Gary McAllister has been asked to come up with some ideas to revive Coventry on a zero budget. Neville Hadsley is impressed so far, but not quite won over

When Gary McAllister walked into the job of player-man­ager at Highfield Road, he came with plenty of baggage from his last stint with the Sky Blues – and acquired a few awkward bits of hand-luggage left be­hind by his immediate predecessors too. His time as a player had not been an unalloyed success: two med­i­ocre seasons (the rest of the team arguably as much at fault as he); another spent injured – no crime there, but hardly a plus point; and a final season in which, thanks bizarrely to a partnership with Carlton Palmer, he performed so brilliantly that he earned him­self a free transfer to Liverpool.

Read more…

Suddenly, the midlands is full of financially stricken First Division clubs. Peter Gutteridge tries to isolate the reasons for Derby's spectacular plunge

Rams fans can tell you that rock bottom does not ex­ist. No matter how far you sink there is plenty of room to sink deeper. Derby County are a reported £30 million in debt and the bank is feeding in cash through an intravenous drip. We can’t even sign non-contract players un­til we have reduced the wage bill. We can’t reduce the wage bill because the transfer market is dead and we can’t release players because we can’t pay off their con­tracts. Rumour has it that two takeover bids and one refinancing package are under discussion. In four seas­ons we have progressed from the top half of the Premiership to relegation and the fringes of administration.

Read more…

With China beckoning, Paula Cocozza checks on the development of England's feminine side

When the whistle blew on England’s 1-0 win over Iceland at St Andrews on September 22, the coaching staff and subs ran on to the pitch and the players hugged each other as one. It was the way almost every positive result that had taken them this far – to the brink of the 2003 World Cup in China – had been greeted. In the press room afterwards the England manager Hope Powell searched for the right words. “I think it’s… it’s relief,” she said.

Read more…

No luck for the Irish. Paul Doyle studies the basic flaw in the joint bid to host Euro 2008 by Scotland and Ireland

It was only ten years ago that I wrote furiously to UEFA, asking them why they were going to allow England, with their city-trashing “fans”, to host Euro 96. My dismay was real, my pro­test, of course, ignored.

Read more…

Jon Lymer looks at the deal that, to all but Darlington's publicity staff, looked doomed from the start

In the run up to the closing of the new transfer window, Darlington came within a whisker of clinching one of the most unexpected moves of recent years. In the event, however, the club and its erratic chairman, George Rey­nolds, sim­ply continued along their romp to the heart of insanity.

Read more…