Jan Molby was loved at Swansea but Huw Richards documents how his reign as manager was ended
The sacking of Jan Molby under-lines what we already suspected about the new owners of Swansea City – they are either brave, daft or both. You must be to take over a Third Division football club, and you certainly have to be to then sack an authentic folk-hero.
Jozef Venglos was expected to bring glory to Villa on the basis that he was continental, but David Wangerin remembers how it never quite worked out for him
Jozef Venglos was manager of the best Villa side I’ve ever seen. For ninety minutes, anyway. That delightful October evening in 1990 when we inexplicably smashed Inter Milan into little pieces and scattered them across our pitch remains the most captivating game of football I’ve witnessed. It still seems inconceivable – trouncing a collection of Europe’s finest with a team captained by Stuart Gray. Surely no run-of-the-mill manager could ever have orchestrated it.
Phil Dorward looks at the impact of Ivan Golac, one of the first foreigners to manage a football club on these shores
When Ivan Golac was sacked as manager of Dundee United in March 1995 he returned to his native Yugoslavia to buy a chocolate factory. It was totally in keeping with the events of the previous two years: Golac realised the dream of winning the Scottish Cup, United’s first victory in seven attempts, before dispensing with tactics and getting United relegated the next season. In essence, Golac was a pseudo European manager, chocolate being the only continental thing he ever produced.
Injuries can not only end careers, but can also affect a former player's life afterwards. Ashley Shaw looks at the legal action taken by Ian Knight after his livelihood was taken away by a bad tackle
When a player suffered a career ending injury in the Good Old Days the options left open to him were fairly well defined. Almost automatically he would be forced to seek alternative employment – some opened pubs, others ended up cleaning windows, some even went into management. No one in their right mind would even contemplate taking a fellow pro to court – it just wasn’t done and besides there was little money in it.
England managed to defend better than the Italians in their recent encounter, but Cris Freddi doesn't think this approach is new
Judging from some of the press reaction, here and in Italy, to England’s tactics in Rome, you’d think some kind of genuine sea change had taken place. The Italians seemed almost dumbstruck that an England team could play that way, so defensively, like an Italian team. But it’s been happening, on and off, for over thirty years. Does the name Ramsey mean anything to them?