The sudden departure of the best-known vice chairman in football is likely to prove a case of ‘au revoir’ rather than goodbye. Jon Spurling looks at the long-term fault lines that have broken open and considers what a David Dein comeback on the coat-tails of Stanley Kroenke would mean for Arsenal

“It’s dead money,” claimed Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood, after sugar importer David Dein invested £290,250 in the club in 1983. The Gunners’ former vice chairman, whose stake in the club is now worth an estimated £60 million, has had an occasionally strained relationship with Hill-Wood, who is also chairman of Hambros bank: opposite forces of tradition and new-right economics have effectively been running on slowly converging lines at Arsenal for a quarter of a century.

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Creating your own entertainment while watching a football match is a major part of the experience. Unfortunately, Howard Pattison finds he is increasingly unable to do so

It’s probably asking too much, but if Exeter City were to achieve promotion this season, I should like them to do so without scoring another goal in the process. At least then I wouldn’t have to be subjected to the sound of Freddie Mercury shrieking Don’t Stop Me Now, which he is apt to do whenever the ball hits the net. However, it seems unlikely that a series of goalless draws will be sufficient to secure a place in the play-offs. And it is even less probable that they would be successful in these without scoring at least a single goal. (I’ve yet to discover if the controller of the PA system will insist on playing Queen records during a penalty shootout.)

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Dan Brennan looks back at the antics of the hot-headed former Rangers player. Until his move to Russia, no SPL player could rest easy, not to mention the Glaswegian suburbs

Last summer, Dutch midfielder Fernando Ricksen checked himself into the Sporting Chance clinic, a rehab centre founded by Tony Adams, for help with his drink problem and with “anger management”.

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Football in Mexico has recently enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with another great national passion. This is now under severe threat. Martin del Palacio Langer explains

When, in March, the International Board – FIFA’s rule making body – banned players from wearing masks during matches, the footballing world barely batted an eyelid. After all, only a couple of players had ever done it in international matches, notably Ecuadorian Iván Kaviedes at the 2006 World Cup.

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Five years ago a brand new stadium arrived in Darlington, even if Faustino Asprilla didn’t. This visit of play-off contenders to play-off hopefuls reveals a lot about life in League Division Two. Ian Plenderleith was there too

South Korea and Portugal built a number of stadiums for major international football tournaments that now sit underused and half-empty on match days, but at least they had their World Cup and Euro days in the sun. In Darlington, the 25,000-seat 96.6 TFM Arena has never been full to capacity and it probably never will be. It’s destined to spend its days under the eternal grey clouds of ­England’s fourth division.

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