The modern-day Old Trafford rarely escapes the eyes of those who visit the city of Manchester. It isn’t the most towering of structures in the city’s skyline, but it’s one of the most…
Tag: premier league
When football clubs choose to embrace a big business approach, they often do so at the expense of their role as a focal point of the local community – a place for…
THE 1975/76 SEASON in the old Division One was a whirlwind of beauty and, for a budding Queens Park Rangers, one of unspeakable cruelty. Liverpool supporters might barely have noticed Rangers being…
Three games had passed since the man who adorns their iconic 21 was seen or heard from. His absence was shrouded in mystery, with various theories snaking through the local pubs and…
Illustration by Brandon Layzell THE TITLE OF Marcel Proust’s epic seven-volume masterpiece À la Recherche du Temps Perdu has been variously translated as either ‘In Search of Lost Times’ or ‘Remembrance of Things Past’.…
On 23 October 1937, Manchester United hosted Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford as the clubs contested a routine Division Two tie. The occasion that followed was in almost every way unremarkable. United…
‘JAAP STAM WAS THE ONE. Without a question, I made a mistake there.’ The words of Sir Alex Ferguson ring true, years after selling star defender Jaap Stam to the surprise of…
I HAVE SPENT some years now – as a manager in both the hospitality industry and as a coach/manager in the footballing sphere – thinking about what it is that makes a…
IN AN AGE where footballers drive the world’s most expensive cars, wear incredibly expensive clothes and eat at the most exclusive restauarants, it is hard for the regular fan to find much…
THE SUCCESS OF any organisation is rarely down to just a few contributors, much like how a jigsaw is deemed incomplete even if a single piece is lost. As a result of that,…
A journey through the history of pass and move, possession-based British football, through the Tottenham Hotspurs teams of the 20th century (and a bit of the England team), cut together with archive…
Growing up as a Manchester United fan in the era of the Arsenal Invincibles, I perhaps would have been excused for disliking Thierry Henry. The Frenchman was the archetypal player to strike fear…
TO SEE AN academy graduate make the step up from the youth ranks to the first team is always a source of pride for fans. That feeling is sweeter when the player…
“IN FOUR OR FIVE YEARS, probably nobody will remember that I was Chelsea manager, and it becomes absolutely normal, just because I left a couple of years ago.” It would be fair…
AS MODERN FOOTBALL transitions into ever-increasing levels of physicality and tactical fluidity, the ‘fox in the box’ striker is a dying breed close to extinction. Throughout the history of the game this…
Although of late there has been a trend for a single striker to be the norm at many of the bigger clubs – Kane, Drogba, Agüero, Costa, Torres and Lukaku immediately come…
A FOOTBALLER CAN ONLY JUSTIFY their transfer fee on the hallowed turf. The rationale behind their expenditure exceeds well beyond their remit, which in any case is a hollow argument. They can…
WHEN NOTTINGHAM FOREST boss Mark Warburton raged at Cardiff’s style of play and persistent time wasting, it was nothing new for Bluebirds boss Neil Warnock. Warburton, who had seen his side lose…