Ian Plenderleith dishes out WSC'S virtual gongs for the last 12 months

The 2010 Web Awards focus on what may be considered classic fanzine virtues – independence, originality, wit and selfless involvement in a game that seems intent on distancing itself from a fanbase whose cash it wants and needs, but which in many corners still stubbornly refuses to sink into the passive role of slavish devotee.

16 December ~ News of Sam Allardyce's sacking generated just about every different emotion in Blackburn supporters from ecstasy to despair. But in my house it's been one big bloody party ever since the news broke. OK, he might have turned around a team seemingly destined for relegation in just a handful of games. Yes, he worked wonders on a minuscule budget to reach a very respectable tenth-place finish and he certainly brought through a crop of talented youngsters. There's also no denying he's had a hand in reconnecting the club to supporters grown cynical from watching overpaid, under-talented millionaires flaunting their supercars around one of the most deprived parts of the country.

16 December ~ In the same week Patrice Evra branded Arsenal "a football training centre", the club are to investigate opening a new academy in the US. Officials at the Emirates believe there is a mine of potential talent in America and they are hopeful of gaining a foothold on the other side of the Atlantic. Arsenal's plan, spearheaded by shareholder Stan Kroenke, is to set up an academy with permanent coaches and scouts on the east coast. They are not the first English club to cast their net far and wide with Chelsea, Man Utd, Everton and West Ham already running soccer schools in America.

15 December ~ It’s easy to believe that the people who run the FA must have spent a lifetime walking under ladders and running over black cats. Before the dust has settled from the World Cup 2018 bidding debacle comes the news that UEFA, at its executive committee meeting in Prague, is developing plans to centralise the sale of broadcasting and marketing rights for European Championship qualifiers. At present, the 53 individual associations are able to make their own broadcasting deals and sell sponsorship, but under the new plan both sets of rights would be sold by UEFA with the proceeds distributed equally.

It’s 20 years since Robin Friday, the patron saint of lower division bad boys, died at the age of only 38. Since then his legend has mushroomed into the worlds of publishing, music and fashion. He is recognised way beyond the fans of Reading and Cardiff City, the two League clubs he played for in the 1970s.

In this 52 page photo-essay WSC’s Roger Titford traces exactly how the legend of "the greatest footballer you never saw" came about and where it’s turning into pure myth. It crystallises Friday in his prime, examines the utterly different attitudes to the game existing not that long ago and the fascination that the modern fan has with his era. Gloriously illustrated with the best-ever collection of images of Robin in action.

Available now in digital viewing format only for £3 through Exact Editions, WSC's digital publishing partner.

The Free Stuff section has just been updated. As winter sets in visit now to claim a present to yourself. From the best footballing oddities of the last 150 years, via the Old Firm derby (seen from both the Celtic and the Rangers perspective), to the story of Anson Dorrance and a US Soccer Dynasty.

14 December ~ Bastian Schweinsteiger has just signed a fat new five-year contract with Bayern Munich, extending a stay with the team that began back in 1998 when he was 14 years old. The player declared that it would be more of a challenge to win the Champions League with Bayern than with Real Madrid or Inter, the teams that were reportedly most interested in signing him. But there was another far more important factor keeping him in Bavaria – his love of the club toilets.

The new WSC is out now, available from all good newsagents or dispatched on the day of order from the WSC shop. Including:
Why England's 2018 bid was doomed to failure
40 years after the Ibrox disaster
The Moonies team triumphs in east Asia
AFC Wimbledon are mightily relieved to avoid MK
From Chelsea to Coleraine, the strange case of Leon Knight
Team GB beats the Rest of Europe 6-1. But it won't happen again
Fabio Capello's impossible job