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Exclusive Interview with Manchester United’s Rafael da Silva

Recently, our friends over at Republik of Mancunia caught up with Manchester United’s right-back, Rafael da Silva. They asked him about the upcoming season, Fabio da Silva, Alex Ferguson’s decision about no more signings and the strength of the Premier League. He believes that Fergie has an amazing group of players and he can handle…

Kevin Toms – The creator of Football Manager

Once upon a time there was a young man called Kevin Toms. Some of you (probably those over the age of 35) will have known his product very well indeed. To others the name will mean nothing, but I bet if you a) Own a PC, PSP, Playstation, X-Box or Wii, b) love football and c) Do not have a demanding wife/partner you will have heard of Championship Manager. Probably only rivalled by redtube.com as the most fun you can have on your own with a PC, Championship Manager gives us all an opportunity to be Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho or Gianfranco Zola (unfortunately the “alleged” nocturnal activities of a certain manager cannot be re-created in the current versions of the game), starting with the lowest of the lows and rising to the top. My record was taking Grays Athletic to the Champions League final in my 27th year on the game.

Paul Watson – Best international English manager?

After the huge fuss of our appalling showing in South Africa, the FA started another long and tedious review of how our national game should be run, what is the future of the academy at Burton and who should eventually succeed Capello when he eventually leaves. The upshot was that we need an Englishman in charge of our national game.

Great – but who? ‘Appy ‘Arry? Big Sam? Alan Pardew? There isn’t a single Englishman who really has the experience or the track record. But do you know we actually have a number of Englishmen who have international coaching experience. For instance, Bryan Robson is currently the national coach of Thailand (he actually replaced Peter Reid), Gary Johnson managed Latvia for awhile and of course there is Stephen Constantine who has managed Nepal, India, Malawi and is now in charge of Sudan. But what about someone who has had no real experience and started right at the bottom.

England’s finest export?

Did you manage to get back to England for the Lions Play Off Final at Wembley?
Unfortunately not. It was the only week off we had all summer so I had arrange to take the family away on hoilday to Rhodes. As you can imagine I was gutted!! I tried to swing the Mrs around to the benefits of a weekend in Bermondsey but she was having none of it as we havent been away for two years so I was hoping for an ash cloud over Greece haha!

Ian Blanchard: “We need to be open to anything that assists the match officials in getting those big, crucial decisions right.”

Despite Germany’s clinical elimination of England, we had a controversy with regards to Frank Lampard‘s potential equalizer in the first half. Two years ago, I had the great pleasure to interview Ian Blanchard, Head of National Referee Development at the English FA. He had some interesting thoughts about goal line technology and the use of…

Interview with Aon’s David Prosperi

At the very top level, the world of football has undeniably changed. Team performances are determined more by the financial muscle and brand power of the club than scouting networks or managerial talent. Football clubs are global brands, and it stands to reason that they behave – commercially and in sporting terms – as brands….

ESPN doubles World Cup coverage, bullish on soccer across the board

ESPN, the U.S. sports broadcasting giant of 5,000 employees, is preparing to launch their coverage of World Cup South Africa 2010, their seventh World Cup and largest operation ever outside of the U.S. The production is twice the scale as the production in Berlin and Munich in 2006 and has 300 full-time staff members dedicated…

Laura Esposto Interview

The gorgeous Milan Channel presenter Laura Esposto has worked for Channel 5‘s Football Italiano and modeled for various brands in the past. This week Laura got on the phone with us and had a chat about all things football, including Milan-Bologna dilemma, beach volleyball, hot footballers, working in England and even the World Cup… Let’s…

Interview with Barcelona’s Lander Unzueta

Football Media has covered an interview of FC Barcelona’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lander Unzueta, who talks at length about Barcelona’s unique place in football and how the club is actively working in growing its brand and fanbase (increasing commercial assets) while staying involved in social causes. It’s a bit dry if you’re not interested in…

Podcast: David Seaman interview, World Cup bid fallout and Champions League final chat

Tune in to the latest Soccerlens Podcast with Adrian Clarke & Iain Spragg.  At the launch of Yahoo’s new online penalty shoot-out game, ex-Arsenal midfielder Clarke caught up with his former team-mate David Seaman for an interview covering all things Arsenal and England.  As well as that special exclusive chat, the duo dissect and debate…