A blog about football stickers, cult heroes and everything in between. Regular contributors: Manny Hawks, Richard Allinson, Emlyn Jones and Mat Jolin-Beech.
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A new domestic season is upon us following the traditional curtain raiser of a Friday evening kick off in the Championship. With four weeks having passed since the end of the World Cup it’s probably a good thing that things are back up and running as Harry Kane and Declan Rice definitely looked a bit bored towards the end of proceedings and have no doubt really enjoyed their respective pre-season…
The recent FIFA World Cup brought everything one could want from a major international tournament and, despite the best efforts of Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump, was not a month long MAGA rally with a bit of Shakira thrown in for good measure. At the time of writing the President of the United States has not declared all out nuclear war on Belgium for taking the piss out of his bizarre little…
With the World Cup behind us Rich Allinson is here to muse about the future of English football following the most recent failure of the men’s team to bring it home. This blog’s WhatsApp group over the last few weeks is evidence that the world needs more of our excellent punditry. Five minutes before today’s subject briefly inspired a nation I told the lads that “Gordon has been awful. Getting…
The last time the World Cup was hosted in the United States the players had more to battle than their opponents and a nation with little love for the sport they call soccer. Temperatures soared during June and July, touching forty degrees for some games, which might provide some explanation for the likes of Roberto Baggio , Dan Petrescu and Diana Ross fluffing their lines from the penalty spot.…
Mat Jolin-Beech provides us with a break from Donald Trump’s Super Awesome Soccer Showdown with a look at an historic World Cup stadium. Built in 1950 for the first post-Second World War tournament, and prepared for the host nation’s coronation that never came, it became a symbol of sporting hubris as much as a national landmark. Whether global politics’ most risible tangerine takes this to…
In May 2025 my beloved Crystal Palace won their first major trophy in their 120 year history when Eberechi Eze’s exquisite strike downed Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Just over a year later a club that had only ever experienced European football in a short lived Intertoto Cup campaign and the Anglo-Italian Cup celebrated victory in the Europa (Vauxhall) Conference League final with a…
Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones explores the class divide and gentrification in a wide-ranging post which may also serve as a useful guide on where’s best to pick up a Steak Bake and/or some potato and rosemary sourdough. Clearly West Ham United fans have been crying out for both judging by the new addition at the nearby Westfield shopping centre. Over to Emlyn. Football social media has recently hit upon…
In 1879 schoolmaster James Allan decided to gather his colleagues together for a kickabout and, by October 1880, Sunderland AFC had come into existence. Based on personal experience of teachers’ kickabouts I can only assume there were some ultra-competitive members of the PE department, some surprisingly decent elder statesmen and one member of the Senior Leadership Team who everyone was worried…
Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones heads north of the border to have a look back at the good old days when footballers had proper mullets and could do a job up front and at centre half . This post’s subject earned the nickname Braveheart partly due to his fearless performances for club and country but, more realistically, because he happened to be at his peak around the same time the film came out and had an…
Coursework season has recently come to a close at work and it’s hard to tell who is more relieved. For students there is the catharsis of handing in a significant piece of work which has caused several sleepless nights while for teachers it means we can actually finish up the content for the upcoming public exams. The tight word count often leaves students needing to cut towards the deadline and…
