Book reviews

After initial success in the Premiership, Ipswich Town now find themselves in financial turmoil. Csaba Abrahall documents their fall from grace

“So much of football is about short-term glory which leads so often to boom and bust. We’re not about that.” So said David Sheepshanks when Gavin Barber and I interviewed him for WSC 172 on the day Ipswich se­cured European qualification in 2001. This kind of level-headed approach had been a feature of his chairmanship and while he continued to adopt it, the club appeared to be in safe hands. Yet today it is in administration, with debts spiralling and the team a long way short of delivering financial salvation in the form of a return to the Premiership. What on earth went wrong?

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With their short-term existence secure, Bradford City are looking to learn from past mistakes to stop history repeating itself. Gary Rolin looks into their birthday wish

Real Madrid celebrated their centenary year by win­ning the European Champions League for the third time in five years. At the other end of the football scale, Bradford City’s preparations for their 100th birthday party have been boosted by Leeds High Court’s decision in February to lift the administration order that threa­tened the survival of the club form­ed in May 1903 when the Football League voted them into the Second Division. 

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Previously best known for providing comedian Eric Bartholomew's stage name, the seaside resort could soon have a Football League team. Geoff Walters reports

Until 1995 my experience of watching Morecambe had been restricted to the Northern Premier League. Memories are of high-scoring games in dilapidated grounds featuring players who would have looked more at home on Blackpool beach, and the peculiar habit Morecambe had of scoring every time I decided to move to another position in the ground.

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Ivan Campo moved to Bolton Wanderers to escape the torture of Real Madrid, but as Sid Lowe writes, he may have gone to the wrong place

When Iván Campo swapped Madrid for Bol­ton, few tears were shed – least of all by Campo himself. “Leaving meant I could start enjoying life again,” he said after his goalscoring Prem­iership debut. With Rodney Marsh’s words ringing in his ears, Campo may wish to revise that opinion now, but it was born of the sad truth that his Real Madrid career was as troublesome as his English adventure has turned out to be.

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Fulham fans are desperate to return to Craven Cottage, but maybe it is not viable. Neil Hurden investigates

Braving Arctic weather and pavements more slippery than Nicolas Anelka’s agent, 400 Ful­ham fans attended the Back to the Cottage Campaign’s public meeting on January 30. The venue, Hammersmith Town Hall, is a place intimately linked with the struggle for Craven Cottage’s survival: 16 years ago it saw the noisy birth of the campaign which fought off the Fulham-QPR merger plan. Now we were back, a little more subdued and confused but not without hope that London’s oldest and, in our view, finest ground can still be preserved.

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