Chris Taylor & Craig Ellyard argue for and against the idea of scrapping the League Cup

Yes ~
Paul Scholes is not most people’s idea of a rebellious prima donna, so when the mild-mannered Manc refused to play in a match against Arsenal you knew some­thing was up. This season he’s been played out of position, left on the bench and generally messed ar­ound as his manager attempts to accommodate Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Veron. All accepted without a murmur. “But for God’s sake,” you can im­agine him telling Sir Alex, “not the bloody League Cup!”

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Ever since he signed Argentina's Alberto Tarantini for Birmingham in 1978, Jim Smith has been one of the managers most willing to introduce foreign players to English football. Andy Lyons asked him about the pitfalls and benefits

What have been the main barriers to the integration of foreign players in English clubs? Has the traditional “team building” culture of drinking together been a particular problem?
I think that was true at one time but generally there is less of a drinking culture around English football these days. Players will go out together to restaurants and so on but you don’t us­ually get a whole team all going out on a Thursday night or what­ever. One thing that did concern foreign players in the early days especially was our level of medical treatment. They’d often prefer to go back home to get treated. I think we have caught up in that respect and work with the best international specialists now, rather than just with staff at the club. The for­eign players couldn’t believe we didn’t have full-time masseurs and that it was down to the old physio doing a bit on a Friday or Sat­urday morning. The foreign players work religiously on mas­saging muscles after training, far more than English players do.

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Tom Davies pays tribute to an enigmatic midfielder whose sudden departure proved symbolic for Leyton Orient and, perhaps, the whole of English football

If I were to say that the past ten years in English football have seen the forces of righteousness take a bit of a drubbing while all manner of charlatans have prospered, I’d hardly win any prizes for originality. But when exactly did the rot start? The answer is simple: on December 28, 1991 when Leyton Orient played Brent­ford in the old Third Division.

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Joyce Woolridge wades through yet another book allegedly written by George Best and finds it more honest than the previous ones, but no less depressing

Blessed is George Best’s fourth autobiography. He has also been the subject of at least two other major biographies and a film. Aside from Billy Wright, he is probably the most prolific producer of various versions of his life story. Potential readers of what might be Best’s last book, given his increasingly fragile health, might ask if there is anything else to be said about his brilliant football career and spectacular fall from grace. Blessed, though full of much familiar material, is sufficiently different from what has gone before to be of interest.

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The future of a genuine players' union is in doubt, despite the position of its most influential supporter, national coach Javier Aguirre. Simeon Tegel reports

Mexico needs its own Jimmy Hill. No, not the sort of pundit fans love to hate. The airwaves here are already heavy with those. Instead, I mean a figure who can lead professionals out of the feudal age of labour relations imposed by the clubs and football authorities, just as Hill did for English players in the early 1960s when as chairman of the PFA he successfully campaigned to end the maximum wage and retain-and-transfer system.

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