Dear WSC
There wasn’t room on the questionnaire (WSC No 138) to record my favourite World Cup moment. Given the paucity of the “entertainment”, the presence of the Paraguayan defender, Arce, was a blessing. Credit must be given to Barry Davies, who never slipped up with his pronunciation, as the rest of us surely would have. Thus, Arce was constantly announced as “Ah-Say!” in the grand manner of the blustering cartoon rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, and never once degenerated into “Aaaarse” like the yokel in The Fast Show sketches.
Martin Callaghan, Wakefield
The Archive
Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Powder puff ideas are making the dreaded Super League a laughing stock before it's even begun
Be mightily afraid, there’s a super league a-coming and damned if it doesn’t keep changing shape. One day it’s going to be a midweek league involving 16 clubs, or two divisions of 16, or 20 clubs. Then it’s going to be an invitational end of season tournament running through the close season. It might be a sealed competition with no promotion and relegation, or it might be opened up to new members after the first two years.
Wednesday 1 "I have apologized to the England players and I want every England supporter to know how sorry I am," says David Beckham as the England squad return from France. "There is an empty feeling inside," says Glenn, "but I have had an encouraging call from the prime minister." Ex-Rangers boss Walter Smith changes his mind about joining Sheffield Wednesday in order to become the new Everton manager, their fourth in four seasons. "I am under no illusions about the size of the task," he says, which is handy. Ron Noades makes himself manager of Brentford, saying: "I can spend and do what I like and I am very excited," words that may come back to haunt him by, ooh, the end of September. John Hollins takes over at Swansea. Bolton allegedly beat off Paris St Germain to sign Jamaica's teenage winger Ricardo Gardner for £1 million.
Thursday 2 Steve Bruce becomes player-manager of Sheffield United. Caretaker boss Steve Thompson stays on as assistant, with Wigan manager John Deehan coming in as coach. Got that?
Monday 6 Danny Wilson leaves Barnsley to take over at Hillsborough. He'll be replaced by John Hendrie. "I told Wednesday to go away, but I was honour bound to tell Danny of their approach," says miffed Barnsley chairman John Dennis. Man Utd will face either LKS Lodz of Poland or Azerbaijan's Kapaz in the second qualifying round for the Champions League. Celtic will play Croatia Zagreb if they get past St Patrick's Athletic. Cup winners Hearts meet Estonia's Lantana. In the UEFA Cup, Rangers also go to Dublin to take on Shelbourne, while Kilmarnock play Zeljeznicar from the newly recognized Bosnian league.
More changes to the laws, who wants 'em? Phil Cornwall does, if it means discouraging players from persistently taking a dive
In this World Cup, we have seen enough diving to last a lifetime. But I think there’s a need to distinguish between the different motives for it – and indeed accept some of it. Often it has simply been to draw the referee’s attention to offences – notably shirt-pulling, which has been rife and is hard to spot. Are strikers supposed to meekly accept being grabbed, now that defenders won’t risk them getting away for fear of having to tackle with their legs and risking a yellow or red card?
Dear WSC
Reading your letters page over recent months has led me to the conclusion that many of your correspondents are obsessive on subjects that are essentially trivial. I feel strongly that this valuable space should be reserved for people with something to say. Incidentally, I feel I should point out that in your article on World Cup nicknames (WSC No 137) you refer to Bam Bam as Fred Flintstone’s son, when he was in fact Barney Rubble’s son.
Alastair Walker, Farnsfield