Compared to the first occasion in 2006, it was with considerably less enthusiasm that I anticipated Reading Football Club’s second ever promotion to the top flight in the summer of 2012.
The feeling is never quite as good second time round of course – but there was also the sense that the club had blagged its way into the Premier League. Unforgettable victories at West Ham and Southampton in …
“It will be the greatest comeback since Lazarus.”
The late, legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell may have been talking about Cliff Lazarenko, but, had he been alive in 2014 to witness the annus horribilis endured by the manager of his beloved Newcastle United, he might well have been moved to say the same thing about Alan Pardew. And yet, incredibly, the comeback appears to be on.
In …
For the second of our posts exploring the theme of football ownership, we are pleased to welcome Jon Keen, a long-standing supporter of Reading Football Club and founding member of STAR (the Supporters’ Trust at Reading). Jon is also a regular contributor to Reading blog, The Tilehurst End. Here, Jon unpacks the issue while asking the inevitable question of how it came to all this? Jon can be …
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 …
Punk Football by Jim Keoghan
Published by Pitch Publishing
2014, £12.99
The rise of the supporter ownership model in England has been a slow and drawn out process in recent years and despite the wonderful coverage provided by When Saturday Comes and a host of websites, it has often been hard to step back and assess its progress.
Jim Keoghan, therefore, has done us all a massive service in …
Winch: An enjoyable read. I'm not sure they bring back any good memories, but...
Phil Lloyd: Thanks, Jim, appreciate your comments. I think we are the lucky ones, ...
Jim Wilkinson: Lovely piece Phil... Brings home the unfathomable concept that playing...
Chris Walker: Tom, apologies. You are indeed correct. My recollection of Burnley's a...
Tom Whittaker: Incredibly unfair comment re: Burnley's away form- we actually managed...
