Dear WSC
There’s something that’s puzzling me about this year’s title race. In every previous season when Manchester United have been trailing by a stack of points Alex Ferguson has talked about the opposition “doing a Devon Loch”. This season he hasn’t mentioned that unfortunate horse once, though. It’s almost as if he’s lost all enthusiasm for racing.
Chris Front, Redcar
It's often said that football has gone soft. However Philip Cornwall not only approves of that but believes the whole history of the game has been one of taming the back line
A brisk walk from The Valley is the home of a rugby side often known simply as Club. But while they are hardly giants of any game now and have never played Charlton Athletic, Blackheath’s role in the history of rugby and also football is a crucial one – had they not stood up for the rights of defenders, who knows what either game would be like today.
Bury are dropping through the leagues and fast. Chris Bainbridge explains why his club are struggling so badly, and how the somehow managed to avoid relegation to the Conference this term
Bury have had a dramatic decline in the past three years or so. What are the main reasons for this?
Money, money and money – a lack of it. Bury’s surge to Division One was bankrolled by millionaire stockbroker Hugh Eaves, but then he got caught up in a scandal. We were forced to sell a raft of good players (such as Dean Kiely, Paul Butler and David Johnson) just to keep going. Two relegations and a spell in administration later, we’re now well on the way to rebuilding ourselves as a community-based club through the “Forever Bury” supporters’ trust. But we now know through bitter experience the dangers of relying on one person. Chelsea beware…
It's not just the English who have trouble with players breaking curfew or wayward young stars, writes Justin McCurry
Though the media spotlight was firmly on the squad of Japan players preparing for their second World Cup qualifying match, away to Singapore at the end of March, it was difficult not to think, too, of the players who had been left behind. Their omission was not down to injury, poor form, family crises or intransigent club managers, but a badly timed bout of the “English disease” of training-camp indiscipline.
The retirement at 27 of the former Republic of Ireland starlet leaves Dave Hannigan wondering how someone so injury-prone and arrogant could be strangely likeable
Nothing became Keith O’Neill quite like the manner of his leaving. The last line of the statement he issued when announcing his departure from Coventry City last October read: “I retire content that I have had the opportunity to play football for the greatest nation in the world.” Thirteen times he represented Ireland and on 25 more occasions he pulled out of the squad through injury. His parting shot (did the football world really need an official press release about his status?) was so grandiose it was actually charming, and arguably the perfect metaphor for the 27-year-old’s career. O’Neill always talked a lot better game than his injury-prone body ever allowed him to play.