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Too often, a book about one season at a club suffers from being out of date the moment it is published. It no doubt upsets John Williams no end that Liverpool are the same gutless and passionate, half-decent and diabolical, outdated and forward-thinking collection of skilled players and hopeless ones that they were in 2002-03.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.
Red Devils fan Ashley Shaw considers the problems facing Manchester United, with the help of a recent book
The decline of Manchester United has never been more apparent. The club’s hegemony is challenged on and off the pitch by richer rivals and would seem to have all but disappeared following the recent loss of key personnel at all levels. When one factors in the date with calamity suggested by the civil case brought by the manager against the largest shareholder and the continuing spat with the Football Association over Rio Ferdinand’s memory lapse, it seems harder not to reach for cliche and file United under “club in crisis”.
Winston Bogarde has picked up a £2.1m annual salary at Stamford Bridge without playing a game since December 2000. Ernst Bouwes met Dutch football's forgotten man
In the week when Dutch football was in a state of panic – there were serious doubts that we could beat Scotland – a new TV sports programme, Wachten op Holland Sport, had a remarkable item. Host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk praised Winston Bogarde, said he should be back in Dick Advocaat’s squad and recounted the depressing situation Bogarde is in at Chelsea. “Bogarde is a forgotten hero,” said Van Nieuwkerk.
As a survey reveals the extraordinary sums the game has paid some people for doing very little, Barney Ronay hopes one man can be persuaded to put a little back
As Woody Allen once said, money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. English football currently has both in equal measures: the League is rife with talk of exactly how many clubs are toting around life-threatening debts; meanwhile, the Sunday Times Pay List 2003, published last month, reveals that, of the 500 best-paid individuals in the United Kingdom, 56 made their money from football, 44 of them players.