Friday 1 David Moyes is to sue the Daily Mail over claims that Wayne Rooney said he was “forced out” of Everton by the manager. Bristol City’s Bradley Orr and Scott Brooker and a former team-mate, David Partridge, now at Leyton Orient, are jailed over a nightclub brawl last October.
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Tuesday 1 Chelsea’s 1‑0 Champions League defeat at Real Betis is apparently their worst performance under José: “The first half was too bad to be true.” Liverpool lead the group after a 3‑0 win over Anderlecht, during which the visitors’ Nenad Jestrovic is sent off for racially abusing Momo Sissoko. Rangers can still progress despite a 2‑2 draw in Bratislava against Artmedia. It emerges that a Roy Keane interview for MUTV in which he heavily criticised team‑mates was not broadcast on Sir Alex’s insistence. Luton’s 4‑0 defeat at runaway Championship leaders Sheffield Utd is made worse by the news that plans for a new ground are to be scrapped. Mike Newell is unhappy with his board: “These people have been in charge for 18 months, so why has it taken them 18 months to find out they can’t build a stadium?” Millwall are four points adrift at the foot following a 2‑1 defeat at Burnley. Peter Shirtliff is named Mansfield manager.
A former Leeds chairman, an FA Cup run, a mass walkout; football is the talk of the tea shops. Mark Douglas puts down his scone to tell the Harrogate story
When the time comes to draw up a list of history’s most defiant gestures, it is fair to say the mass walkout of Paul Marshall and his Harrogate Railway first-team squad in February 2003 won’t be muscling out Nikita Khruschev’s shoe-banging rage at the UN in the Cold War’s frostiest days. Given that the repentant players were back at the club’s Station View ground within a few days, it probably ranks with John Gummer feeding his daughter a beef burger. Nevertheless, Marshall’s anger, provoked by the offer of a “disrespectful” £200 bonus for the team’s stellar efforts in their historic FA Cup second-round defeat to Bristol City, does at least draw attention to the crossroads which Harrogate’s football clubs are at. After decades of struggle, Railway and higher-placed rivals Harrogate Town find themselves with the finance and impetus to make a mark on the football world, but a strong conservative streak threatens to undermine the recent success and banish them to football’s backwaters.
Friday 1 Tony Pulis, out of work since leaving Portsmouth two years ago, takes over at Stoke. Steve McLaren resigns as Sven’s assistant, saying: “It was never intended to be long-term and it has dragged on.”