Coventry City fans were in vocal and defiant mood during the 2-0 defeat at Reading yesterday. Several rousing choruses of their signature Eton Boating Song rang out and the raw commitment that perhaps only comes with adversity and temperatures hovering around zero degrees was on full display. Among the targets for opprobrium were the club's owners since 2007 – Sisu Capital – a cabal whose very mention led the comments section to combust after Ian Palmer so expertly picked apart Coventry's parlous financial state during our recent Turmoil Week.

Sport Italia by Simon Martin Published by I. B. Tauris August 2011, £22.50, ISBN: 9781845118204 If anyone had any doubt about sport's ability to warp society, Simon Martin's sumptuous Sport Italia will leave them without arguments. A nation, remember, only since 1861; Italy has survived its first one and a half centuries by following the path described in Benedict Anderson's influential book, Imagined Communities – and sport has played an integral part in that.

Our latest guest post comes from Adam Orton, one half of Debra Orton Illustration - bloggers and sellers of limited edition football print artwork and proud Highbury residents. It may surprise watchers of Match of the Day that Norwich City's current successes are far from a novelty in the history of the club and here, Adam takes an entertaining look back to a previous occasion when the Norfolk club ascended out of Hades.

Our latest book review comes from Tom Bodell, editor of Vital Watford. Tom can be followed on Twitter at @TBBodell and here casts his eye on the autobiography of Richard Lee, one time Hornet and now a Bee. Graduation: Life Lessons of a Professional Footballer By Richard Lee Published by Bennion Kearny August 2010, £9.

Saturday brought the shattering news of the death of Nigel Doughty, owner of Nottingham Forest. In our latest conversation piece, we talk to Steve Wright of the website Mist Rolling in from the Trent about the past few years at the City Ground and the atmosphere of turmoil that has enveloped the club.

My friends and I often indulge in extended debate on the club vs. country issue and how so far, it's ‘OK' to support England. We eschew the jingoism, the hooliganism, the sheer repugnance of many of those called on to sport the jersey, the overreaction to defeat and over-anticipation of victory, the arrogance and the aggression, but still wish for a team we can support.

After a two month hiatus, our Great Teams series is up and running again with this account of Blackburn Rovers' return to the top echelon in 2001, a third Lancastrian study in a row after Fiona Martin and myself considered matters Blackpool and Bolton in turn. You can follow Phil on twitter here - and look out for further entries in the series throughout February.

In January, I cast an eye on the unending cacophony of abuse in online football communities, with a section on Doncaster Rovers website Viva Rovers, and provoking a compelling spate of comments involving Leeds United blog, The Scratching Shed. The problems are not confined to Yorkshire alone, but as an important follow up, Michael Wood here provides an epitaph on the Bradford City site, Boy from Brazil, one of the very best chronicles online and one that closed towards the end of 2011.

Here, in the latest of our book reviews, Ben Summers takes a look at Barney Ronay's The Manager, a book which surely deserves more than its two current stars on Amazon. The Manager: The Absurd Ascent of the Most Important Man in Football By Barney Ronay Published by Sphere August 2010, £8.99, ISBN: 9780751542790 This book's incongruous appearance in Fabio Capello's 2010 World Cup luggage leant it a curious subplot that could easily have been incorporated into the book itself.

Our latest guest post sees us welcome Tom Victor. Tom is the Major League Soccer Correspondent for Footy Matters and you can read a selection of his missives here. He's also a proud Hammer and here brings his attention to the extraordinary development of family tradition at that storied east London club.

Over recent months, we have called upon regular followers of non-league football in order to guess at which players might stand a chance of forging a career in the Football League, should they wish to take the opportunity. First up was Michael Hudson; the proprietor of The Accidental Groundhopper website running the rule over the Northern League.

Bloated Premier League squads need ballast and amid the burnt ends of Match of the Day episodes, the fleeting few minutes of highlights from the KC, Molineux or DW Stadiums have been notable for their late cameos from players unfamiliar – your Henrik Pedersens, Okelsandr Yevtushoks and Itzhak Zohars – the men you feel yourself reaching for the Rothman's successor volume to run the rule over, or, laptop on knees, Wikipedia.

Here, Roger Willis rounds off our 'Turmoil Week' with the second part of his Plymouth Epic. Yesterday he focused on the background that led to Argyle's financial meltdown; today he moves on to bring us right up to date with the key events. The Supporters Start to Act There was widespread panic amongst supporters at this stage.

As our 'Turmoil Week' draws to a close, we turn the spotlight westwards to Plymouth, arguably the most well-documented club in crisis over the past 18 months or so. Thankfully, the situation at Home Park now appears to be settling down but here season ticket holder Roger Willis takes a look back over an incredible few years, describing in detail the events that very nearly led to the Pilgrims' demise.

Back in November 2011, Preston City Council reluctantly announced that the redevelopment of England's 50th city had hit the buffers. John Lewis had pulled out of the Tithebarn regeneration scheme in the city centre and, operating as we are "in the middle of one of the worst economic and financial situations since the 1930s", plans will now be made to scale down the blueprint accordingly.