Book reviews

Not all footballers crave the spotlight. James Wilson has realised that Faustino Asprilla is happier away from media attention

Colombia do not play their home games in the capital, Bogotá. Instead they have adopted Barranquilla, a coastal city of tropical languor, as their base. It is a welcoming city. Gabriel Garcia Marquez once lived in a brothel here. Outside the Dann, the nondescript suburban hotel where the players were staying before flying off to Paraguay for the World Cup game, a banner strung across the street said: “The Colombian squad is here.” So were a lot of military police.

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An assessment of the likely winners and losers in Scotland in 1997/98 – no prizes for guessing the former

ABERDEEN

Keith Davidson

How will your team do this season? With Celtic having a complete shake-up over the close season, perhaps second, although the general view from the Scottish press is fourth.

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A fans' preview of the Scotland's Division One season

AIRDRIE

Jim Milton

How will your team do? Well we made the playoffs last season when nobody fancied us, so the same again must be within our grasp. Much will depend on manager Alex MacDonald’s close season activities.

Most important figure? With the club about to return to its roots with the opening of our new stadium, chairman David Smith’s role in relaunching the Diamonds within the community will be crucial.

New piece of merchandise? A Johnny Martin goalkeeping doll that burps, farts and swings on a replica crossbar.

Change to matchday environment? Bring back the target golf or referee/goalie mime troupe which proved so popular years ago at Bloomfield, and dump all these pointless mascots.

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Doug Stenhouse offers his predictions for the forthcoming season

Imagine a club in your league makes up a new rule to dissolve the competition as it stands and form a new league expelling five clubs. Imagine all the clubs are circulated with the proposal except the five to be expelled. Couldn’t happen? It has happened before: this is exactly what Glasgow Rangers tried to do in Scotland at the end of 1965-66. The five were Stranraer, Albion Rovers, Berwick Rangers, Stenhousemuir and Brechin. Only a last ditch court room battle and intense lobbying by Berwick chairman George Shiel won the day. A costly result for Rangers as two years later they lost to lowly Berwick in the Scottish Cup.

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WSC readers and fanzine editors weigh up the season to come

ARSENAL

Boyd Hilton

How will your team do this season? Third (again)

Who is going to be the most important figure at the club this season? Arsène Wenger: he’s the most intelligent person ever to be associated with professional football anywhere in the world ever, so this is our chance to just sit back and enjoy whatever he comes up with…

If you had to come up with a new piece of merchandise to sell at the club shop what would it be? Life-size, fully realistic, 100% physically accurate model of Ian Wright.

Which player at your club most divides the home support and why? Ian Wright: bizarrely, a sizeable portion of the fans seems to think that we’d do better without him, that he’s too old, too selfish, or some such crackpot theory. These people are clearly insane or are from the Arsenal old school and simply can’t cope with too much pleasure.

Which element of the matchday environment would you most like to change? Installing some kind of device which sends a near-fatal electric shock through anyone who shouts “Yiddos!” and make it easier to get a half-time cup of coffee, perhaps by getting rid of the enormous bar area in the North Bank and installing 10 coffee stalls.

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