The Archive

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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The official Italians blame for their World Cup exit has defended his decisions and now entered the world of politics. But not, as Ben Lyttleton writes, to good effect

Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno took ad­vantage of a suspension recently to confront the critics that blamed him for Italy’s World Cup defeat to South Korea. Moreno appeared on RAI TV’s Stupido Hotel carrying a briefcase stuffed with bank-notes before claiming he was right to dismiss Francesco Totti and disallow a Damiano Tomassi golden goal in the sum­mer. “I don’t think I was the major cause of Italy’s World Cup exit, and I don’t need to apol­ogise,” said the man nicknamed El Just­iciero – The Sheriff – in his homeland. “I’ve always fought against dishonest players and dangerous play. After the Portugal v USA match I was marked 8.5 out of ten and I got an even better mark for the Italy v Korea match. The Italians were looking for excuses.”

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Should Northern Ireland once again pick some players from domestic football? Davy Millar thinks so and fondly remembers the few given a chance

Even while the domestic scene has struggled and the best school-age players have been hoovered up by English clubs, there is an underlying belief among North­ern Ireland supporters that things would be better if only there were a few Irish League names in the national squad. To the outsider, handing out international jerseys to players who have failed to attract the interest of even the lowliest Third Division club might seem a rash move but at least the local players can be gua­ranteed to bring a more robust attitude than is us­ual at this level. After all, none of us watching Spain string 87 passes together could help being thrilled by the idea of the move breaking down courtesy of an Irish League boot coming into contact with Gaizka Mendieta’s genitalia.

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