Book reviews

Brentford have been having difficulties finding a location for their proposed new stadium, with the club at loggerheads with the local council. Chris Clapham looks at the poosible solutions

Griffin Park has been Brentford’s home since 1904, but with gates falling and the local council refusing to allow redevelopment, most supporters had long accepted that the club needed a new purpose-built stadium How­ever, the recently agreed deal that would take Brentford to groundshare at Woking’s King­field Stadium from the start of the 2002-03 season has caused uproar among Bees fans.

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Gary Panton reports on  two St Johnstone players alleged to have taken  cocaine as they and the club head to court over unpaid wages

It’s fair to say neither George O’Boyle nor Kevin Thomas can claim to fit into the “model sportsmen” bracket. The two ex-St Johnstone strikers, sacked by the Perth club at the turn of the year after being caught with a line of white powder in the toilet cubicle of a trendy local bar, recently attempted to swing public sympathy in their favour by telling a Sunday tabloid that the whole sorry incident had been a result of “drunken curiosity”.

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Wheeler-dealer Harry Redknapp was unable to keep the wheels in motion at Upton Park, as Darron Kirkby explains

If the timing of Frederic Kanoute’s runs had been half as good, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in such a mess in the first place. But within three hours of season ticket renewal forms dropping through letterboxes the length and breadth of Essex, West Ham an­nounced that Harry Red­knapp had left the club “by mutual con­sent”.

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Coventry City's first ever relegation will cost them on and off the pitch, writes Neville Hadsley 

For Coventry City fans, relegation is a new and strange experience. It is the first time City have been relegated from any division since 1958. Even that was more of a reshuffle as Divisions Three North and South became Divisions Three and Four. In fact it is the first time Cov­entry have finished in the bottom two of any league since 1952.

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Howard Borrell, spokesman for Chesterfield Football Supporters Society, explains how his supporters trust is vital to the survival of their club 

Chesterfield is now owned by a Supporters Trust, which has inherited a mess. A cash surplus has been turned into a £1.6 million debt – the creditors ranged from the tax man to a local sandwich shop – including £650,000 of football-related debt. The club is in administration. In a few weeks, we must convince the courts we have the ability to turn it around. But before then, we must fight the motion brought by a group of Third Division chairman to expel us from the League.

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