Amir Khan would be proud. As double whammies go, fans of Bolton Wanderers have been on the receiving end of two sledgehammers this January. First, after several years of heavy punishment on the financial front, the latest body blow landed as the club’s parent company Burnden Leisure Limited announced a new high for its debt of £163.8 million. Then, following a mini-recovery and an encouraging 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, the team somehow fell to a 7-1 defeat against a Reading side that have themselves looked sluggish and lacking in appetite in recent weeks while experiencing some potentially acute fiscal…
All posts tagged Birmingham
Book Review: Red Card Roy
Red Card Roy by Roy McDonough Published by Vision Sports Publishing 2012, £12.99 Despite being present at hundreds of lower league games throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I don’t actually recall seeing Roy McDonough play in the flesh although it’s highly unlikely that I didn’t, the picaresque striker having notched up over 650 appearances in both league and non-league between 1976 and 1994 and having enjoyed a successful spell as manager of Colchester United, taking the Essex team back into the Football League after relegation to the fifth tier as well as an FA Trophy victory over Witton Albion. Curiously,…
Have Football’s Boo Boys Gone Too Far?
It may have taken half an hour of the hors d’oeuvre clash between Porto and Napoli, but the largely partisan home crowd at Arsenal’s showpiece season opening ‘Emirates Cup’ have finally found a reason to become animated. Often noted for their quiet approach to both triumph and despair, the patrons of Ashburton Grove have laid to one side their sang froid and sputtered into a chorus of boos. The object of their derision, as is often the case, was so recently the object of their affection – Gonzalo Higuain, the striker spirited from Madrid to Southern Italy from under the…
TTU Go Predicting: Best Free Agent
A look at the Professional Footballers’ Association list of out of contract and available players becomes more depressing by the year, even if there are Premier League outcasts aplenty whose current availability is often more a consequence of protracted contract negotiations and a choice of suitors. Hence, Chris Baird, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Carlton Cole and the like will end up somewhere eventually. Of those, the pick of the list is perhaps Hitzlsperger and whilst ‘The Hammer’ may well find interest from a top tier team in Europe, his recent injury record and failure to last more than a year at any…
A Football League SWOT Analysis: The Weaknesses
Of course by its very definition the Football League is weak – comparatively. While it’s true that West Ham and Southampton skilfully negotiated the step up to the Premier League this past year, both enjoyed wage structures and transfer budgets way beyond the scope of second tier clubs. Yesterday’s opening post on this four day SWOT analysis salvo perhaps painted too rosy a picture of the League’s attributes. Today’s comes up with a decidedly different portrait. It’s clear that many of the competition’s strengths have their exact obverse on the weaknesses front and indeed, many of these issues are perilously close to the threats…
Lanterne Rouge: Enjoyable post John and I don't disagree with Tony when it comes to Tr...
Stagsdude: More utter tosh from this attention grabber....
Thomas: Really interesting and well constructed article, John. Brilliantly det...
Michael: Great stuff, John.
1992 - 1996 was a fantastic time to be a teenage N...
john unitt: Just for the record - when i posted my comment at 09.27 the one now sh...
