.” After years of largely impotent involvement with their football club, this has come to seem like an apposite motto for the average Shrimpers supporter.

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John Charles was arguably Wales's greatest ever sportman. Huw Richards remembers the career of a footballer who could have traded his boots for boxing gloves

Last year John Charles said: “Only grandfathers remember me now.” How wrong he was was shown by well observed minutes’ of silence at venues as diverse as Kidderminster (playing his home town Swansea), Manchester United (v Leeds) and Bologna (v Juventus) and the tribute, moving in its unexpectedness, from Leeds’ extremely ungrandfatherly Alan Smith.

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The word ‘Judas’ has been heard a lot lately, but  Adam Powley refuses to ignore a fundamental difference between fans and players

The issue of loyalty is a bit of a bête noire for football supporters. While fans readily display their de­votion to the cause, players rarely match such selflessness. That discrepancy was sharply illustrated by three high-profile moves during the recent transfer window. The deals involving Scott Parker, Jermain Defoe and Louis Saha accounted for an aggregate outlay of over £30 million – not bad going for three young players, none of whom is yet to make a significant impact at full international level. But while the purchasing clubs glowed in the satisfaction of being seen to splash cash in sup­posedly depressed times, at the clubs they departed from there were bitter recriminations.

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