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Stories
Owen Coyle hasn’t endeared himself to fans, who are protesting against the club’s owners
26 August ~ A recent ex-Burnley manager was never going to be in for an easy ride at local rivals Blackburn Rovers, so what Owen Coyle most needed to keep supporters on-side was a good start to the season. After a disastrous first game against Norwich in which they were 3-0 down within 30 minutes and the subsequent loss of the team’s two centre-halves (Grant Hanley sold to Newcastle, Shane Duffy who has just gone to Brighton having been suspended and fallen out with Coyle) the coach is already under serious pressure.
Accrington relegated, Luton champions and chaos at Northampton – what WSC contributors got right and wrong about the previous season
3 August ~ “With a takeover saga looming, a half-finished stand and rumours rife about matters financial, it isn’t the pre-season preparation Cobblers fans would have hoped for,” wrote Northampton Town fan Mark Pacan ahead of the 2015-16 League Two season, before predicting: “Best case scenario, play-offs. Worst case scenario, relegation and oblivion.”
Apparently Coventry City only had to win their five remaining home games to save themselves from relegation to League One, but that proved to be easier said than done, writes Ed Wilson
Forget fancy notions of skill and tactics. Relegation battles, the professionals tell us, are all about belief. Nobody – not the manager, players or supporters – believes Coventry can stay up more than the psychotically optimistic radio presenter I am listening to on the way to today’s game. For him, survival is almost guaranteed. “All we have to do,” he insists, “is win our remaining five home games.” He is not deflated by the knowledge they have managed only seven victories all season. They are due a change of fortune. You begin to wonder what it would take to undermine his chirpiness. His wife could ask for a divorce during Donna and Althea’s Uptown Top Ranking and he would be back on air seconds later, joshing his way through the traffic and travel.
Mark Poole explains that even though their club is owned by a millionaire, one group of SPL players are not having their wages paid regularly
Last month the Scottish Sun reported that Hearts midfielder Ian Black had taken on casual work as a painter and decorator to pay for his children’s Christmas presents. It was perhaps the most evocative example so far of the current turmoil at Scotland’s third biggest club. For three consecutive months, the players’ wages have not been paid on time. Their October wages weren’t paid until weeks after they were due, and their November pay arrived in their accounts a month late. At the time of writing they are still waiting for their December pay.