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The Archive

Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.

 

Peter Ridsdale

Peter Ridsdale quietly rose to the position of chairman at Leeds United in 1996.  Nick Varley gives us the lowdown of the lifelong fan who appears all to happy to mix it with the supporters

Distinguishing features First publicly spotted in the mid-1980s, he resembled a chipper, well-dressed geography teacher, ie tweedy sports jackets, but without leather elbow patches. The suits have stayed sensible, but the boyish parted hair has turned white so that he now looks like an avuncular Swedish diplomat.

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Most like to see happen next season

Banning of tannoy music after a team scores. (And now I bet everyone else says “Players and fans of the world to join together in mutual respect and between them put an end to war and poverty” or something similar.) Harry Pearson

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Tout takes

Joyce Woolridge bought a ticket for £12, went to Barcelona and saw her team win the European Cup, albeit from a great height. Not everyone was so lucky

“If there is anyone with a spare match ticket, would they contact the gentleman in seat 16B.” An ironic cheer greeted this announcement as our plane joined the other charters making their way to Spain for the Champions League final. As it turned out, the hopeful passenger would find no shortage of people with tick­ets available once we touched down in Barcelona.

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May 1999

Saturday 1 Man Utd go top again after beating Villa 2-1, while Chelsea win 3-1 against Everton, who still need a point to avoid the drop. Southampton move out of the bottom three for the first time this season by beating Leicester 2-1. "We've got our heads above water and now we have to stay there," says winning goal scorer James Beattie. Charlton and Blackburn share a goalless draw at The Valley though the latter are refused what appears to be a clear penalty for a foul on Ashley Ward, who has to be restrained from attacking referee Gary Willard at the final whistle. Rob Harris, in charge (after a fashion) of West Ham's game with Leeds, also comes close to being thumped after dimissing Ian Wright with just 15 minutes gone. West Ham have another two sent off in a 5-1 defeat. "We were tremendous while we still had ten men," says a seething Harry Redknapp. "I thought the referee had a good game," says David O'Leary. Bradford's promotion hopes are knocked back by a home draw with Oxford United, while Bristol City are down after losing at Sheffield United. Walsall are promoted from the Second Division. Brentford join Cambridge and Cardiff in going up from the Third, while Scarborough still have a chance of avoiding the drop after an away win at Halifax. Celtic confirm that Kenny Dalglish is to rejoin them as "technical director" in the summer.

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Hostages to fortune

The German media were quick to put Bayern's failure to win the European Cup down to rank bad luck. Ian Plenderleith begs to differ

For many a long year German football commentary was characterised by the adage that “the good teams make their own luck”. That was the line after penalty shoot-outs against England, for example, or after win­ning the 1990 World Cup through a penalty awarded after a blatant dive, or winning Euro 96 through a deflected golden goal, or even after Bayern Munich’s late winner in this season’s Champions League group game against Barcelona after they had played abysmally for an hour and a half. But, as Günter Netzer famously com­mented after the national side’s 3-0 defeat by Cro­atia in France 98, “at some poi­nt luck has to run out”.

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