The Nations League is a bad idea because international football is a dying form. I’ve said it myself countless times – I honestly don’t expect there to be another 10 World Cups that divide their competitors along the lines of nationhood. Football is only as good as the stories it...
Serie A has long been a home for grand gestures and big transfers, and this summer has proven no exception. Into the Italian top flight has come Cristiano Ronaldo, looking to ensure that Juventus finally make that final step to the Champions League trophy. Within the division, Leonardo Bonucci and...
Do you remember Anna Kournikova? Do you remember the summer of 1997, when she was the coming star of women’s tennis, all pony tail and drop shots, working her way through Wimbledon as an unseeded genius? Much has been written and said about Kournikova, not least after her retirement from...
I remember Alex Smithies’ first start for Huddersfield Town. He’d come on as a late replacement after Matt Glennon was sent off at Southend the week before, 2-1 down had gone to 4-1, and the young goalkeeper had not impressed. These were not auspicious times for the Terriers, and despite...
There is plenty of evidence that football fans care a little too much about their teams. From the fact that some bear their initials initial on social media as middle names to the way people will fly off the handle with claims of disloyalty if someone places a bet against...
Éternels. That is how the France side that won the 2018 World Cup is described on the front of Monday’s L’Equipe, and it is true. Every single member of that squad has a tag that will stay with them forever now. World Cup winner Olivier Giroud will meet World Cup...
I visited a vineyard recently, on the Kent and Sussex border. It might not seem the best idea, English wine, but this young industry has been gaining more and more plaudits, more and more international awards, in recent times and with it being summer, it felt as though we might...
One has to go back to early in the second half of Germany’s round of 16 victory in 2006, in Munich, to see the last player in the Swedish ‘Allsvenskan’ to play for their home nation at a World Cup. Sweden began that match with two in their starting XI,...
Gareth Southgate’s World Cup squad can be described as many things, and the players within it as even more. For the record, I think he is working towards a better England and I like the connection between youth and senior sides. I don’t think England will win the World Cup,...
Given the amount of European teams still involved in World Cup action, it is reasonable that your attention is still focused on Russia, and the tournament going on there. Yet Europe’s 2018/19 season is already kicking into gear, and while the preliminary rounds of the Europa League might appear to...