After their performance in the UEFA Cup final the Basque side Alaves found themselves with few enemies, even in other regions of Spain. But, says Phil Ball, things have already started to go wrong

When Jordi Cruyff headed the equaliser for Alavés that took the UEFA Cup final against Liverpool into extra-time, there seemed a reasonable case for stopping the game and awarding the cup to both teams. Right now they’ll be squabbling over the rights to the official video, and desperately brainstorming an alternative title to Game of the Century.

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Despite a magnificent cup run, German minnows FC Union's success may not last long, writes Markus Hesselmann 

In the weeks between promotion and cup final, Union were all the rage in Germany. The club made head­lines in the arts pages of the national newspapers. There were television features about the upright working-class blokes from the eastern district of Köpenick, who had always been sub­dued by the Stasi but would now arise as the true team of east Berlin and the whole of east­ern Germany.

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Coventry City's first ever relegation will cost them on and off the pitch, writes Neville Hadsley 

For Coventry City fans, relegation is a new and strange experience. It is the first time City have been relegated from any division since 1958. Even that was more of a reshuffle as Divisions Three North and South became Divisions Three and Four. In fact it is the first time Cov­entry have finished in the bottom two of any league since 1952.

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Wheeler-dealer Harry Redknapp was unable to keep the wheels in motion at Upton Park, as Darron Kirkby explains

If the timing of Frederic Kanoute’s runs had been half as good, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in such a mess in the first place. But within three hours of season ticket renewal forms dropping through letterboxes the length and breadth of Essex, West Ham an­nounced that Harry Red­knapp had left the club “by mutual con­sent”.

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Sol Campbell's departure from Spurs calls into question the level of players' wages

In the last week of May, the golfer Andrew Oldcorn collected more than £300,000 for winning the Volvo PGA tournament at Wentworth. Not a bad return for four days’ work by anyone’s standards, but few in the press were lining up to savage the mild-mannered Oldcorn for his rampant avarice. No matter how he performs on the tour this year, he will not be greeted on the tees of Europe by snarling fans chanting that there is “only one greedy bastard”.

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