Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
Glenn Hoddle will remain a Tottenham legend, believes Adam Powley, but was undone as a manager by the faults he was always said to possess yet never would admit
Tottenham fans now have two things to thank Glenn Hoddle for. A decade of sublime football guarantees his place among the club’s most cherished sons. And, briefly, the club led the back pages again. For fans increasingly desperate to see their side regain its lustre, such dubious comforts are strangely welcome.
The beggars of Brunton Park aren't choosy when it comes to loan players. Roger Lytollis highlights the one advantage of being the worst club yet to be relegated from the League
Loan players are the cavalry for a Third Division club. No matter how badly you’re struggling – and in the case of my team, Carlisle United, that’s usually very badly indeed – there’s no problem so great that it can’t be fixed by a 19-year-old midfielder on a month’s loan from Rotherham.
John Driscoll interviews Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson, the man who helped save the club from banckruptcy in 1986. Chairman since 1994, he has seen them reach three cup finals and become Premiership fixtures, in a ground fit for internationals. But what next?
How much time do you devote to the club?
What we have is a very strong executive. The chief executive [Keith Lamb], the manager and I speak to each other every day. The club is run on very sound business principles and everyone knows their role. Other than that I cherry-pick my involvement.
Steve Gibson first got involved at Middlesbrough to save the club from extinction in 1986. Jon Lymer looks back at the lowest point in Boro's history
The bond between Middlesbrough’s chairman, Steve Gibson, and the club’s supporters is uncommon in both its intensity and its longevity. This is because when the club was at its lowest ebb, Gibson acted as any of us would have done, rescuing the club from a seemingly impossible position and sticking valiantly to the task of rebuilding and transforming it.
Dan Brennan wonders whether a Columbian who spiced up Tyneside but is still looking for will ever return to England, either to play football or open a nightclub
Tino Asprilla will long be remembered by Newcastle fans, not least for a dazzling hat-trick against Barcelona in their team’s first Champions League campaign, counterpointed by one of the most spectacular fouls ever seen in these parts – an elbow-headbutt combination against Keith Curle in a match with Manchester City. In two years on Tyneside, the gun-toting, pornstar-fancying, moped-riding, poodle-loving Colombian also spiced things up off the pitch. But in 1998, his off-the-wall antics finally proved too much for Kenny Dalglish and he was sent back to Parma for £6.5 million – £1m less than Kevin Keegan had paid for him.