August 2012
1 post
One Pod Beyond: Episode One
The first episode of my new Walsall FC podcast.
This week: Looking back to the League Cup win over Brentford and looking forward to the new League One Season. PLUS: some forthright views on Preston manager Graham Westley and making plans for the Saddlers’ European campaign…
Direct link here http://bit.ly/OPVEbD or listen via the Flash player below.
September 2011
1 post
Notts County v Walsall Preview
I don’t really do previews of games but I’m going to make an exception for Walsall’s trip to Meadow Lane this weekend. This has very little to do with the game on Saturday and everything to do with a game that took place last night. In case you aren’t aware of the story, here’s a little background. Juventus opened their new stadium last night - a welcome...
May 2011
1 post
Falconry with Roman Abramovich
I was talking to my plumber the other day (lovely chap; comes from Doncaster but supports Leeds. There’s a perfectly good football team in Doncaster but we’ll let that go for the moment.)
Anyway, we got on to the subject of the perils of the ‘single benefactor’ ownership model in football. This is something that Michel Platini is quite hot on and Tim the plumber is no...
February 2011
3 posts
David vs Goliath's Brother-in-Law's Mate
Beating one of the big boys in the cup (especially the FA Cup) used to be one of the highlights of supporting a lower league team. But then the big boys decided that boring old domestic cups weren’t worth bothering with any more and so another important bit of football died.
Can you imagine how long the Orient fan in the office full of Arsenal supporters had been waiting for Monday...
Richard Scudamore: Moustache-Twiddling...
Is Premier League supremo Richard Scudamore the most cartoonishly evil man in football? If he isn’t then somewhere in Monaco a man with a big white beard and a Leeds United sunhat is looking nervously over his shoulder.
Take yesterday’s announcement of the Premier League’s new Elite Player Performance Plan. Essentially a proposal to radically overhaul top clubs’ youth...
5 tags
Jake Humphrey is no Manish Bhasin
Tuning in to the Beeb’s coverage of the South Wales derby on Sunday I was dismayed to discover that the show was being helmed by Jake Humphrey. Humphrey is better known as the face of the corporation’s grand prix coverage (I refuse to refer to it as “F1”) yet seems to get the occasional football gig too. I am not a fan.
My first problem with Humphrey is that his head is...
November 2010
2 posts
Bothroyd makes England easier on the eye.
One of the major benefits of not watching Premier League football is that I have extended my ban to include not watching the Premier League footballers who turn out for England. This has clearly caused panic at the FA who - mindful of Closed Season’s huge influence within world football - responded by forcing Fabio Capello to pick Cardiff City’s Jay Bothroyd for last night’s...
David James's Existential Crisis.
David James isn’t like other footballers. David James has studied psychology. David James often gives strangely passive-aggressive post-match interviews. David James writes his own column for the Observer, which isn’t even written by a journalist or anything! But hang on a minute. There’s a reason why footballers’ columns are ghostwritten and it has much less to do...
October 2010
1 post
Snake oil salesmen unwelcome
With Premier League football on hiatus during the international break, all eyes have been on the high court in London where lawyers for Liverpool FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have been arguing that they’ve been deeply misunderstood all along and that in trying to replace the current board with members of their own family they only have Liverpool’s best interests at heart -...
September 2010
2 posts
Rochdale Away
Decent day out at Rochdale on Saturday - even if we did throw away three points by basically gifting ‘Dale all three of their goals in a 3-2 defeat. You can read my match report here. And you can watch the goals here.
Still, if you are going to donate three points to a club there can’t be many worthier recipients than Rochdale. Their history is well known to all knowledgable...
Not dead, just dazed
Hello! Apologies for the hiatus - those of you concerned that I had suffered some horrendous relapse and had spent the last two weeks lying semi-conscious in a darkened room while Sky Sports News played endlessly on a giant telly and DJ Spoony tapped frantically on the window in an attempt to bring me up to date with all the excitement of THE SEASON SO FAR, need not worry. Ironically, it was the...
August 2010
6 posts
Reichs and responsibilities.
Encouragement for my endeavour came today in the form of a banner headline on the front of a newspaper, glimpsed briefly in next-door’s recycling. Something about Joey Barton and a controversial celebration? Wait, he’s not really attempting the Hitler moustache/Nazi salute combo is he?*
Always nice to be reminded exactly why I’m doing this…
*If you’re reading...
Goole as F***
There is a tedious strain of metropolitan journalism that likes to poke fun at a certain type of provincial English town. Towns like Goole, for example. People from Goole are known as “Goolies”. This is funny if you are a 1970s schoolboy or a journalist on a London newspaper with 1500 words to write on why the North is hilarious, but really deserves no further comment here. In fact,...
Won't someone think of the children?
Now that the absence of Premier League goals, results, league positions and the like has freed up extra space in my brain, I find myself more able to tackle the BIG ISSUES affecting modern football.
For instance: WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO BREAK IT TO OUR NATION’S YOUTH THAT LIVERPOOL HAVEN’T BEEN ANY GOOD FOR TWO DECADES?
I spend a lot of time around other people’s children...
Reds throw it away.
A six-hour train journey presented a formidable test for the novice Premier League-avoider today. Every fresh passenger was eyed with suspicion, each a potential aggressor just waiting for the opportunity to attack with a speedily unfurled back-page tabloid headline. In the end it was a copy of Metro that proved my downfall - typically tucked behind the fold down tray of the seat in front....
The Righteous 1-0 Premier League
And the Lord did speak unto the righteous man, saying: “I hath seen thy new blog and it doth please me greatly. Thy reward will be a 2-1 win at Brentford.” And the righteous man was greatly humbled - for verily, Griffin Park is never the easiest place to pick up three points…”
The Book of Graydon; Chapter 4, v.17.
Yes, it was rather a good start to ignoring the...
See no EPL, hear no EPL, speak no EPL.
I like football. But I don’t like the Premier League. Hardly a unique position, but one that has always led to a fine balancing act between wanting to enjoy the undoubted spectacle of The Best League in the World© and being utterly appalled by its grim circus of greed, selfishness, arrogance and haircuts.
For me the Premier League is a kind of pornography. For years I have enjoyed tuning...
