Search: ' Alex McLeish'

Ronnie Esplin relfects on an encouraging Euro 2012 campaign for Craig Levein’s Scotland

Craig Levein sat defiantly in the basement of the Estadio José Rico Pérez in Alicante on October 11, following Scotland’s Euro 2012 qualifier defeat by Spain, and told the media the future of the national team was bright. The manager bullishly claimed his side had “improved enormously in the last year” and looked forward to building on that for the 2014 World Cup qualification campaign.

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Chris Sanderson assesses Birmingham City’s mixed season and how a return to the Championship has affected the club’s finances and tactics

In a Premier League awash with money and abetted by a hyperbolic media, journeyman teams like Birmingham City face an impossible dilemma. How can we join the celebrity foam party when we turn up wearing M&S slacks, looking for the carvery?

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Allowing the biggest clubs to loan out their developing players could be distorting competition, says Simon Cotterill

The existing laws on player loans between Premier League clubs need urgent revision. In their present form they allow points to be bought and they are increasing the speed at which the league moves towards being a competition almost entirely devoid of, just that, competition. However, neither the bigger clubs, who use the loan system to farm out future stars, nor the smaller clubs, who use it to bolster their squads, see rule changes as being in their short-term interests. And sadly, the short-term seems to be as far as English football looks these days.

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Despite recent problems at both Rangers and Celtic, Glasgow's dominance of Scottish football is unlikely to change soon. Neil White explains

The new Scottish Premier League season marks a depressing anniversary for that competition – it is now 25 years since a team other than the Old Firm won the championship. Since Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to their third title in six years, in his penultimate season as their manager in 1985, an entire generation of supporters and players have known nothing other than the dominance of Celtic and Rangers.

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The Chic Charnley Story
by Chic Charnley with Alex Gordon
Black & White, £14.99
Reviewed by Chris Fyfe
From WSC 281 July 2010

Buy this book

One match can define a player's career: Archie Gemmill's goal against the Netherlands; Diego Maradona's Hand of God; Eric Cantona's karate kick. It was Chic Charnley's acclaimed guest appearance for his beloved Celtic against Man Utd in Mark Hughes's 1994 testimonial that summed him up.

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