Martin Warrillow warns West Ham fans of what to expect now that Birmingham City's former owners are in charge of their club
It was the jacket that did it. The spectacularly naff claret-coloured jacket David Sullivan was wearing when he swanned into Upton Park having, as he put it, “defied commercial and financial sense” by buying West Ham United despite their reported £110 million debts.
A fans favourite and a proven winner, Bobo Balde spent half of his Celtic career languishing on the sidelines, as Jules Brandon remembers
This summer, Celtic finally bid farewell to their Guinean defender Bobo Balde. His eight years at the club made him one of Celtic’s longest serving players of recent times, and one of the most successful, with ten medals to his name. He was a key member of the team that reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final (he was sent off in extra time), and the same season fans voted him Celtic Player of the Year.
Kris Boyd has walked away from George Burley’s Scotland set-up. Gordon Cairns asks why many have sided with the sulking player
Former secretary of state for Scotland David Cairns seems an unlikely mentor for Rangers striker Kris Boyd, but one wonders if the only minister to resign in the short-lived rebellion against Gordon Brown had been whispering in the ear of the disaffected reserve Scotland striker. How else might the bizarre retirement of Boyd in the wake of the draw with Norway be explained? The catalyst seems to have been Burley’s decision to bring on two strikers, Chris Iwelumo and Stephen Fletcher, with one cap between them rather than Boyd, which was obviously too much for his fragile ego.
Dear WSC
I am glad that Leeds’ 15-point deduction has been upheld, but not because I am “too busy taking pleasure from their fall from grace to give it a moment’s thought” as claimed by Neil Rose in WSC 256. I actually like Leeds, having watched them frequently in the Revie days when they were the object of much opprobrium from the London press despite producing great football, and so I understand why Leeds fans think everybody is against them. Yes, the number of points deducted is arbitrary, but I think everyone agrees that it is wrong for a club to climb the table by spending other people’s money and then being allowed to write off their debts yet not suffer in terms of league position. But that is precisely what Ken Bates tried to do. He was ready to put Leeds into administration at any time, but waited until the club were effectively relegated anyway and then did it instantly, knowing that the automatic ten-point deduction would make no difference to their season. It’s not often I hear myself saying this, but I think the League were perfectly right in their reaction. What they in effect said was: “Yes, you get the automatic points deduction but, as it hasn’t made any difference to you, we will take it off you next season as well and we will take another five off you for trying to manipulate the rules.” If Ken had put the club into administration a week earlier than he did, I suspect this wouldn’t have happened. And you are not “better off going into administration in the Premier League (nine points docked) than in the Football League (ten)”. Nine points in a 38-game season means you have to make up the difference at a rate of 0.237 points per game, while ten points in a 46-game season is a comparatively trivial handicap of only 0.217. It would have been nothing to Leeds if Ken Bates hadn’t made it worse by trying to play the rules.
Mick Blakeman, Wolverhampton
George Burley is the new manager of Scotland. Neil Forsyth reports on a four-way battle for the job and the challenges facing the former Southampon boss
If Scotland are to continue the renaissance of their national team following the despair of Berti Vogts’ reign, then it is George Burley who will now be leading them onwards. The Southampton manager was the selection of the SFA after a lengthy search that culminated in a shortlist of Burley, Mark McGhee, Graeme Souness and Tommy Burns. It was a quartet that failed to produce a clear favourite among fans and media, with each having decent credentials for the task without standing out.