Following on from John McGee’s freeform assessment of League 1 yesterday, here is a somewhat more plodding assessment of the level above. That, however, is no reflection on the ins and outs of this season’s Championship - a competition where extortionate transfer fees, underqualified managers and frankly terrifying owners hold sway, where parachute payments warp the competition and everyone is indulging in the filthy scramble for Premier League …
All posts tagged Middlesbrough
5 Football League Players Coming to a World Cup Television Near You
In the run up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, we ran a series of profiles of Football League players who had been named in their countries’ squads. Hence, the likes of Middlesbrough’s Rhys Williams (Australia), Ipswich’s Tommy Smith (New Zealand) and West Brom’s Gonzalo Jara (Chile) featured in our coverage.
Four years on and the list of players with current Football League connections is curiously longer. …
Book Review: Falling for Football
Falling for Football edited by Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald
Published by Ockley Books
2014, £11.99
Falling for Football is a highly significant book and not just because of the way it expertly conjures up why we fall for the sport, its tribulations and tensions, its vitality and emotion, in the first place. It is also noteworthy for the service editors Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald have performed …
Back in the Ex-USSR: Former Soviet Nationals in the Football League
Amid the relentless cacophony of last Friday’s transfer deadline day, Radio Five Live’s needlessly exhaustive coverage did include an interesting discussion on the whys and wherefores of signing players from the former Soviet Union in the light of Liverpool’s failed bid to take Yevhen Konoplyanka to the club from Dnipro.
Examples were given of underperformers from the one time Russian orbit with Martin Keown contrasting Oleh Luzhnyi’s ‘OK’ performances …
Book Review: Tales From The Secret Footballer
Tales from the Secret Footballer
Published by Guardian Books
November 2013, £7.99
The Secret Footballer columns run by The Guardian for three years or so now have been an entertaining sideshow to the usual Premier League spotlight but in recent months, interest in this cleverly nurtured phenomenon has dropped off a little – for there can be very little doubt now that the man in question is Dave Kitson.…
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...
Winch: An enjoyable read. I'm not sure they bring back any good memories, but...
