Hampden Park's refurbishment has been expensive, unwanted and left Queens Park struggling for survival. Gary Oliver reports

Critics deride the project as having been profligate, ostentatious and a monument to vanity – not the Millennium Dome, but refurbished Hampden Park, which has begun the new century facing another financial crisis. The transformed 52,000-capacity ground continues to be owned by Third Division Queen’s Park and its rebuilding was administered by a subsidiary of the club, National Stadium plc. However, a three-year £65 million makeover has left the amateur club crippled by debt.

Read more…

Dave Jones has been replaced for a year as Southampton manager by Glenn Hoddle. The move has been marketed as an opportunity for Jones to take time out and clear his name. Tim Springett is unconvinced

The removal of Dave Jones from the manager’s job at Southampton has been described in various quarters as a compassionate move. Jones’s trial on 17 alleged offences against chil­dren arising from his employment as a social wor­ker a decade ago has been set to begin on Nov­ember 27. A club statement on January 28 in­dicated that Jones had been given 12 months’ leave of absence to prepare his defence, during which time Glenn Hoddle would be keeping the manager’s chair warm for him.

Read more…

A peculiarly British arrogance is at play over the release of players for the African Nations Cup

The African Nations Cup has been in existence for over 40 years, making it slightly older than the European Championship. Until very recently, this biennial competition has received almost no media coverage here. Now, however, vir­tually every column on the sports pages has something to say about the effect it is having on the English season.

Read more…

Monday 3 “Man Utd will be laughing in Brazil,” says David O’Leary as Gareth Southgate scores the Villa goals that beat Leeds 2-1 at Elland Road, while Arsenal are held to a draw at Sheffield Wed and Sunderland lose 1-0 at Wimbledon, where the officials fail to spot Nicky Summerbee being elbowed in the face by Ben Thatcher in the build-up to the game’s only goal. Branko Strupar, the Belgian Croat, scores the first Premiership goal of the 21st century and adds a second as Derby sink Watford deeper into trouble. Southampton move three points clear of third-bottom Bradford after beating them 1-0. The Nigerian FA will demand that Arsenal be dismissed from this season’s FA Cup if they refuse to let Kanu join his country’s African Nations Cup squad until after next weekend’s tie with Leicester.

Read more…

The internet is not just for the younger generation. Football managers are learning to embrace it, as Jamie Rainbow found out

The League Managers Association have created a useful website for their members. One outstanding ­feature is a service for unemployed coaches, enabling them to display their CVs (or in the case of Ian Atkins, their ­autobiography) to any potential employers. Atkins’s playing and managerial career are reproduced in painstaking detail – although one wonders whether his time spent playing for Shrewsbury in the late 1970s will have much bearing on his ability to manage a football club successfully today. Nor are his credentials much enhanced by telling us that: “Holding off the challenge of some of the game’s best known faces, I secured the job of manager at Doncaster Rovers.”

Read more…