The Smell of Football by Mick ‘Baz’ Rathbone Published by Vision Sports Publishing July 2011, £12.99 ISBN: 978-1907637148 I have a regular correspondent who likes to talk football. A Liverpool die-hard, man of Shrewsbury, our exchanges normally concern the current wiles of his personal idol, Rafael Benitez, or his affection for his hometown ‘Salop!’ boys and our shared whimsy for the Midlands club born of our bonding over mutual appreciation for Grant Holt and Paul Simpson. Lately, though, his musings on football have taken a rather different turn. My pal, you see, is currently employed in Shanghai and his missives now often shed light on the micro-culture of…
All posts tagged Birmingham City
Hopeless Football League Teams 3: Birmingham City, 1993-94
The term ‘rollercoaster season’ is over-used – but Birmingham City’s 1993-94 campaign certainly deserved that label. The season started with high hopes, which quickly subsided, only to rise again, then fall once more, then rise a final time, before being dashed at the very death. But if it ultimately ended in disappointment, it was also a season which marked the beginning of a long overdue turnaround in Birmingham’s fortunes. For at the start of the 1990s, the club was at a very low ebb. Since the the mid-70s, a slow and steady malaise had set in at St Andrews, when…
The Under-20 World Cup: A Football League Perspective
In June, Ben Piggott ran the rule over the fortunes of Football League players in that month’s European Under-21 Championship, with Aron Gunnarsson and Mikkel Andersen in particular enjoying less than fruitful campaigns. Now, the man behind the illustrations that adorn this website turns his attention to the recent Under-20 World Cup, a tournanment that has been covered expertly by Two Hundred Percent and ended up with a somewhat Lusophone finale:The traditional Hispano-Iberian hegemony was reasserted at this year’s World Youth Cup, with Mexico, Brazil and Portugal consigning Ghana’s 2009 triumph to the history books by parking up in three of the…
The Monday Profile: Jordon Mutch
Max Gradel would have been an obvious choice for today’s Profile, but given that we’ve already pretty much covered the West African wide man, I thought that a consideration of Jordon Mutch, who caught my eye in Watford’s televised win at Loftus Road 10 days ago, was more appropriate.Currently on a six-month loan at Vicarage Road, the leftpegger looked a bit tasty in the centre of a sterling Golden Boys midfield. Despite a widely reported slow start which saw Mutch struggle to gain an understanding with his new teammates, he now appears to be striding forwards with meaning; deft, confident…
James: Are the wealthy middle classes really the ones to back a football team...
Lanterne Rouge: Garath McCleary on signing for Reading today:
"It's amazing to be a...
Lloyd: On the Oxford / Reading thing, Lanterne, you write that "there is no c...
Ben: Yes, it does loom a bit, doesn't it? Moxey's comments on the ground re...
