Search: ' Boavista'

Good enough for the World Cup, but not for the bench of a struggling Premiership side? Jules Brandon  wonders what has gone wrong for Wolves’ star  buy from Nigeria

On the evening of July 7 last year, Wolves called a press conference for the next morning, pro­m­­ising to unveil a new mystery signing. The club had just signed Oleg Luzhny from Arsenal, but there was a sense that this next deal might be bigger and better. If there was a slight air of anti-climax, not to mention baf­flement, when the latest acquisition was revealed as Isaac Okoronkwo, it set the tone nicely.

Read more…

Tributes have been pouring in after the very public death of Miklós Fehér, but Phil Town believes Benfica's mourning smacked more than a little of hypocrisy.

Miklós Fehér’s untimely death at the age of just 24 set into motion a wave of popular feeling not seen in Portugal since fado diva Amália Rodrigues passed on in 1999. The fact that it all happened live on television, and that it involved someone playing for Benfica, by far the best sup­­­ported club in the country, went a long way to stoking up the hysteria.

Read more…

Wednesday 2 England surprise many by playing Wayne Rooney from the start and go on to beat Turkey 2-0 at the Stadium of Light, with late goals from Darius Vassell and a penalty by David Beckham, who says: “It wasn’t a bad display for a team of no-hopers, was it?” Around 100 England supporters are arrested before the match after trouble in Sunderland city centre and at the ground and there is a pitch invasion after the second goal during which a spectator appears to strike Turkey defender Alpay. There is also allegedly a punch-up in the players’ tunnel. UEFA are to investigate. Scotland concede a dubious penalty to lose 1-0 in Lithuania. Northern Ireland have two sent off in a 2-0 home defeat by Greece (“There is not a thought in my head about not carrying on,” says Sammy McIlroy), while the Republic draw 0-0 in Albania. Fulham announce that they are considering a “revised plan” to move back to Craven Cottage.

Read more…

Monday 1 Airdrie United acquire the rights to Clydebank’s name and seem set to replace them in the Scottish Second Division. “If this takeover goes ahead, a franchise system for Scottish football will have been validated,” says a spokesman for the Clydebank supporters group, who had been hoping to take control of the club themselves. Mick Wadsworth, who left Oldham during last season, is Huddersfield’s new manager.

Read more…

Letters, WSC 184

Dear WSC
While Ian Kelp (Letters, WSC 183) makes some valid points about the bizarre soft spot banks have for football clubs in allowing them to trade on nought but pro­mises year after year, I fear that he is too pur­it­an­ical in his approach to business planning. Page one of the Company Treasurer’s Handbook tells us about cashflow planning and a seemingly valid contract pro­m­­ising revenue at fixed future times is a reasonable thing to make plans on, or, if necessary, borrow against. No business waits until the money is in the bank account before planning how to spend it, or indeed actually spending it. Would Marks and Spencer wait until it had a queue of unsatisfied customers waving bunches of tenners in the branch until it ordered a batch of knickers from its sup­pliers? Where the clubs have probably been naive is in what appears to be a less than watertight contract. If it is true that Carlton and Granada can walk away without liability for their little joint venture, the clubs should be looking at the quality of their legal advice. The fact that the share prices of both Carlton and Granada rose once the situation became public is a pret­ty depressing sign of what the City thinks of that contract.
Jonathan Gibbs, via email

Read more…