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Tranmere Rovers may be on the verge of a possible takeover, but as Tony Morris discovers, it is not want the fans were hoping for

On Halloween, frightening rumours began circulating among Tranmere fans that Chester City’s owner Stephen Vaughan was about to buy Rovers, leading to a groundshare at City’s Deva Stadium and a merger of the two clubs. The next day’s papers reinforced fans’ fears. One claimed Tranmere would be forced to sell its Prenton Park ground to pay the £5.3 million the club owes to its owner Peter Johnson. Another confirmed Vaughan’s interest in pur­ch­asing Rovers, claiming a deal could be struck in days.

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Peter Taylor's latest port of call is Peterborough, where many of the supporters are waiting impatiently for the end of the Barry Fry era. Darren Fletcher reports

Nobody knows what is happening at Peterborough. Not the fans, nor the media and nor, it seems, the manager or the chairman. Six seasons ago, Barry Fry took over the club. How­ever, having written himself a rolling three-year contract, he gave up the idea to let a wealthy local businessman, Peter Boizot, take the reins while Fry concentrated on the football. The season before Peterborough had finished 16th in the Second Division and the new manager promised he would take us out of that div­ision. Following numerous triple sub­- stitutions, he did – into the Third.

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Should there be a winter break for the Premiership? Two writers air their conflicting views

Yes ~
In the past few years, English football has acquired some continental habits. The ability to pass the ball to someone wearing the same coloured shirt is now quite highly valued. The replacement of beer by pasta in the diet continues apace. Mainland European coaching is taking hold at the highest level. And now the momentum is at last building to­wards the implementation of a winter break. The Prem­iership should follow its counterparts in Italy, Ger­many and France and give the players three weeks off.

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While English clubs shrug off the annual doom-laden analysis from financial commentators, Scotland's elite have been assessed as even flakier. Ken Gall reports on some alarming figures

Recent evidence would suggest that the required reading for Scottish Premier League chairmen during the close season would be a well-thumbed Guide to Who’s Cheap and Available Around the Second Div­isions of Europe. However, following the publication in April of the remarkable sets of accounts by all SPL clubs, they would be well advised to pick up instead a copy of JK Galbraith’s The Great Crash, in which the eminent Harvard economist describes how speculation, profligacy and unsustainable financial practices led to the Wall Street crash of 1929.

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Bribe scandals are the in thing in European football, not least in Portugal, as Phil Town reports

FC Porto may have cruised comfortably into the last eight of the Champions League, but their apparent health and vigour belies a domestic game lurching from scandal to scandal.

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