Nottingham Forest have lost another manager and are playing their worst football of most fans’ lifetimes. Al Needham looks around frantically for signs of hope

When Joe Kinnear accused the supporters of Nottingham Forest of living in a time warp last month after resigning as manager, it was hard to deny that he had a point. After all, fans in pubs, factories and offices across the city have done little else this season than casting their minds back and trying to remember a Forest team as uniformly lamentable as the current one. The relegation teams of 1993, ’97 or ’99? The Matt Gillies-Dave Mackay-Allan Brown era of the early 70s, when Forest trod water in the old Second Division?

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For the second times in four years, Southampton have replaced a boss with no experience with a big noise. Tim Springett reports on some strange parallels

Unexpected as Harry Redknapp’s swift defection from Portsmouth to their nearest and bitterest rivals might have appeared, Southampton fans had a sense of déjà vu. The wheel began turning in the sum­mer of 2001 as Saints were moving into the St Mary’s Stadium, mortgaged up to the hilt and at risk of severe financial consequences if things were to go wrong on the field. Glenn Hoddle had deserted a few months earlier and a new manager was needed. What would have been on chairman Rupert Lowe’s mind at such a pivotal moment in the club’s history?

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The appointment of a big-name Argentine manager has created rare excitement at Oxford, though Martin Brodetsky is not sure that he will entirely enjoy the ride

It was arguably the most surprising managerial appointment of the season so far. Ramón Díaz has a CV that would put most Premiership managers’ to shame: five times Argentine champions with River Plate, plus a Copa Libertadores win thrown in, after a very impressive playing record. Indeed, one some­what spurious web site (www.world-coach.com) ranked him the third best coach in the world (after compatriot Carlos Bianchi and Louis van Gaal), so it’s no wonder that the football world raised its collective eyebrows when news broke of his appointment as Oxford manager on December 9.

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Ron Atkinson may be apologetic his infamous faux pas, but as David Stubbs writes, he isn't exactly convincing

“Whatever happened to forgiveness?” asked Ron Atkinson in plaintive response to a verbal pounding from Darcus Howe on Adrian Chiles’s documentary What Ron Said (BBC1, December 13). Howe was lambasting Atkinson for his infamous off-microphone outburst regarding Marcel Desailly, whom he dubbed “a fucking thick lazy nigger.” Howe suggested that Atkinson should be made to clean Rio Ferdinand’s boots for ten weeks, which Atkinson protested was “out of order”.

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Paul Casella of fanzine The Lion Roars believes that Millwall fans are used to false accusations being made against the club, but a recent article in the Sun took the level of misrepresentation to new levels

As the nearest club to Wapping, a disproportionate amount of senior newspaper journalists visit The Den on a regular basis. It is not rare for the press box to see stars of stage and screen; or at least, stars of Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement. Indeed, judging by the amount of media coverage, Millwall are by far and away the “biggest” club that has 10,000 fans in the country.

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