Replacing Hierro was key to Real's revival
Tommy Burns states that Real Madrid have won nothing since, and because of, the departure of Claude Makelele (Thursday Sport, May 17).

I do not think this is entirely true. I well remember their great central defender Fernando Hierro starring in their Champions League victory against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden, and many more successes. His departure after the Leverkusen game was the beginning of the end of that era. The signing of Fabio Cannavaro (for Hierro's position) and Real's marked improvement this season, would bear this out.

Colin Macrae, via email

Biscuit tin leaves Celtic for Rangers
It was with great interest, and delight,that I read Darryl Broadfoot's comment on the transfer of Scott Brown to Celtic: he says that "it confirms the financial chasm that exists between Celtic and Rangers".

Changed days, indeed.

It seems the most significant transfer in the last year or two has been missed by many of the Scottish pundits: the transfer of the legendary biscuit tin from Parkhead to Ibrox.

Neil J McDermott, via email

Why no homage to Catalunya?
Has The Herald been guilty of inadvertent bias in providing a UEFA Cup final supplement to the Sports section on two days running, published in only Castilian?

This must surely have placed the Catalan-speaking team, Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona, and its supporters at a significant psychological disadvantage, and may possibly have affected the result of the match.

John Marsh, Dunblane

  • Assuming this letter isn't a joke . . . Espanyol have traditionally been associated with pro-monarchist and anti-separatist feeling in Spain. Some even saw them as Franco's "second team", and indeed they only changed their name to the Catalan spelling from the Castilian Español as recently as 1995.

So we don't think they'd mind...