Last week, Cardiff City placed their head of recruitment, Iain Moody, the man presumably responsible for the signing of Gary Medel, Andreas Cornelius and Steven Caulker, on gardening leave and replaced him with Alisher Apsalyamov.
The BBC hailed this news with the headline, ‘Cardiff replace head of recruitment with 23-year-old Kazakh.’
So far, so accurate although as a sentence riven with hidden opinion, it’s as fine an example as …
A look at the Professional Footballers’ Association list of out of contract and available players becomes more depressing by the year, even if there are Premier League outcasts aplenty whose current availability is often more a consequence of protracted contract negotiations and a choice of suitors. Hence, Chris Baird, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Carlton Cole and the like will end up somewhere eventually.
Of those, the pick of the list …
Having seen our original brief cast asunder when one of our teams was promoted to the Premier League a year ago, equilibrium has been restored and it’s with a mood of keen anticipation that we look forward to blogging about the Football League and other topics in the new season. For now, however, we have decided to sign off for a month’s rest - but not before Steve Wright…
The stethoscope we have applied to the Football League over the past week has revealed a not altogether satisfactory heartbeat and the fact that the weaknesses section of our study has been easily the most read does indicate that there is concern for the competition’s health among supporters.
Which leads us to the threats section, the most portentous of the four categories, and one which can often appear indistinguishable …
Ben: Sounds like an interesting read - and a useful companion-piece to Tony...
sean smith: Brilliant article. Shared. COYS...
Steve: C.f. Phil Neville on MOTD2 talking about Rosicky's audacious blind pas...
Steve: Excellent article....
Winch: An enjoyable read. I'm not sure they bring back any good memories, but...
