Picture the scene: an apprentice footballer walks into his manager’s office to learn his fate.…
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GOING INTO the game, Aston Villa had suffered three successive defeats and were looking more than…
“I DON’T FEEL pressure … I don’t give a toss about it. I spent the…
This story starts in Valencia, but not where you might expect. The year is 2015…
Few players have split opinion amongst football fans as much as Craig Bellamy. The former…
For many French fans who witnessed the Carré Magique of Platini, Giresse, Fernández and Tigana, there has never been a better midfield
This feature is part of The Masterminds and The Tsars of Football ONE OF THE…
MARCEL REIF, the best-known German football commentator in recent decades, published a book in 1996…
The word Balkan has a particular meaning. It’s an amalgam of the Turkish words bal,…
FOR MANY PEOPLE, Spain’s victory in Euro 2008 was an unexpected triumph. For 44 years…
In my previous piece for These Football Times, I quoted a New York Times piece…
For the second time in three years, the two biggest teams in Madrid faced each…
ON 3 JUNE 1978, Peruvian footballer Teófilo Cubillas broke the hearts of five million Scots…
Valeriy Lobanovskyi sat on the bench, hands clasped tight. With frown lines permanently etched into his…
IT IS FRIGHTENING the rate at which our childhood heroes are retiring from football –…
You get the impression that José Mourinho has always quite fancied Manchester United. Even when he…
Messiahs, masterminds, magicians – the best football managers in history have been bestowed with one…
No coach in the history of the Copa Libertadores has won more titles than Carlos Bianchi, a man who was written off so often and kept coming back for more