Book reviews

Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea has sent shock waves through football not just in England but across the world. Dan Brennan discusses some of the wilder rumours doing the rounds in Moscow and wonders whether we will have to become accustomed to Russian oligarchs following in Roman's footsteps

Roman Abramovich is undeniably good news for tabloid hacks and T-shirt sellers, but will he be good news for Chelsea Football Club? On the face of it, of course, the injection of his thus far limitless millions, which during the last month have allowed the press to link the Blues to just about every A-list star from six continents, are a supporter’s and a manager’s dream (even if Claudio Ranieri would prefer it if he was asked first). And, if Ken Bates is to be believed, Abramovich’s roubles have saved the club from near extinction. So, for the moment at least, all around him are bowing down to the Roman emperor.

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Chelsea fan Mike Ticher pays grudging and limited tribute to the man who has run the Blues for good or ill for the past 21 years – and isn’t going anywhere just yet

For more than 20 years, Chelsea have been run by a man who has sailed close to the wind in his business dealings. Some of Ken Bates’s closest associates have been in serious trouble with the law and the ownership of the controlling stake in Chelsea Village was of­ficially a mystery for many years.

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Can Roman buy the Premiership? One man did just that and Ray Chenery can't see anything wrong with the transformation of Blackburn wrought by the late Jack Walker

Back in the 1970s, when  Match of the Day  was king, they’d show the top of the table in each div­ision. And occasionally Blackburn Rovers’ name was there, mostly in their Third Division days, for all the nation to see. I remember being envious of the teams who seemed always to feature near the top of the Second – why couldn’t we ever do that? And then we did; in each of the three seasons from 1987 to 1990, under the guidance of Don Mackay, a good and imaginative man­ager, we reached, but failed, in the play-offs for promotion to the First. By January 1991, however, we were 20th in Division Two. But that was the January that Jack Walker took control of Blackburn Rovers.

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Kevin Keegan’s managerial excesses and successes have meant we have forgotten how, during his playing career, KK blazed a trail away from the pitch, believes Barney Ronay

In October 1995, with his Newcastle United team creating a stir at the top of the Premiership, Kevin Keegan travelled south to Brighton beach to meet Tony Blair MP, Leader of the Opposition. Dressed in shirtsleeves, with only a TV crew and a twitching mass of photographers for company, the two men stood and exchanged 27 consecutive headers. A bizarre tableau, perhaps, but far from unprecedented in the extraordinary public life of Keegan. Ron Greenwood once described him as “the most modern of all modern footballers”. In fact he was the first post-modern player: the first British footballer to exploit the commercial nexus between sport, celebrity and pop culture; to create out of himself a branded corporate persona; and the first reigning European Footballer of the Year to have a solo hit record – Head over Heels (B-side: Move on down) reached number 31 in the summer of 1979.

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David Stubbs reviews David Thomas's new book on Bruce Grobbelaar's corruption trial

Some scandals never go away. Just as the News of the World is leading on match-fixing allegations about John Fashanu, out comes a book detailing the previous legal difficulties of the former Wimbledon star, along with Hans Se­gers and, above all, Bruce Grobbelaar.

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