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.

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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Stockport County have been reaping the benefits of breaking into the Chinese market and developing contacts in the more isolated western provinces, as Hugh Wilson writes

Everybody wants a piece of the Chinese market these days, but Stockport County are not perhaps the most obvious candidates to exploit European football’s global popularity. Still, while Man­chester United and Real Madrid have concentrated their brand-building activities on the big cities and eastern seaboard, County have been quietly developing contacts in China’s more isolated western provinces. In these regions – and this may come as something of a surprise to the Edgeley Park faithful – County are the most respected European club side of them all.

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