Thursday 1 After a week of indecision Martin O’Neill finally takes over at Celtic, saying: “You would be mad to think you could repeat what Jock Stein did, but I am mad.” Steve Walsh is to apply for the Leicester vacancy, with Tony Cottee as his assistant. Somehow you expect them to be turned down. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink joins Chelsea for, ulp, £15 million and declares: “I am going to give 100 per cent, but will that be enough?” Libya’s gold reserves may be under threat after it is announced that Terry Venables is the preferred choice to succeed Carlos Bilardo as national coach.
Ian Plenderleith investigates the best and worst websites offering 'sidesways glances' to the game
If you think Private Eye’s satire on the travails of Neasden FC and its two top fans Sid and Doris Bonkers ran out of steam around 20 years ago, then try the new, strictly non-profit, online fanzine All The Pies. It’s punchy, semi-anarchic, and has the potential, you feel, to get funnier.
Gary Oliver looks at Airdrie, a middle-ranking Scottish club caught between the Premier League and oblivion
Airdrieonians manager Gary Mackay described Wednesday June 14 as his “worst day in 20 years of football”. From a man who spent most of that period playing for ill-fated Hearts sides, that is quite a statement. For Mackay, the miseries of losing titles, finals and semis were seemingly preferable to telling 27 of his 30 players that a liquidator had made them redundant.
Scotland's middle-ranking clubs are caught between the Premier League and oblivion, says Frank Plowright
Since last mentioned in WSC 140, Morton’s property developing chairman Hugh Scott has indulged in a breathtaking series of outbursts, outrages and tantrums, which eventually became so hard to ignore that it prompted a Scottish parliamentary debate on June 15.
South Yorkshire's clubs can learn from the trials of their rugby league neighbours. Dick Roebuck reports
Somewhere along the A61 connecting Barnsley with Wakefield there is a disruption in the sports-time continuum. Things are similar but not the same. This is the frontier between football and rugby league, a Checkpoint Charlie dividing the sporting affections of Yorkshire’s working classes.