The Archive

Owen Amos uncovers the facts surrounding Lee Trundle’s mysterious move Welsh Premier League side Neath

When Lee Trundle was released by Bristol City in May, he was expected to stay in the Football League. This, after all, was a forward with 118 league goals in 320 games. Indeed, Trundle was a million-pound striker: three years earlier, he’d moved from Swansea to Bristol for seven figures. But, despite offers from Swindon, Tranmere, Yeovil and Newport, he signed for Neath in the Welsh Premier League, a club with an average gate of 221. Trundle, the showboating star of Soccer AM, probably gets bigger crowds for his book signings (Lee Trundle, More Than Just Tricks – £16.99 in hardback if you’re interested).

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Only recently formed, the ECA already faces the daunting task of taking on football’s leading organisations in an attempt to increase fairness across the board. Steve Menary reports

When is enough really enough? For Europe’s biggest clubs, seemingly never. The formation of the European Clubs Association (ECA) was supposed to end the selfish lobbying of the big clubs but, having turned European football into a cash cow, the continent’s leading sides are now targeting the money FIFA makes from the World Cup and distributes to member associations.

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Mark Poole explores current plans to restructure the Scottish Premier League, but are TV demands too much of a stumbling block?

In an effort to halt the decline in interest, revenue and quality in the game, the Scottish Premier League is working on a blueprint to restructure the competition. They recognise that the current format, with the 12-team top flight that splits into two after everyone’s played each other three times, isn’t working. The SPL will only confirm that they are looking at various options, including the possibility of an expansion and play-offs, and that no further details can be discussed until later this year.

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Mick Collins observed the closing of the transfer window with unease and distaste, unlike Sky TV or others who stand to profit

The business of football is a complicated one, truly understood by only a special few. Unfortunately, those special few have more sense than to get involved, thus leaving it in the hands of opportunists and incompetents. There’s no longer a mystery about this, with winding-up orders and administrators long since letting light in on the game’s chaos. Even while it steams towards the financial buffers, however, stoking the engine with £50 notes, some of us still look for a defining moment.

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This month, Ian Plenderleath takes a look at a football website written exclusively by women

Everyone knows, as the American philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said, that “gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously”. Bearing that in mind, the best way to approach a football site like Kickette, where “multi-millionaire football star shenanigans, exclusive WAG gossip and snarky fashion analysis are the reason we exist”, is just to enjoy its self-knowing appreciation of the contours of semi-clad footballers’ torsos, bitchery about the excessive make-up of footballers’ wives and up-to-speed information on the latest bordello sightings. Because you really need to see those pics of Carlos Vela and his international team-mates hanging loose with blonde transvestite ladies of the Mexican night.

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