Guest Authors
Redknapp and patience can get Spurs back to the top
So the inevitable finally happened, and Senor Ramos was given the boot. Hardly surprising, given the teams diabolical start to the league season. Ramos is obviously a talented coach but he never really sparked in England, that Carling Cup win aside. For various reasons, Ramos was unable to get the best out of his players…
A Kieron Dying Breed?
Not long ago, perhaps just over 5 years, this title of this piece could have been much the same as it is now. The same, except that the main noun of the sentence will be replaced, so it will read, ‘Are the days of the technical wizard over?’ It seems we have gone half circle…
Rethinking Goals
Goals are the focus of football. Goals mold the plot and determine results. Goals win trophies, titles and plaudits. The goal, undoubtedly, is the most pivotal event during a football match. However, how useful are goals for evaluating individual players? Leo Messi receives the ball at the halfway line, skips through five defenders, nutmegs the…
The Life and Times of a Modern Footballer
* Please note that some of the names in this story are fictitious, as is the story itself. The small, skinny boy passes the ball slickly to the neighbour’s kid with whom he was playing football in the street. He runs forward and the neighbour slides the ball back to him before he shoots. GOAL!…
More Law Breaking from our good friends at FIFA
The first time I saw ‘Foul!’ by Andrew Jennings in my Library I simply thought ‘my Lord, another left wing, John Pilger-esque, failure.’ I read the first chapter, I didn’t want to believe it, and I justified this by saying that it was rumour/fear-mongering from the British tabloids. In the course of my university studies…
Paul Robinson Crusoe
My tired arms rested limply on the driftwood as I floated aimlessly in the ocean. How long was I drifting? Hours? Days? 90 minutes? I can’t tell you. My concentration isn’t what it used to be. How did I end up there? Well, it all started after my transfer to Blackburn. Daniel Levy and Juande…
A Night in Port-of-Spain
There’s something masochistic about watching a bad soccer match. It takes a certain type of fan to endure the moments of sheer boredom as players kick the ball to no one and swarm without rhyme or reason. Throw in a dirt pitch in a provincial outpost, and you have a game hardly anyone would want…
The Language We All Speak
At the time of writing I am currently settled in my second year of life in Lima, Peru, a country that has failed to impress on the footballing stage for 30 odd years. Stating this fact is not something I feel will see me left for dead half way up the Pan-Americana with presently Peru…
There’s Only One Roman Abramovich
“I fucking hate that fucking club,” Simon says, handing me my usual bag of bonbons. The 35-year-old owns a sweetshop in Heidelberg, Germany, and everyone who walks by can see his very own visualization of the downfall of “King Football” in the shop window. “I just hope that they go right down again.” Simon is…
La Liga Rountable: Who will win the 08/09 Primera?
Raphael Honigstein, Guillem Balague and Gabriele Marcotti discuss the upcoming Spanish football season and give their predictions on who will be winning the 2008 / 2009 season. Raphael Honigstein: Gentlemen, let’s talk about Spain now. Guillem, your prediction? Guillem Balague: Real Madrid to finish runners-up, fighting with Villarreal and Sevilla… Barcelona to win it. RH:…
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