An assessment of the likely winners and losers in Scotland in 1997/98 – no prizes for guessing the former
ABERDEEN
Keith Davidson
How will your team do this season? With Celtic having a complete shake-up over the close season, perhaps second, although the general view from the Scottish press is fourth.
John Williams of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research previews some of the main findings of the 1997 Carling Premiership survey due to be published next month
You know that smug Carling poster ad, with the guy with his head in his hands contemplating the message of his son’s catastrophic defection to (gulp) rugby? The words a father most dreads hearing? Forget it. Much worse is to learn that your offspring has resisted the obvious charms of your own footballing heroes for another football club.
Roger Titford analyses your replies to our annual readers' survey from WSC No 126
With the help of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research we have analyzed the first 800 odd questionnaires to come back. So, without further ado, here’s what a hundred focus groups-worth of you had to say.
Believe it or not, some English footballers ply their trade in China. Alistair Berg looks are the select few to make the journey to te newly professional league
The Revolving Palace Hotel in Foshan has an English resident. An array of sports clothes, sweatshirts and shorts are hanging out to dry in his room where the main focus of attention is Star TV, the Murdoch corporation’s Asian satellite, whose numerous football programmes are studied with professional interest. John Pickup, a former League professional at Wigan and Chester, is one of two foreign footballers, the other a Cameroonian, playing with Foshan football club, currently eleventh in the Chinese second division.
China could qualify for the World Cup, and Haydn Parry credits their success to their surprise training schedule in England
A balmy morning in Mitcham, deepest South London, and the air is punctuated by coarse groans in Cantonese. This is the training ground of Crystal Palace, the latest stop in a very low profile, ten-day tour of England by the International squad of the People’s Republic of China. The game behind closed doors is not going well – two-nil down at halftime to a fresh faced bunch of ‘Eaglets’ keen to impress Steve Coppell, who is pacing the sidelines.