The Archive

The former boss of Creation Records, Alan McGee, recalls how Robert Fleck lured him to StaMford Bridge and tells how football rescued him from drugs – or was it the other way round?

Did you become a Rangers fan solely because of your upbringing? It must have been at the time when Celtic were the dominant club in Scotland.
When you’re seven it comes down to who you hang around with. I was at a  Protestant school in the late Sixties. I knew some Celtic fans too but the first league match I was taken to by my dad was to see Rangers – although I actually saw Celtic first, in a pre-season match against Queens Park. We lived near Hampden and they were the local club. I used to watch them too for the first couple of years that I was interested in football. You could go when you were ten and you felt safe with a space of your own in this big ground.

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Dear WSC
An idea for a movie script, in which hard man Vinnie Jones plays a villain called, er, Hard Man. A large group of ex-footballers who’ve been on the receiving end of one of his so-called “tackles” lure him to a deserted warehouse and wallop the shite out of him.
Stephen J Bunting, Cambridge

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Hamish McDougall exposes the myth that England lack decent southpaws, arguing that Kevin Keegan ignores the available options – to dire consequences

The word “quality” is an optional extra in this Myth’s wording, as some commentators have suggested that a whole generation of footballers use their left foot merely to stand on. The Times suggested just such a thing recently when championing the 3-5-2 system, insisting that playing wing-backs “negates the necessity to find two left-sided players”.

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We asked some searching questions abou Euro 2000. Roger Titford sifted through the replies and can confirm, among other things, that referees aren't like the rest of us

If the survey in WSC 162 is anything to go by, our typical reader has undergone some changes since 1998. He (or, less frequently, she) is slimmer, less inebriated, less workshy, more clued up about the internet, more ashamed about being English and less keen on Barry Davies than ever. Or perhaps you’re just getting older and crabbier.

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Ian Plenderleith discovers the nuanced world of sub-genre webzines

Good writing, keen comment and a reasonable smattering of wit constitute the US-based website Roundnotoval, which claims to be the “greatest unread football fanzine on the planet”. Its editors produce a new issue of news and opinions on the game worldwide every week, with a special focus on the US. This regular renewal of content gives the site the kind of fresh feel that is often lacking in the maelstrom of neglected websites that have fallen foul of misplaced enthusiasm in the great Cyber-Beyond.

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