In this adaptation of his introduction to The Best of Charles Buchan's Football Monthly, Simon Inglis traces the life of the first half-decent football magazine and the player and broadcaster who brought it into existence
Truly, the monthly magazine is the prince of periodicals. A friend, a fashion statement, an always invited guest, the monthly mag need never fade before reaching its final resting place, be it the doctor’s waiting room, the loft, or that pile in the downstairs loo.
Eighteen months after selling Chelsea, Ken Bates has kindly stepped back into the game to save Leeds – though strangely, as Duncan Young explains, not everyone at Elland Road is happy.
The outgoing board at Leeds United moaned about the complexities of doing a deal to safeguard the club, yet within days snatched at Ken Bates’ offer ahead of two other bewildered consortiums who were poised to make bids after painstaking analysis of the books. As the dust settles only one person has resigned, citing the complete irresponsibility of it all. John Boocock, chairman of the supporters’ trust, clattered Ken from behind and, sensing the exile that would follow, carried on straight down the tunnel as his senior colleagues lined up to disassociate the trust from his views.
Derby County fan Peter Gutteridge talks stadiums, kits and youth players at pride Park
The board and manager. Do they know what they’re doing?
No. Jim Smith seems to have lost all notion of team tactics in the past couple of seasons. Owner Lionel Pickering seems disintereted in the club and wants to sell up. But he’s also big chums with Smith so there’s a stalemate.
Less than 20 years ago, Barnsley and Rotherham were eyeball to eyeball. Richard Darn examines how it ll went right for the Tykes and wrong for the Millers
I’ve always had difficulty understanding Charles Darwin and all that Origin of the Species stuff. How on earth could a hare and a tortoise be descended from the same creature? Then one day it suddenly dawned on me. Once upon a time Barnsley FC were just like Rotherham United – and now they’re not.
With footballers receiving unprecedented levels of public attention, Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, talked to WSC about the things that keep him busy
There has been a series of violent incidents in high-profile matches lately. Are footballers getting out of control?
It’s always been difficult. We have tried all sorts over the years. We’ve worked to make sure that players know the laws of the game, we’ve got referees to visit clubs, we’ve tried to have ex-players as referees. One thing I was disappointed about over this past weekend [February 12 – involving the games at Chelsea v Wimbledon, Newcastle v Man Utd and Leeds v Spurs] is that referees lately seemed to have grasped that we were out of touch with the rest of the world and that not every foul deserved a caution. We saw some great games as a result, then the wheels came off. Someone asked me, where do you see football today, on Valentine’s day? I said, well, we don’t want any more massacres. But football is a microcosm of society. They’re saying to me “oh this is a really sad time for football” as though there is something we could do to make sure it would always be on the straight and narrow. I said we’ve had prisons since civilised society began and we’ve haven’t got less now. You can fill the prisons up but it doesn’t mean to say you’ve got law and order.