It's not the identity of the new Liverpool manager that concerns John Williams most at present – it's more the prospect of the club losing its own identity in a dash for cash
To say that it has been an eventful recent few weeks as a supporter and observer of Liverpool is a little like saying Dennis Wise could have more friends in the game or that Porto’s José Mourinho could think a little better of himself. Let’s recap.
Which would you choose, Brighton or Moscow? As Julian Daniels reports, the former Manchester United winger opted for the latter and he will probably be regretting it now
When Andrei Kanchelskis signed a one-year-deal with Dinamo Moscow in January, he was instantly named club captain. It seemed like his nine-month exile from the game had ended in style. However, within weeks it had turned into a nightmare.
A half-time team-talk is maybe all that was needed to save this play from what, on the evidence of it's first-half showing, looked to be a thrashing at the hands of the critics. Barney Ronay explains why
Some things have no place in football. These include racism, violence and the theatre. Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, Roy Williams’ new play at the National Theatre, is effectively two separate plays in two acts. The first is about football and is terrible. All the action takes place in a south London pub. It’s a convincing reproduction, down to the red-patterned carpet and Sunday roast for £3.75. The only false note is the cluster of young professionals sitting at the tables, although these turn out to be members of the audience roped in to the set.
It's quite a coincidence – a film about hooliganism has come out just before Euro 2004. David Stubbs finds barely a redeeming feature in people who really should know better
As evidence of the mindset of fevered gormlessness in which this film was forged, director Nick Love says he wanted to make a film about the white working-class men “who make up 70 per cent of this country”. That demographic howler speaks more about a disproportionate fascination with hooliganism, its camaraderie, its violence, its blood and honour, than about reality, about which The Football Factory proudly says next to nothing.
What is the easiest route into management? Ask Claude Anelka, who has just bought Scottish First Division side Raith Rovers. Neil White looks at what to expect from the club's new manager/owner/benefactor
A dangerous precedent has been set at Raith Rovers. Where once wealthy investors were content with puppeteering from the boardroom, the Scottish First Division club have let their latest benefactor into the dugout. And this is no ordinary benefactor. This is Claude Anelka, the brother of Nicolas and the man much vilified for his role in brokering the £22 million deal that took his sibling from Arsenal to Real Madrid in 1999. Since then, Claude has flitted between homes in London and Miami, before deciding that true happiness lies in the sleepy Fife town of Kirkcaldy.