The Archive

Tom Bower, whose investigations helped bring down Robert Maxwell, turns to football in his latest book, Broken Dreams. It left Harry Pearson screaming …

A decade or so ago Paul Kimmage, who would later ghost Tony Cascarino’s autobiography, wrote a book about his experiences as a professional cy­clist. A Rough Ride told of systematic drug use by ri­ders in races such as the Tour de France. In Britain, where bike racing ranks alongside clay-pigeon shooting, Kimmage was rewarded with the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. In Europe, where cycling is big news and big bus­iness, however, he was denounced by everybody from fellow riders to sports journalists as a fantasist and an embittered loser. The Irishman had predicted this would happen. There existed, he said, a code of silence within the world of cycling when it came to drug taking, extending from the mechanics to the upper echelons of cycling’s ruling bodies, from the team masseurs to all branches of the media.

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Amid heated debates (no, really) over restructuring non–league football, John Carter explains why Ryman Isthmian clubs are stuck in the middle of a biscuit

Isthmian League fans reckon Claremont Road’s cli­mate has more in common with the Yukon than Cricklewood. But bone-chilling temperatures alone don’t explain why only 243 fans turned up for the mid-Dec­ember clash between long-time rivals Hendon and Enfield. Yes, there were special circumstances: most of Enfield’s fans have “done a Wimbledon”, deserting to breakaway new boys Enfield Town; the club’s travelling support now typically consists of three men sharing a cup of Bovril. Nevertheless, many of the ter­race foot-stampers that afternoon re­member times when the fixture could be expected to draw ten times the paying customers it does today.

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Huddersfield Town have not had the best of times recently, but Steve Wade looks at their colourful history for comfort

To what extent is manager Mick Wadsworth being blamed for Huddersfield’s recent decline?
A very vocal section of the crowd regularly call for his blood. But despite a few questionable de­cis­ions, Wadsworth isn’t entirely responsible. The rot started to set in after the sacking of Peter Jack­son and responsibility must be accepted by a num­ber of players, too. The awful irony is the pain of that first home game this season against Brentford, when the PA voice announced the beginning of “the Wadsworth era”.

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Leeds United's financial dealings are coming under scrutiny

Televison cameras picked up Peter Rids­dale slumped in his seat during Leeds United’s match at Goodison Park, to where travelling fans had brought ban­ners reading, among others, “Lies Uni­ted” and “PLC = Pathetic Leeds Chairman”. In view of the fact that he is receiving advice from PR expert Max Clifford, he might have unveiled one of his own: “Blame Liverpool”. If it hadn’t been for the latter’s cave-in over the last few fix­tures of 1999-2000, Leeds wouldn’t have finished third and qualified for the Cham­p­ions League, with all the unfortunate effects it has now brought.

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A Swedish television show recently hooked up the national coaches with microphones, similar to Graham Taylor. As Marcus Christenson notes, it also hasn't gone down well

In hindsight, Sweden coaches Lars Lagerbäck and Tommy Söderberg should probably have asked Graham Taylor for advice before agreeing to have microphones on them during last summer’s World Cup. But they didn’t – and now sections of the media are calling for their resignations after television broadcast some of their conversations during the team’s games. Like Taylor, who was filmed giving nonsensical orders to substitute Nigel Clough during a game with Norway in 1993, the two Swedish coaches have not come out of the pro­ject look­ing particularly clever. The fiercest criticism has been reserved for their half-time chat ag­ainst Senegal when they discuss whether to substitute Aston Villa striker Marcus Allbäck.

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