Book reviews | When Saturday Comes

Small town heroes

Champions League competition can be mixed blessing and James Baxter sympathises with a team thrashed by Marseille

When MŠK Žilina’s first ever Champions League group stage campaign finally drew to an end last December, debate in Slovakia as to its merits and otherwise was already long underway. The general consensus was that the failure to pick up points was disappointing and the 7-0 home defeat by Marseille humiliating but also that the team had played good football in spells and learned several lessons.

Saturday, May 21st, 2011 - Book reviews

Endangered species

Grasshoppers Zürich have been forced to share the home of their city rivals, which isn’t fit for purpose. Paul Knott fears the worst

One of the great names, literally, of European football is at risk of disappearing. The record 27 times champions of Switzerland, Grasshopper Club Zürich (GCZ), are in debt, struggling on the field and without a home of their own.

Saturday, May 21st, 2011 - Book reviews

The strange case of Claude Le Roy

Matthew Gooding enjoyed a brief period of cosmopolitan influence at the Abbey Stadium, especially as it was so out of character for Cambridge United

Like a well-worn pair of shoes, the process of appointing a new Cambridge United manager is one which is comfortingly familiar for the club’s long-suffering fans. A motley cast of has-beens and never-will-bes throw their names into the hat via the back page of the local paper, while ex-U’s boss Tommy Taylor usually pops up to express an interest.

Saturday, May 21st, 2011 - Book reviews

Missing in action

Dong Fangzhuo became an Asian sensation when he joined Manchester United from Chinese side Dalian Shide in 2004. Jonathan Fadugba explores the striker’s drastic decline from Europe’s top stage

Just days after wrestling the title away from defending champions Chelsea, Manchester United travelled to Stamford Bridge for a League fixture on May 9, 2007. All the pre-match talk was of a guard of honour. Would José Mourinho be magnanimous enough in defeat to indulge the newly crowned Champions? He was – but Alex Ferguson sent out a reserve team. What followed was an almost farcical scene as John Terry and co lined up to salute the likes of Chris Eagles, Kieran Richardson and Kieran Lee.

Saturday, May 21st, 2011 - Book reviews

Thanks for nothing

Matt Ramsay examines the pros and cons of the Premier League’s proposed Elite Player Performance Plan

A bid to improve the compensation rights of non-League clubs when their young players are snapped up by Football League teams was featured in WSC 279 (May 2010). The issue of fairly reimbursing smaller clubs is set to become a major topic in the coming months, if current proposals to change England’s academy system come into being.

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 - Book reviews