Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
England may have lost twice to the United States but have inflicted frequent and often quite heavy revenge, beginning, as Gavin Willacy relates, with Tom Finney in 1953
Three years after their humiliation by the United States in Belo Horizonte, Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright, Jimmy Dickinson and Tom Finney were given the chance to gain some sort of revenge on those pesky Americans when the FA sent England on their regular tour of the Americas.
Where once television offered genuine debate about the laws, today it sheds heat and not light, believes Philip Cornwall, as he assesses how the official's job has changed
One thing in football never changes: we always want the impossible from referees. What has changed is the weight of criticism referees face for failing to achieve perfection.
The football watchdog is being investigated for producing false documents and the prime minister is telling the courts what to do. Paul Virgo investigates the fallout
The summer sun seems to send Italian football on tilt of late. Last year we had Fiorentina relegated to the fourth division after filing for bankruptcy and a late start because of a ruckus over TV rights. This time a furore over false bank guarantees used by Roma, Napoli and Serie C sides Cosenza and Spal has nudged the closed-season chaos-bar a notch higher.
Just another Arsene Wenger defensive failure? Or misunderstood man? Damian Hall tries to get to the bottom of a player who has impressed some influential coaches
Though much lauded for his astute transfer acquisitions and alchemist’s touch, there’s a theory that Arsène Wenger is actually a pretty poor judge of defenders. Gilles Grimandi, Pascal Cygan, Oleg Luzhny and Igor “fawn on ice” Stepanovs collectively conspire to let Frank Sinclair sleep easy at night, while Silvinho, Lauren and Ashley Cole all play like wannabe wingers. It seems the Professor shops for stoppers like most of us shop for Christmas presents for the in-laws – search around reluctantly for a bit, wearily realise whatever you buy probably won’t be deemed good enough and plump for the nearest bargain. And then there’s Nelson Vivas. It’s difficult to decide whether or not the Argentina right-back fits the thesis.
Dear WSC
Your Blackpool “expert” in the pre-season preview (WSC 199) doesn’t have much chance of getting this season correct if he can’t work out what happened last season. Blackpool didn’t lose home and away to Cardiff – we won 1-0 at Bloomfield Road. And my experiences of Cardiff fans’ hospitality were somewhat different from your expert’s. After the home game we passed a load of Cardiff fans who applauded us on our fine display and victory. As for the away game, a Cardiff supporting friend drove me all the way from our midlands office and back and plied me with drinks before and after the match in a friendly atmosphere at the local rugby club. I know hospitality may have been different if I’d been a fan from some other club with more of a reputation for confrontation, but don’t always believe the stereotyping.
Chris Lowry, Solihull