Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Ian Plenderleith investigates the best and worst websites offering 'sidesways glances' to the game
If you think Private Eye’s satire on the travails of Neasden FC and its two top fans Sid and Doris Bonkers ran out of steam around 20 years ago, then try the new, strictly non-profit, online fanzine All The Pies. It’s punchy, semi-anarchic, and has the potential, you feel, to get funnier.
Sean Hanson witnessed complacency turn to confrontation at the UEFA Cup final
It is 2.40pm, the day after the rotten night before. I have just got up, having arrived home from Copenhagen at about 5.30am and gone straight to bed. On the radio I hear that the police are blaming Arsenal fans for not dispersing fast enough; that the Arsenal fans are blaming the Turks; that the FA representatives are blaming, well, just about everybody except themselves. I hear that England should consider pulling out of Euro 2000 and withdraw their bid for the 2006 World Cup.
When Ian Cusack moved to Slovakia, he didn't expect to befollowed by No Surrender
England v Turkey: a grand total of just over 200. Arrests? Tooled-up Category C Top Boys? Scimitar-wielding descendants of Saladin bent on Bratislavan Intifada? Actually, it was the crowd, outnumbered at least three to one by the local riot police. Looked mighty impressive in a 40,000 all-seat stadium.
All football columnists are self-important; but some are more self-important than others. Ian Plenderleith investigates
Big names, big opinions. Emerging as a person of public repute causes media top cats to assume you have something of importance to say. This is particularly true in football, where the juxtaposition of crass thought and a famous face has in recent years spawned more drivel-strewn column inches than the collected journalistic offerings of Frank Leboeuf laid end to end. Inevitably, this cankerous trend has spread to the internet.
Dear WSC
Until recently I have always assumed your articles to be generally well researched. However, your feature on the east midlands (WSC 160) falls somewhat short of the mark. The fact that Simon Tyers thinks “the heightened sense of local rivalry that exists between the west midlands clubs isn’t replicated further east” shows he has neither spoken to many supporters of Forest or Derby, nor, it would appear, has he ever been in attendance when the teams have met.To fans of both Forest and Derby the rivalry is as intense as any in England. The common media fallacy that “east midlands fans are not passionate” is both boring and untrue. Equally lazy is the suggestion that there isn’t sufficient “geographical closeness”. A visit to the area would reveal that Nottingham and Derby are more or less joined by an ever growing urban conurbation and a fluid workforce.The writer tries several times to compare unfavourably the traditions and rivalries of the east midlands with that of the west, particularly Wolves and West Brom (perhaps betraying his loyalties). He also tries some spurious argument about levels of support being related to the amount of heavy industry in a region. However I would suggest that the trophy cabinets of the east have had far more use than their Black Country counterparts over the last 30 years – and The Hawthorns doesn’t seem to be packed to the rafters with 30,000 foundry workers every fortnight, does it? As a Notts-born Forest fan, who has lived in Derby for 20 years, it is ironic that I find Derby supporter Alistair Hewitt’s view closest to the truth. He at least recognises the rivalries that exist. But then local knowledge will always be better than drawing on media misinformation and the same old predictable references. Who knows, maybe someone, someday will write about the east midlands without feeling the urge to keep referring to Brian Clough.
N Salmon, Stretton