While seen as a grudge match in England, Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger reports on the Germans' relaxed attitude towards their supposed rivals

As usual, the best lines all came from the Eng­lish. After the draw put England in the same group as Germany for the second time in five days (first the World Cup qualifiers, then the Euro 2000 finals), Kevin Keegan approached the German manager Erich Ribbeck and quip­ped: “Looks like we’ll be growing old to­gether.” And the Sun came up with: “If we get the Ger­mans a third time, can we keep them?” (Con­sidering their track record, I’m not quite sure how they meant this, but it sounds good.)

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Have Man Utd and its staff become more important than the actual Championship itself?

Manchester United’s participation in the “world club championship” in Brazil this month might have been designed to make a point about the unhealthy imbalance between the English champions and every other club in the land.

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Wednesday 1 Holders Spurs slink out of the Worthington Cup at Fulham, their 3-1 defeat described by George Graham as "by far our worst performance since I became manager". A crowd of 17,000 sees Aston Villa trounce Southampton 4-0. "The crowds have been crap because we've played crap until tonight," says the forthright John Gregory. In the Scottish equivalent Rangers' mini-crisis continues with an extra-time defeat at Aberdeen (yes, Aberdeen). Huddersfield threaten legal action against the Football League for referee Jeff Winter's failure to award a penalty during their Worthington match against Wimbledon. That'll work. Darlington are the lucky losers drawn to play at Villa in the third round of the FA Cup. "I have a direct line to the big man upstairs," says their safe-cracking chairman. The government rejects plans for the new Wembley, on the grounds that it would not be able to stage major athletics tournaments as well as football matches.

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Some of WSC's regular contributors give their views on 1999 and their hopes for football in the new millennium

Harry Pearson
Ups
The return of Juninho.
Des Lynam’s move to ITV. The adverts mean we get less of his banter.
Alan Shearer’s public persona. A comedic tour de force combining the best of Victor Meldrew and Harry Enfield’s teenager. Every time I see his face I just crease up.

Downs
Paul Gas­coigne’s appearance as a sub v Chelsea. Sad and ­irritating in equal measure. And that was just his hairstyle. Continued ranting about foreign players and the pernicious effect their presence is having on our national team. As if England have never been useless before now. The media’s barrel-scraping attempts to fill hours of airtime and acres of newsprint with England v Scotland build-up. Sending a reporter to Hampden Park, Eastbourne.

Hope for 2000
Someone high up at the FA to slap his forehead one morning and say, “I’ve got it! Why don’t we stop the Premiership wages spiral by putting a cap on admission prices!”

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Liverpool's decline in the 1990s is often blamed on one man, but John Tandy sees it differently

The myth goes something like this: Liverpool’s astonishing success was based on blending continuity and evolution. Gra­eme Souness smashed the club’s traditions and left it in a tattered state from which it has never recovered. 

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