The Archive

Cameron Carter describes the month’s football coverage, including Lineker crying wolf, a terrible pun and Arsenal v Barcelona

Mel Brooks does a turn about an old man at a Jewish wedding launching into Strangers in the Night but starting too high, so that his voice breaks into a whispered scream trying to hit the high note in the chorus. Gary Lineker got himself into a similar predicament on February 5 as a result of his repeated use of hyperbole when introducing Match of the Day.

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While the rest of Europe remained quiet, underachieving Premier League clubs Chelsea and Liverpool splashed out during the transfer window

His was a signing that served to demonstrate Liverpool FC’s standing in English football, a player whose contributions to a game would be one of the main topics of any post-match discussion. But, after a torrid few months at Anfield, Paul Konchesky has been shipped out on loan to Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile, the one player Liverpool supporters didn’t want to see leave, Fernando Torres, has departed for Chelsea for £50 million.

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Simon Tyers looks at how football coverage on Sky Sports has changed since it was first introduced in 1991

Without fully raking over the Gray-Keys saga, two further points. One is to note the irony in Sky considering Andy Gray’s last straw to be remarks of a sexual nature towards Charlotte Jackson, who promoted the new season on Sky Sports in August by doing a shoot for Loaded magazine. The other is to consider that they were keen to get rid of Gray because pundits are ultimately replaceable – think of Ron Atkinson and remember that Sky did it themselves five years ago with Jeff Stelling’s primary sparring partner Rodney Marsh – while main presenters aren’t.

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Graham Forshaw decribes the season which saw champions Fulham accumulate 101 points

The long-term significance
The three promoted clubs all stayed up the following season – the only time this has happened since the Premier League started. Indeed, none of the three has been relegated since. Fulham’s Jean Tigana was the only black manager in the League at the time and the first foreigner to take a team up to the top level – Ossie Ardiles had won promotion through the play-offs with Swindon Town ten years earlier but they were then demoted for financial irregularities.

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With legislation enforcing all-seater stadiums on clubs in the top two divisions of English football, Steve Bradley examines whether this benefits either clubs or supporters

While the media’s attention was distracted recently over the question of who will secure tenancy of the new 2012 Olympic Stadium, a separate move began which could have major implications for the look and feel of any future stadium developments here.

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