Fergie very nearly lost his job before any of his league titles. But as Ashley Shaw informs us, he was saved by the Palace
Let’s hope Sir Alex Ferguson enjoys his 20th anniversary a good deal more than his third. Back in 1989 the knives were out after an horrific start to the season, which included a notorious derby defeat and an early exit to Spurs in the League Cup.
Alex Ferguson has achieved so much in his two decades at Old Trafford – but what happened to the club he left behind? Keith Davidson charts how Aberdeen were undone by Old Firm cash
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Alex Ferguson’s move to Manchester United, so it’s a safe bet that newspapers and television will be full of glowing features, plus the odd dour analysis of whether he has outstayed his welcome. Few will dwell on the club that Fergie left behind, or what has happened to it over the last couple of decades, but the subsequent fate of Aberdeen does chime in with wider changes in Scottish football.
Southend have been on the up under Steve Tilson and hope to abandon their Roots in search of more success. But the visitors for this pseudo-derby also have a manager anxious to make an impression, Csaba Abrahall reports
In The Football Grounds of Great Britain, Simon Inglis paints a romantic picture of the rebirth of Roots Hall as a football stadium in the 1950s. With funding provided by the supporters’ club and labour by the players and manager, it rose out of the rubbish dump that sat on the site previously used by the club before the First World War. Fifty years on, it is not without its shortcomings. Parking’s a bugger and it has a shabby, disjointed exterior, but it’s easy to overlook these inadequacies in the light of such an uncommon history.
The lovable chaps at the G-14 have a new, familiar face in charge. Steve Menary wonders whether David Dein will preside over a winning team or is resigned to fighting a rearguard action.
Anyone confident of winning a court case would not start publicly discussing a settlement a year before they were due in court. Yet that is what David Dein began doing on taking over as president of the G-14 group of clubs in late October. G-14 are backing Charleroi’s case against FIFA for €615,000 (£413,000) compensation for an injury Abdelmajid Oulmers suffered while playing for Morocco in 2004. He took eight months to return to action for the Belgian club. G-14 also threw their weight behind an action by one of their own members, Lyon, for €1 million in compensation from FIFA over an injury to France defender Eric Abidal in a friendly last year.
When countries had only one European Cup entrant, the UEFA Cup commanded attention. All that seemed to change. But, asks Luke Chapman, is the junior competition now the less predictable one?
Two years ago, after a defensive display in Turin earned Liverpool a place in the semi-finals of the Champions League, a radio reporter light-heartedly asked a Reds fan what was more important: winning the European Cup or ensuring qualification for the competition next year. “Hmm,” pondered the supporter, apparently in all seriousness, “that’s a tough one."