Columnists

One tractor in need of a jump-start to top

by
The LeaguePaper Team
24 December 2017

EVERY July, Christophe Bassons would line up for Stage One of the Tour de France knowing he had no chance of ever wearing the yellow jersey. Not because he was a domestique, the unheralded grinders who sacrifice themselves to help the star of the show. But because he played fair. In a sport more drug-addled than Ozzy Osbourne’s tour bus, the French rider steadfastly refused to ‘load the cannon’ – a slang term for the use of banned stimulant EPO.
By 1998, he was the only member of his team, Festina, who wasn’t injecting. When frustration boiled over and he sp...

Continue reading...

Access all our premium content from as little as 14p per day!

Already a subscriber to our website? Login

Read our latest news on any of these social networks!

Tackle the News

- Sign Up for our weekly Football League Newsletter Today!

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

More in Columnists

CHAMP FAILURE CAN BE PATH TO THE TOP

Chris Dunlavy A FRESH TAKE ON FOOTBALL CHANCE: Michael Carrick DOWN in the dumps after being sacked by a Championship club? Don’t worry – you might be heading for the top. Michael Carrick’s return to Manchester United as caretaker manager for the rest of the season marks the 44-year-old’s first...
Chris Dunlavy: Oops! Josh Sargent has made a major error

Josh Sargent clearly hadn’t done his homework on Philippe Clement when he fired off the explosive text that may have ended his Norwich City career.
Collaboration can work – with effort

Graham Westley EX-STEVENAGE, PRESTON, PETERBOROUGH AND NEWPORT MANAGER GARETH Southgate was reported as saying this week that the erosion of a manager’s authority has been a gradual process over many years. He added that the process has accelerated with the widespread introduction of football, technical or sporting directors who now...
MATT & JON HAVE TOOLS TO TURN THE TABLES

Graham Westley EX-STEVENAGE, PRESTON, PETERBOROUGH AND NEWPORT MANAGER ENERGY: Matt Bloomfield BOTH Matt Bloomfield (Oxford United) and Jon Brady (Port Vale) have picked up fantastic new challenges. Young managers who inherit relegation threatened squads in January will quite often do very well. Youth brings an energy, a positivity and a...