All posts tagged Chelsea

Book Review: Red Card Roy

Red Card Roy
by Roy McDonough
Published by Vision Sports Publishing
2012, £12.99

Despite being present at hundreds of lower league games throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I don’t actually recall seeing Roy McDonough play in the flesh although it’s highly unlikely that I didn’t, the picaresque striker having notched up over 650 appearances in both league and non-league between 1976 and 1994 and having enjoyed a successful spell …

The Death of the 92 Club

I was surprised to learn that the fabled 92 Club – the movement that recognises those hardy souls who have attended a match at all the Football League grounds - dates back only to the late seventies – ironically perhaps in that the accession of Wimbledon and Wigan Athletic to the competition will have immediately thrown things into confusion.

The original proposal was for this feat to be recognised by …

Have Football’s Boo Boys Gone Too Far?

It may have taken half an hour of the hors d’oeuvre clash between Porto and Napoli, but the largely partisan home crowd at Arsenal’s showpiece season opening ‘Emirates Cup’ have finally found a reason to become animated. Often noted for their quiet approach to both triumph and despair, the patrons of Ashburton Grove have laid to one side their sang froid and sputtered into a chorus of boos.

The …

Book Review: The Nowhere Men

The Nowhere Men by Michael Calvin
Published by Century
2013, £14.99

They are a mythical breed, not to say a forgotten one in these days where youtube videos are said to inspire signings, but, in an increasingly hybrid and varied form, soccer scouts continue to ply their trade – and yet it’s an aspect of the game that we as punters understand so little of.

Hence, Michael Calvin’s new …

TTU Go Predicting: Best Free Agent

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 …