THE THIRD ROUND OF THE FA CUP is an occasion that footballing romantics savour for a whole variety of reasons. Despite the competition’s fall from grace in recent years – as the country’s…
Tag: premier league
Everton of the mid-1980s were one of Europe’s finest sides, and their class of 1985 ranks as one of the great club teams in English football history
They are there for all to see; the burning intensity of the glare, the endless cavern of passion, and the relentless desire that seems to give an advantage in any confrontation. They’re ever-present in the sublime, the ludicrous,…
Given the thousand of words dedicated to Mesut Özil, adding another 800 or so to the conversation seems rather trite. Yet the German is such a charismatic, divisive figure it’s hard to avoid…
Arsenal THE WORD ‘EMBROILED’ depicts imagery of a painful, laborious struggle with no real end in sight. Consequently, within the realms of football speak, the word is quite appositely associated with a…
ALONG WITH SELFIE-STICKS, an unhealthy fascination with net-spend and those ridiculous looking half-and-half scarves, the latest “thing” to be embraced by a certain generation of football fans is the deluded view that the…
THERE WAS A REDOUBTABLE AURA surrounding Jürgen Klopp as he arrived in England to replace Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool manager. His rambunctious presence jolted the media abuzz, his hysterical bursts of laughter and…
THE SMELL OF SUCCESS TAKES A LONG TIME TO WASH AWAY. For a football club with a history as illustrious as Manchester United’s, the odour develops a particularly powerful resistance. It lingers in…
Football has its greats. It has its brilliant players. Modern or otherwise, you can always argue love for one, or dislike for another. Even now, in the era of Lionel Messi, argument can…
THOUSANDS OF VOICES COULD BE HEARD singing the famous Russian folklore song ‘Kalinka’ during another of Chelsea’s match at Stamford Bridge. The crowd cheered a goal scored by the Blues and peered gaily,…
IT IS NO GREAT SECRET that José Mourinho is fond of mind games. Throughout his two spells in charge of Chelsea, whenever things have been going against him – and even when things…
ON 28 APRIL 2012, Southampton completed their rapid leap to the top tier of English football after slaughtering Coventry at St Mary’s stadium. Whenever there has been a piece regarding this extraordinary journey…
Illustration by Danilo Costa at Artworks Vexel. See more here “PEOPLE CONTINUED TO GO TO WORK AND GO ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS. There was no panic. For days the press and television would…
Illustration by Red Star Liverpool. Find more of his great work here Modern football has created a purgatory. A place where players that fail to live up to their initial hype are consigned…
As featured on Guardian Sport WHEN SOUTHAMPTON SIGNED MARIAN PAHARS from Skonto FC, Latvia, in March 1999, Saints fans would have been forgiven for asking “who?” The diminutive forward had not been unearthed…
GYLFI SIGURDSSON IS THE ICELANDIC VERSION OF TIGER WOODS according to top pundit Hjörvar Hafliðason. “Sigurðsson is in a way made by his father and older brother. They took him at the age…
Football has always been a game of binaries, of rivalries, of winners and losers. The victors are rewarded by having their place in footballing legend enshrined for generations to come. The losers either…
As featured on Guardian Sport “Yes, the actual Joe Cole,” the tweet read. “Seriously, Joe Cole. The real Joe Cole.” Coventry City’s Twitter feed wasn’t the only one incredulous. Joe Cole, three-time Premier…