Portsmouth appoint yet another new chairman as financial crisis looms
October ended well for Portsmouth with back-to-back 4-0 wins, against Stoke in the Carling Cup and Wigan in the League. They had seemed to be certainties for relegation after losing their first seven matches but on present form may have a good chance of hauling themselves away from the bottom three. While Paul Hart’s team were reviving their season, they acquired a new chairman.
Jon McLeod looks back on the season Liverpool were last crowned champions of England.
The long-term significance
Tremors that would come to shape the landscape of English football were felt in 1989-90. UEFA announced that clubs would be readmitted to European competition following a five-year ban due to the Heysel disaster, while Aston Villa appointed the first foreign manager in the English top flight when Jozef Venglos replaced England-bound Graham Taylor at the end of the season. Liverpool claimed their last title to date and Alex Ferguson dodged the bullet at Man Utd.
Dear WSC
In WSC 272 Jonathan O’Brien finds it remarkable that Celtic’s Bertie Auld “straightfacedly asserts that beating Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup final in 1965 was more important than the title win a year later”. But Auld is not alone in his assertion. No less a man than Jock Stein said in the Dunfermline history Black and White Magic: “It wouldn’t have gone as well for Celtic had they not won this game.” The Celtic history The Glory and the Dream also notes: “The largest framed photograph in [Stein’s] office at Celtic Park showed Billy McNeill borne aloft at the end of the match.”Celtic had won nothing since “the 7-1 game”, a freakish League Cup final triumph over Rangers in 1957. So this win, Stein’s first trophy seven weeks after officially becoming manager, stopped a rot which was threatening to turn Celtic into also-rans in Scotland. Without it the Lisbon Lions may never have been and there may only ever have been one “nine-in-a-row” in Scottish football. And that would never do.
Mark Murphy, Chessington
Cameron Carter has had unhappy experiences of following football on licenced premises
Since BSkyB lured us into their gloomed interiors in 1992, pubs have become stand-ins for the old football grounds, somewhere we can still stand or wander about the place and drink lager. Some of the time, the noise and body warmth mimic the atmosphere of a live game, but there are too many reminders that, actually, you are merely in a pub – and not your favourite one – watching television.
Having suffered in cricket's long shadow, Indian football has a big test in 2011. Siddharth Saxena examines the problems
As Bob Houghton made a last-minute mental check before leaving the Barcelona hotel lobby for India’s final practice game in nearby Girona, a steward caught his eye. “I’ll leave a jersey for you when we return,” said the Indian coach. It was packing-up time and promises for souvenirs made over the course of the stay had to be kept.