Once upon a time, the PFA Awards were the undisputed measure of a season’s most valuable players. Voted for by the Professionals themselves, the response to their announcement was one of awed hush and consent – how could mere onlookers presume to know better than those involved in the rough and tumble of the actual sport? But the saccharin, sentimental and simply silly award of the 2009 Players’ Player award to Ryan Giggs changed all that. In one fell swoop, footballers were shown to be as susceptible to a bit of old fashioned press lobbying as the rest of us….
All posts tagged Sheffield United
The Monday Profile: Ched Evans
For our Monday Profile this week, we welcome back Ian Rands, proprietor of A United View on Football, a website that has really come into its own in recent months following a series of fascinating interviews with a host of Sheffield United greats from the past. Ian, who can be followed on twitter here, turns his attention to a player whom we have been critical of in the past, but who has flourished in a Blades shirt this year. If there is one player making the headlines for Sheffield United this season it is 32 goal striker Ched Evans, but for…
From SFL to Football League
Our latest scouting report from outside the Football League comes from Craig Telfer, whose website Who the hell is Akabusi? documents the thrills and spills of supporting Scottish Second Division side Stenhousemuir FC. Here, Craig widens his brief to consider those SFL players potentially capable of doing a job in England’s equivalent divisions. The general perception of Scottish football, both home and abroad, is that the game is at its lowest ebb. The administration of Rangers FC – officially the world’s most successful club side and often described as a pillar of Scottish society – has magnified the problems surrounding…
Trading Places: Time to Reform the Football League’s Loan System?
To look closely at the associated regulations is to acknowledge the Football League’s existing loan system as nothing less than a free for all. ‘Temporary loan transfer’ is the umbrella heading which comprises the following three types of move permissible under the current system: • ‘Standard Loans’ (half or full season in length and arranged during the two transfer windows); • ‘Emergency Loans’ (28-93 days in length and arranged both within the two transfer windows and during fixed periods outside these dates); • ‘Youth Loans’ (identical to ‘Emergency Loans’ but applies to scholars or new professionals on a work experience-type…
The Monday Profile: Claude Davis
The furore surrounding Lyon’s astounding 7-1 win in Zagreb last week puts one in mind of the perhaps the most anomalous sequence of results in this season’s Football League. In September, warmly tipped Crawley Town followed up a 6-0 hiding at Morecambe with a 3-0 home battering by Swindon. Having begun existence in the League well, these results were far from expectedand everything that has happened since makes them seem still more unusual.For the Sussex club have etched up 14 subsequent matches without defeat in Cup and League, ascending to top place after their impressive 3-0 win over Burton Albion…
James: Are the wealthy middle classes really the ones to back a football team...
Lanterne Rouge: Garath McCleary on signing for Reading today:
"It's amazing to be a...
Lloyd: On the Oxford / Reading thing, Lanterne, you write that "there is no c...
Ben: Yes, it does loom a bit, doesn't it? Moxey's comments on the ground re...
