Dear WSC
As an avid AFC Wimbledon fan, I was amazed at Robert Jeffrey’s article (WSC 212) which makes the club look like it is in a total mess with constant bickering and some pretty unpleasant fans and management running the club. I am not sure how we could have won 42 league games out of 46 if we were in such turmoil. Things are never perfect, but for goodness’ sake the feeling for the club has never been stronger or more positive, while suggesting we treated Kevin Cooper like Tottenham did Sol Campbell is such a disgraceful distortion. Plus rubbish like “We have, quite simply, forgotten how to be happy.” I know no one at the club who even feels vaguely the same way, so perhaps he should think of doing something else on his weekends as it won’t get any better than this.
Richard Brazier, via email
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Alf Ramsey's original "wingless wonders" win Division One at the first attempt having only been promoted the previous season, recalls Geoff Wallis
The long-term significance
The champions of the Second Division in 1960-61, Ipswich Town repeated the feat by winning Division One the following year, in their first top-flight season (a unique achievement, discounting Preston’s inaugural championship).
With football supporters regularly lambasted for their fast-changing opinions on their sides' staff and players, it sometimes turns out that the ficklest fans can actually be found in the boardroom – as Sir Bobby Robson has found out of his chairman, Freddy Shepherd
Anyone who has looked at football internet message boards will know the form by now. Alongside the well informed contributors, there are always a few who offer only irate bluster and bombast, often expressed in capital letters. Unfortunately for Newcastle United supporters, one such person appears to be in charge of their club.
Paul Doyle hails Shelbourne's Champions League exploits
To get an idea of Shelbourne’s standing in Europe until recently, consider the sheer contempt with which Croatia’s Hajduk Split prepared for their crucial Champions League second-round clash with the League of Ireland winners. Victory would set up a glamour clash with the mighty Deportivo La Coruña and Hajduk were so convinced that honour would be theirs that Shels manager Pat Fenlon claimed his Croatian counterpart simply blanked him when the draw was made in Switzerland and instead went straight up to the Spanish team’s officials to make arrangements.
Tom Davies reports on three of the Football League's troubled clubs
The fight to secure the future of Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground (reported in WSC 208) has acquired a new urgency over the summer. Elusive chairman Mark Guterman has left the club, leaving the abrasive Alex Hamilton in charge. Hamilton, now revealed as the real power behind Guterman from the start, wants to sell the ground (which could fetch up to £25 million) and move the club to an out-of-town site, claiming that the sale would be the only way to stave off the lingering threat of administration and clear debts of around £5m.