Book reviews

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.

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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.

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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.

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Howard Pattison warns Exeter supporters against being fooled by Uri Geller's illusionary exploits

The media coverage was inescapable. Even Ra­dio 5 Live was running a competition to see who could suggest the most likely – or unlikely – headline in the next day’s newspapers. You wouldn’t think that Uri Geller, newly ap­poin­ted to the unusual position of co-chairman at Ex­eter City, could still attract that kind of pub­licity. And maybe he can’t, for no am­ount of spoon bending is going to obscure the fact that something far more peculiar is going on at St James’ Park.

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Paul Knott pays tribute to the pioneering life and times of Valery Lobanovsky

The image conjured up by Valery Lobanovsky, who died in May aged 63, was of a Slavic cousin of the Lanarkshire coalfields school of man­agers, glowering from the dugout. An astute and inspirational disciplinarian with a fear­some temper, he had plenty in common with Stein and Shankly. But there was also a great intellect behind the harsh exterior. Loban­ov­sky pio­neered the use of scientific methods in coaching. Unlike many of his cerebral peers, the out­come was neither mechanical nor neg­ative. The aim was al­ways to complement the artistry of his play­ers. His teams’ alliance of power with flair prod­uced a style that significantly raised the game’s technical standards.

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