Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
The full story of Wimbledon's proposed move to Milton Keynes has been masked by the refusal of the scheme's backers to reveal themselves. Ian Pollock reports
A special commission of the FA started meeting on May 14 to decide whether the owners of Wimbledon FC should be allowed to move the club to Milton Keynes. But while the club’s chairman Charles Koppel has become the main figure attracting antagonism from Wimbledon fans, it has been much less clear who is driving the deal from the other end.
After a two year stint in the top flight, Ipswich fans have felt the highs and the ultimate lows of what the Premiership has to offer. Is a managerial change is needed to secure an instant return next season?
Yes ~
This season promised so much for Ipswich Town, starting with European football earned through the previous year’s top five finish. The shocking relegation that followed has been blamed on, variously, bad luck, injuries, too many foreign players and rumours of player unrest.
Millwall's Steve Claridge has seen life as a player and, briefly, a manager in the First Division. He tells WSC how the ITV Digital crisis has affected his outlook and the career prospects for League players at all levels
"I don’t think that the financial crisis in football right now would put off players who were thinking of going into management. Certain problems were there anyway at the lower levels. I said to Tony Cottee when he was going to Barnet, what are they are going to give you? A good year there is tenth place in the Third Division, but if things don’t work out there you’re back to square one. The amount of money around always makes a huge difference.
Airdrie have gone bust and Motherwell almost suffered the same fate. Ken Gall reports on the financial troubles besetting Scotlands's middle-ranking clubs
After more than a century, Airdrieonians FC have, to all intents and purposes, ceased to exist. A few miles down the road, their not-much-loved Lanarkshire neighbours Motherwell – following an initial panic that they were headed for the same fate – entered interim administration, slashing wages, sacking staff and cancelling players’ contracts. All in all, then, the grimmest few weeks for Scotland’s domestic game since Third Lanark went out of business in 1967.
Falkirk appear to hae been saved from relegation by Airdrie's demise. But James Teideman is still bitter about the fate of clubs excluded from the SPL
It is the night that Bayer Leverkusen host Manchester United in the second leg of their semi-final. The Champions League music that welcomes the teams on to the pitch at Brockville Park floats with comic irony over the terraces – as if it isn’t surreal enough that Everton are playing here tonight for the honour of lifting the Alex Scott memorial trophy, highlight of Falkirk’s 125th anniversary celebrations. The travelling fans must have had a laugh as they surveyed the crumbling “stadium” that sums up the melancholy malaise of small Scottish clubs.