Adam Powley pays tribute to Tottenham's greatest-ever manager, Bill Nicholson
The death of an 85-year-old man, after a full and productive life punctuated with sporting success and unchallengeable achievement, is not a tragedy. Yet Bill Nicholson’s passing has been much lamented by Tottenham fans – understandably so, for the reaction to Nicholson’s life speaks volumes not only for the esteem in which he is held, but also for the way it symbolises the end of an era.
Manchester Utd and Arsenal play out yet another ill-tempered game
“That game, with the baggage that goes with it, is almost becoming an impossible match to referee, and I speak from personal experience.” So said former Premiership referee Jeff Winter after the latest outbreak of hostilities between two implacably opposed foes, an event also known as Man Utd v Arsenal.
The death of Nottingham's "surrogate dad" still hasn't sunk in, writes Al Needham
It goes without saying that Brian Clough was the greatest manager ever, but to the people of Nottingham and Derby it ran much deeper than that. He put us on the map and gave us a reason to be proud of where we came from. Kids from Nottingham were not supposed to see their club win the League, go to Wembley more times than to Skegness, see their club wearing nasty jumpers on Top of the Pops, hold up the European Cup in their Dad's local, or listen under the sheets at 3am to them playing in Tokyo. For anyone in Nottingham between the ages of 30 and 45, Brian Clough was responsible for some of the happiest moments of our childhood. And, despite what anyone else thinks, underneath the media bluster he was a really nice bloke: Nottingham's surrogate dad.
Caroline Bailey was dancing in the streets of East Anglia in May and hasn't given up hopes of a repeat performance
Picture a golden evening in May. Fifty thousand people, drunk on unaccustomed success, are clinging precariously to phone boxes and lamp posts as an open-top bus, its passengers playing pass-the-parcel with the First Division trophy, inches into view. With Premiership football to look forward to for the first time in almost a decade, it’s easy to believe, as grown men weep openly around you, that this is just the beginning.
Regardless of how West Bromwich Albion fare in the Premiership this season, Neil Reynolds explains why the rocky ground between manager Gary Megson and chairman Jeremy Peace doesn't necessarily mean a sacking is on the cards
Gary Megson took over as manager of West Bromwich Albion on March 9, 2000 and saved the club from relegation back to Division Two; in his next season he got them to the play-offs. Automatic promotion to the Premiership came 12 months on, followed by not unexpected relegation and automatic promotion again last season. That’s an impressive record over the past four years, plus he’s young and he’s English. So how can there possibly be any doubt over his future?