Howard Pattison goes in search of football heritage and asks why more blue plaques aren’t awarded to players
In 1999 the writer Hunter Davies asked: “Why are there no blue plaques for footballers?” Over a decade on, they are still so rare that you begin to wonder if those who administer our heritage simply don’t see football as being part of it. Surely Bobby Moore is worthy of a blue plaque?
Simon Hart looks back at the 1980s experiment that was the Screensport Super Cup
Football loves its anniversaries but not even the most nostalgic-minded supporters are likely to dwell for too long on the Screensport Super Cup, the ill-conceived substitute for European football that began its short life 25 years ago this autumn.
Owen Amos uncovers the facts surrounding Lee Trundle’s mysterious move Welsh Premier League side Neath
When Lee Trundle was released by Bristol City in May, he was expected to stay in the Football League. This, after all, was a forward with 118 league goals in 320 games. Indeed, Trundle was a million-pound striker: three years earlier, he’d moved from Swansea to Bristol for seven figures. But, despite offers from Swindon, Tranmere, Yeovil and Newport, he signed for Neath in the Welsh Premier League, a club with an average gate of 221. Trundle, the showboating star of Soccer AM, probably gets bigger crowds for his book signings (Lee Trundle, More Than Just Tricks – £16.99 in hardback if you’re interested).
Al Needham gets nostalgic over a clash of two sides still hoping to return to a time of former glories
I don’t mean to bang on about the past, but this fixture really brings it out in me. Forest v Ipswich was the first game I ever went to, on October 4, 1977. I stood as a nine-year-old in the Trent End with Ian Marriott and his dad, gasping at the sight of the blues and reds merging with the green, floodlit pitch – just like the picture on the Subbuteo box that I’d just got from him in exchange for an Action Man (in one of those undersized tanks, where his arms hung over the side) – my head fizzing as Kenny Burns, Peter Shilton and Viv Anderson ran about in front of me just like they did on the telly.
With chairmen often criticised over unjust sackings, Adam Bate asks if managers are actually being given more time than they deserve
On October 18, Steve Gibson accepted Gordon Strachan’s resignation as manager of Middlesbrough. The Championship season was just 11 games old. It is the second October in succession that the Boro chairman has overseen a change of manager. This may lead some to question Gibson’s long-established reputation as the most patient chairman in English football. In truth, could he perhaps be guilty of that little mentioned phenomenon – changing the manager too late.