Book reviews

The Eagles look once again certain to plummet straight back to the ground and reality because of the club's finanical burden. Neil Witherow reports

Just as they were a year ago, Crystal Palace FC are a national laughing stock. At the recent game at Port Vale, the Palace away following came out in highly vocal anger against the club’s owner, Mark Goldberg. This marked the first real sign of concerted unrest among the fans, sparked by the rumours that two of the remaining crowd favourites, Craig Moore and Simon Rodger, were about to depart.

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Rangers goalkeeper Andy Goram – from cult hero to alleged terrorist and extremist. Alex Anderson looks for reason and logic 

For Rangers fans who would like their club to ditch its sectarian image, the second last weekend in February contained an extreme high followed by extreme low. Saturday: a Scottish Catholic helps us annihilate Dundee and the fact is only reported on the back pages, in purely football terms. Sunday: an ex-Ranger cannot face Celtic because of front-page headlines associating him with organised murderers.

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Ken Gall explains why fans are fuming at the press response to the recently proposed merger of the two Dundee clubs 

When Peter Marr – nightclub owner and chairman of Dundee FC – raised the possibility of his club mer­ging with neighbours Dundee United, there was, un­sur­prisingly, uproar among the fans of both clubs. Slightly more surprisingly, there was also a flurry of fav­ourable comment in the Scottish press.

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Some people were just born to manage England, albeit with the right name and at the right time, says Harry Pearson

Walter, Alf, Don, Joe, Ron, Bobby, Graham, Terry, Glenn, Howard, Kev­in.When studying this list of of the forenames of England’s managers it quickly becomes apparent that since the mid-Seventies the FA have got things hopelessly wrong. The departure of Don Revie and the brief interregnum of Joe Mercer should clearly have been followed by a more modern sounding manager, one whose name reeked not of linament and toad-in-the-hole, but of frothy coffee and formica, a Tony, perhaps, an Alan or even a Brian. Instead the FA went backwards and opted for Ron Greenwood.

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Manchester City fans have high hopes for the Millennium Stadium. Ashley Shaw wonders why

At one stage Maine Road possessed the tallest floodlights in English football, but with the advent of super stadia the place has come to resemble a relic – a reminder of the club’s glory days.

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