Articles from When Saturday Comes. All 27 years of WSC are in the process of being added. This may take a while.
The Premier League conduct an annual survey. John Williams of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research explains what it's all about
The idea for a national fan survey of Premier League club supporters was hatched around three years ago following discussions between Carling and the FA Premier League itself, primarily its Chief Executive, Rick Parry.
Dear WSC
Whatever else happens this season, one thing’s for sure – a lot of clubs are going to find themselves looking for a new manager at some time during the next nine months. They all know what they want: a hard but well-loved leader of men who can turn a club used to decades of trophyless mediocrity into a giant of the game. They want a manager who, by the time he regretfully hands over the reins of power to his successor, will have won just about everything there is to win and made his name, and that of his club, synonymous with success. They want, in short, someone who can do for their club what Matt Busby did for Manchester United. But how do you find such a man? I say: don’t bother reading the application form, just check the name on top of it. Think of the great managers in English football history: Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Don Revie, Alf Ramsey. Notice how similar their names are? The forename shortened to a monosyllable, the surname comprising two syllables, the last ending in ‘ee’. The lesson is clear – get a manager whose name follows this simple pattern. But make sure you follow the pattern exactly, or you will find yourself repeating Celtic’s traumas with Liam Brady and then Lou Macari. That extra syllable makes all the difference. So, who out of the current crop of Premiership players is destined for great things in the dugout, rather than on the pitch? The one who springs to my mind, at least, is Les Sealey. If he ever does decide to go for a career in management, I’d advise his first employers to put him on a ten-year poacherproof contract. And if I was David Batty, I’d start insisting that everyone call me ‘Dave’ right now. A pity that it’s probably too late for Peter Beardsley to start doing the same. Or are there any clubs who have been ruined by being placed in the hands of some incompetent egomaniac who happened to have a name out of the ‘Blank Blankee’ mould? I can’t think of any. Anyway, if there are, I bet plenty more have suffered irreparable damage under the ‘leadership’ of people with names like, for example, ‘Graham Ball’ or ‘Alan Taylor’.
Brian Whitby (but my friends call me ‘Bri’, honestly), Buochs, Switzerland
Sunday 1 England beat Moldova 3-0. "We came here with a few banana skins lying about and sidestepped them," says Glenn, whose metaphors might need a bit of working on.
Tuesday 3 Sheff Wed extend their lead at the top to five points after a 2-1 home win over Leicester, the first of their two coming from 'teenage sensation' Richie Humphreys who now has three in four games. "He came, he saw, and (guess…) he conquered," says David Pleat.
Wednesday 4 Never a dull moment for George Graham. Both he and Frank Clark are to help Norwegian police with their enquiries into the business activities of agent provocateur Rune Hauge, facing jail on fraud charges. Colchester stage the come back of the night in the Coke Cup First Round – 3-2 down from the first leg they win 3-1 at West Brom. Southend lose 3-2 on aggregate to Fulham and Reading's first-ever visit to Wycombe ends in a 2-0 defeat. Internazionale's Nwankwo Kanu may have to retire due to a heart condition spotted during a medical following his move to Milan from Ajax.
English clubs are struggling in Europe
It’s not often that something Graham Taylor once said comes flooding back but it happened last week, after another set of bad results for English and Scottish clubs in Europe.
Adam Brown of the Football Supporters Association was in Turin for a Champions League game between Juventus and Man Utd. He recalls seeing some highly old-fashioned police tactics first hand
This is getting to be a bit of a habit. Manchester United head off to Europe, full of optimism that this year we’ll get it right, only for things to go horribly wrong both on the pitch and off it. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised then, when our trip to Juventus ended in tears, not due to the 1-0 defeat but because we’d been tear-gassed, as well as beaten with batons and crushed.