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Matthew Gooding enjoyed a brief period of cosmopolitan influence at the Abbey Stadium, especially as it was so out of character for Cambridge United

Like a well-worn pair of shoes, the process of appointing a new Cambridge United manager is one which is comfortingly familiar for the club’s long-suffering fans. A motley cast of has-beens and never-will-bes throw their names into the hat via the back page of the local paper, while ex-U’s boss Tommy Taylor usually pops up to express an interest.

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By the time it was scrapped in 2008, the Intertoto Cup had little respect. In 1995, when English sides were first made to enter, it had even less. Owen Amos looks back at that first season

From 1961 to 1995, the Intertoto Cup was a summer tournament for mid-ranking, mainland European clubs. It offered pre-season football, modest prize money and – most importantly – kept the pools companies happy (Australian state league games having the same function here). By the mid-1990s, according to the November 1994 Intertoto newsletter – yes, there was one – the tournament was stagnating. The pools companies wanted better games, and bigger names. The organisers asked UEFA for help and, after some discussion, the Intertoto was made the fourth UEFA club competition.

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It would be unimaginable in the Premier League, but in League 1 a promoted side are challenging at the top. James Eastham reports

French football fans must have wondered what the fuss was about when Birmingham City went on a 12-match unbeaten run from October to January. In Ligue 1, there’s a newly promoted club challenging for the championship.

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After seven titles in ten seasons St Etienne failed to go onto greater things, but Michel Platini's star would keep rising by James Eastham

The long-term significance
St-Etienne, the swashbuckling side of the 1970s, won their third consecutive title and seventh in ten seasons – but this triumph marked the end of their dynasty. A single league title followed, in 1981, when Michel Platini was their talisman – and then nothing since. In their famous green shirts they became the first French club since Reims in 1959 to reach the European Cup final, losing 1-0 to Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern Munich after hitting the woodwork twice.

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The response of the authorities, at the time and later, to the crush involving Manchester United supporters at Lens would have been all too familiar to those who watch English club sides abroad, says Adam Brown

The problems experienced by some Manchester United supporters at their Champions League fixture in Lens may have attracted an unusual number of tabloid headlines, but they should not have come as a surprise to anybody.

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