Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
Having been a hero to the Birmingham City fans in the 1970s, John Tandy finds out if he stills holds the same affection as manager in the 1990s
It’s the early eighties. Birmingham City are well into the downward spiral that will shortly see them drop into the Third Division. Trevor Francis is at Sampdoria. The song rings out: “My Trevor lies over the ocean, My Trevor lies over the sea… Oh bring back my Trevor to me…”
Despite being unbeaten in September, Stoke City have new owners and a new manager. Penny Stanley tells us why
September was a surreal month for Stoke fans. The team didn’t lose a single league match, earning an award for Gary Megson (Mr Third Choice Manager when he was appointed just two months previously). Kyle Lightbourne, a £500,000 flop throughout the previous 18 months, suddenly looked like a contender for player of the season.
Brian Kidd has been sacked as Blackburn Rovers manager, but Ray Chenery is not too sure whether it was all his fault
I started watching Blackburn Rovers in 1958. That makes me one of those old codgers whose knowledge and wisdom earn respect and hushed attention.
Stephanie Pride talks to Howard Wilkinson about the future of youth coaching in England and possible regrets he has from an illustrious career
WSC Do you feel there is still a suspicion in this country of bringing the more technical aspects of coaching into the game?
Howard Wilkinson Yes, there’s a cultural attitude which is, if you like, anti-coaching, or against having an analytical attitude to sport, and it does make life difficult because it colours everyone’s attitude. It’s come out recently when we’ve had foreign players who start to talk about the differences and make negative comparisons with the preparation they’ve been used to. It comes out with foreign coaches coming in – people like Arsène Wenger. The sort of preparation that he employs I don’t think is that much different to the sort of preparation that others would employ, nor would it be fundamentally different to that which I would employ, but because Arsène’s come in and done it, it’s had a positive influence. People say “ah well, it’s come from abroad, it must be good, it’s worked there” – and I think that’s good.
Shaul Adar covers the fallout over Eyal Berkovic's controversial autobiography
The furore over the excerpts from Eyal Berkovic’s book printed in the Mirror has not come as a surprise to anyone in Israel. Let’s be clear about one thing, however. Berkovic does not say in his autobiography,The Magician, that West Ham are racist. He does claims it is an unprofessional, unpleasant, ill-managed club in which nepotism plays an important role. One chapter is called “Frank Lampard Snr – West Ham’s biggest trouble”. He accuses the club of being xenophobic and says “they can’t stand foreigners” but he takes care not to call anybody a racist.