Self-propelled football writing on the internet has been up and running for some time now and while a number of sites have now established themselves as reliable go-to sources of articles, a recent phalanx of writers has emerged in their wake. Enter The Football Pink, stewarded by Mark Godfrey. The publication has attempted to tackle head on the issue of how to make money in a field assailed by the slings and arrows of open access by requiring its readers to stump up a modest amount of money for each of its issues – hence, each offering is available on Kindle for 99p…
All posts tagged Ireland
The Monday Profile: Paul Cook
John Coleman’s departure from the Accrington Stanley job in January after 12 years in the role reverberated throughout Lancashire. The Liverpudlian had transformed the beleaguered Accies from a name used to market dairy products into a serious footballing concern again, and defeat to Stevenage in the play-off semi-final last May wipes none of the gloss from his striking achievements. Having been linked with a succession of details since Stanley returned to the Football League in 2006, there was nonetheless a patina of inevitability about Coleman’s final departure. His destination, however, did provoke more than a little surprise. Although enjoying one of the…
Football vs Politics (Spoiler alert: politics wins)
As Preston North End’s Northern Irish born Daniel Devine has opted to play for the Republic of Ireland instead of the football association who developed him at under-age level, it seems I have an excuse to write a bit relating to Irish football for this blog.Devine is just the latest player of Northern Irish nationality to declare for the Republic after Darron Gibson, Shane Duffy, Marc Wilson, Daniel Kearns and Paul George. The controversy arises as under the 1998 Good Friday agreement, the people of NI have the right to citizenship of the republic if they so desire. Far be…
Championship Letters 1: Shane Supple as Hamlet
The similarities between literature and the Championship are legion. This is the first in a new, weekly series of posts drawing parallels between the timeless characters of World letters and those of our cherished league. To start, our example comes from perhaps the most famous literary work of all. The title character of Hamlet is a mental dead ringer for Shane Supple, the goalkeeper who voluntarily ended his Ipswich Town prematurely earlier this campaign. True, the Irishman may not have matched the Dane in wishing to shuffle from “this mortal coil”, although some would say that pursuing a career with…
Sean St Ledger: Now officially not rubbish
Before this week’s two internationals, all most Republic of Ireland fans knew about St Ledger was that he played in the Championship, and had not yet distinguished himself, in either sense, for his country. SSL having not yet scored an own goal/fallen on his arse in the face of an approaching striker/conceded a penalty/or scuffed a clearance was reason enough for optimism in my book. Trappatoni was looking to the Middlesbrough player to be the second half of a reliable centre-back pairing, something the Irish have arguably not had since 1994.After he contributed in no small way to Boro’s shambolic…
Ben: Fascinating article, which is fair to both sides of the argument and n...
Harry Cholewa: You also need to consider the massive disruption during the constructi...
Lanterne Rouge: cheers Jonathan - I'll confess that I'd missed that particular stadium...
