The FA’s recent history is just one long club versus country row, as the new chief executive has soon discovered. Simon Tindall wonders if Mark Palios can ever bring peace
One year on from the resignation of Adam Crozier, the new Football Association chief executive, Mark Palios, is ensnared in the same eternal triangle that besets English football – the relationship between the top clubs, the top players and the England team.
Well, United, anyway. Oh, and it’s a city. Darren Fletcher reports on how Mr Fry has extended his control of Peterborough but has also responded to his many critics
For years Posh fans have winced at media references to “Barry Fry’s Peterborough United”. But finally the term has some credence as he now owns 99.6 per cent of the club, becoming the first English football manager to double up as owner. In April this year, former owner Peter Boizot finally sold his stake to a consortium funded by Colin Hill, a property developer, and led by former chairman Alf Hand. The deal went through in 24 hours and was passed off to supporters as Posh being saved from those who sought to make a fast buck from redeveloping the London Road site.
For clubs in trouble, bringing the fans on board can help stabilise a crisis and renew confidence. Ken Gall reports on the experiences at the Sixfields Stadium and Tannadice
In a world of Russian billionaires, Franchise FC and “living the dream”, it’s not hard to see why greater supporter involvement in the boardrooms of UK clubs is to be desired. The rise of the supporters’ trust movement and the arrival of fans – elected or otherwise – as directors has been a welcome development and one of the few beneficial consequences of the financial shambles that is UK football.
Liverpool seem bedevilled by uncertainty. Reds fan Robert Fordham wonders why
Too often, a book about one season at a club suffers from being out of date the moment it is published. It no doubt upsets John Williams no end that Liverpool are the same gutless and passionate, half-decent and diabolical, outdated and forward-thinking collection of skilled players and hopeless ones that they were in 2002-03. It certainly upsets me.
Jon Spurling examines what's afoot at Arsenal in the light of some new books
In recent months, there has been a growing feeling among Arsenal fans that the club has slipped into a “house of cards” existence. The Glorious Game, Alex Fynn’s latest tome – co-written with The Gooner’s Kevin Whitcher – does little to assuage those fears. One is left feeling that if a single ace in the pack, namely Arsène Wenger, Patrick Vieira, or Thierry Henry, were to depart – or if the proposed move from Highbury is mishandled – then the whole fragile edifice could come crashing down. As an analysis of Arsenal’s current status in English football – and a portend of things to come – The Glorious Game is as good as it gets. Granted unprecedented access to David Dein, youth development officer Liam Brady and most intriguingly Wenger himself, the interviews with the club’s prime movers and shakers reveal a great deal.