Back Of The Net

It’s Friday night, and it’s the Second Round of the FA Cup. I’m watching the match between Horsham and Swansea City as we speak, so here are some choice highlights of other stories that have grabbed my attention.
- The Guardian’s “Six Of The Best” series takes a look at commentators, which has reminded me [...]

The Long & Winding Road

I’m having a rare night off tonight, to refresh my frazzled batteries. So, I’m giving this place over the good people at Sportsfreak for their analysis of the current travails of the New Zealand football team. They could be set to make the World Cup Finals for the first time in nearly three decades.On the [...]

Schadenfreude Tuesday

I kind of meant to watch the Champions League football on ITV1 last night but, you know, “Spooks” was on BBC1 and… does anyone really care about these seemingly interminable group matches that act as wall-to-wall televisual filler between August and Christmas? I ask the question in all seriousness. Sometimes, something that I have previously [...]

The Runners And Riders

Finally, I’ve managed to find a spare hour to write this. First and foremost, I should mention that, in my humble opinion, none of those listed below are capable of winning the World Cup on their own, and nor do I think that their appointments will count for anything unless there is a top to [...]

Baker & Kelly

My much-postponed look at the runners and riders for the vacant England job will follow tomorrow (unless something vitally important happens overnight, which is, frankly, unlikely). For now, here’s a bit more Baker & Kelly from 2002.
Part Four!

Thank You For The Music

It has been a while since we did this, isn’t it? Last weekend, though, I took it upon myself to download 800mb of football songs. My life is one constant social merry-go-round, I can tell you. Now, the majority of these songs are terrible, obviously, and they haven’t been tagged properly, so it is taking [...]

Required Viewing

Some sort of campaign might be in order.

Desperate Times Call For Radical Solutions

One of the things that has surprised me the most about the tone of this week’s coverage of England’s travails in the media has been the level of surprise at the state of the game. Has everyone really been blinded by the lights to such an extent that they couldn’t see what was going on? [...]

Now The Dust Has Settled…

So, McClaren has gone – rumour has it that he didn’t fall on his sword last night and chose to wait to be sacked the next morning for contractual reasons. Since the majority of the money going into the FA (who are likely to have to pay him severance of £2.5m, according to reports) will, [...]

England vs Croatia

Pre-match: Well, the BBC have managed to upset me already, by playing Labi Siffre’s elegant anti-Apartheid anthem “So Strong” while looking back over their constant close shaves in qualifying for the finals of major tournaments. Grrr. If the commentary for this match suddenly switches over to Wales-Germany without any warning, you’ll know the reason why. [...]