Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
Owen Oyston saved Blackpool from the brink of bankruptcy. David Blundell looks at the controversial businessman
Distinguishing Features Take the Emperor Ming, dress him in the archetypal football manager sheepskin and stick a six gallon hat on his head. You now have Owen Oyston. At least, that was Owen a year ago. Now, denim shirt and trousers with arrows are more his line (he is now in Pentonville prison for the unusual crime of using undue influence to talk a girl into sexual congress).
A new report has been published that analyses the impact of black footballers. Ashley Shaw studies the results
While racism may have largely disappeared from our football grounds, as a recent survey demonstrates the English game is not quite the prejudice-free utopia the FA would have us believe. According to Steven Szymanski, author of Beaten in the Race for the Bell, an economic divide still exists between white and black players in English football.
No Asian footballer has cut it at the highest level yet, but Matthew Brown thinks that could be about to change
Cultural success in Britain was celebrated earlier in the year with the publication of a list of the top 100 Asian businessmen and a flurry of newspaper articles on the country’s Asian millionaires. In December, 2nd Generation, the ‘style mag for Britain’s Asian youth’ celebrated the end of its first year with a list of 1997’s best bands including well-known names such as Asian Dub Foundation, Cornershop and State of Bengal.
Roger Titford gives a unique insight into the proposals for league reform
On December 11th, the Football League Working Party On Structure published its report on the five options for the future structure of the League. By giving each name option the name of a planet, and adding in some extraneous guff about giving points for half-time leads, they attracted a huge amount of (largely) negative publicity and very little critical analysis.
Day 21 of the WSC advent calendar and we’re looking at Christmas football. These days it is something to look forward to but, in issue 131, January 1998, Olly Wicken‘s grandad claimed that this wasn’t always the case
I went to my first Christmas game in 1933, at the age of twelve. I’ll never forget it. It was a cold and bright Christmas Day morning (Christmas Day fixtures were the norm in those days). My Christmas stocking was still hanging unopened over the hearth when my father wrapped me up in my muffler, cap and overcoat and walked me along frosty pavements to the ground. Once inside, I was passed over the heads of the crowd down to the front of the terrace. From there I saw the local derby end in a five-all draw. Our inside-left – I forget his name now – scored all five. Then, on Boxing Day afternoon, my father took me to the return match across town, which we won by the odd goal in thirteen, making the aggregate score twelve-eleven over the two days. It was typical of Christmas fixtures back then. Both games were shit.