After a few turbulent months Blackburn fans seem to have a cause for optimism again, as Phil Crossley reports

Sometime between the end of Euro ’96 and late October we were led to believe that the world had fallen apart for Blackburn Rovers. Within a matter of weeks we had contrived to part company with the ‘dream team’ which won us the title. First our talisman, Billy Bigpockets, the man to whom it does not matter who scores (as long as it’s not any of the ten makeweights in the side), closely followed by King Ken, fed up with sorting out away travel arrangements for the reserves for five grand a week. When ‘Laughing’ Ray Harford decided that enough was enough as we floundered at the bottom of the division, we were told that the game was up. 

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Julie Pritchard considers the likely outcome of the power struggle at Nottingham Forest

There’s an old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”, and 1996 was never boring for Forest fans. We’ve gone from the hope, and humiliation, of the UEFA Cup Quarter-Final v Bayern Munich, to being everyone’s favourites for relegation, pausing only to challenge Manchester City for the title of Joke Team of British Football.

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In the wake of the television recreation od the day of the Hillsborough disaster, Rogan Taylor explains why the families of the deceased want a new public enquiry

Hillsborough won‘t go away. Nearly eight years after that fateful day which took the lives of ninety-six football fans, it is still a burning issue.Welcome fuel was added to the fire before Christmas with the transmission of Jimmy McGovern’s powerful film about the tragedy and its aftermath.

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Villa's autocratic chairman, as seen by Brad Woodhouse

Distinguishing Features: Aside from the Mr Whippy wavy quiff (and a faint air of campness), he looks like any other 73 year-old self-made West Midlands businessman – rotund, besuited, drives a Rolls Royce with personalized number plate (AV 1).

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On the first anniversary of the Bosman judgement, Tim Springett wonders whether English football is fully aware of what effects the case may still have

It is a year since Jean-Marc Bosman obtained judgment at the European Court of Justice to the effect that transfer fees for footballers signing for clubs in other European Union states at the end of their contracts were in contravention of European Union law. At the time there were many who predicted disaster; it was seen as a further seismic shift in the balance of power in favour of the richest clubs, placing the very survival of smaller outfits in jeopardy.

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