Swan Songs #14: The past few months

May 18th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Being bright like stars falling
or rain on leaves;

Everywhere the lights leaning
like wilting flowers;

The last quiet cold of winter
quickly fading; « Read the rest of this entry »

Through Gritted Teeth #45: Garry Cook

May 10th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

by Danny Fitzgerald

A promising striker from a small German club, a combative midfielder plucked from a city whose last flirtation with kitsch came more than 30 years ago; a troublesome sub notable heretofore only for the contempt in which he was held by his team-mates; a mad-fringed full-back masquerading as a centre-half; a Barca player, but the last one on anyone’s lips; the second best player on the third, fourth or at times even fifth best team in Spain; and another shit-stirring substitute whose starring role at his team’s treble winning exploits was conspicuous for how little he had to do with their success and the real sensation that the myth is no bigger than the man, a man, moreover, who was ousted by — oh jesus — Dimitar Berbatov! « Read the rest of this entry »

Swan Songs #13

March 9th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Brendan Rodgers, plotting ...

Swansea 1-1 QPR; Swansea 1-1 Tottenham

So many parts in motion, and straining,
it’s what’s working, making, or building, « Read the rest of this entry »

The many names of Joleon Lescott

February 28th, 2012 § 9 Comments

Joleon Lescott

This afternoon, as I was gazing idly at Joleon Lescott’s name on my computer screen, I noticed that you can nearly break his name into four complete, separate names: Jo, Leon, Les, and Scott, with just a tiny overlap on the last one. I then noticed that you could also get Leo, and Ole, and proudly told Twitter that I thought six names might be some kind of record, assuming you disallowed (a) surnames, (b) anagrams/moving of letters, and (c) names that were part of the actual name, like “Joleon” itself. « Read the rest of this entry »

The Week That Was

February 24th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

CAVANI

I do still find it slightly disappointing that his first name isn’t Edison. « Read the rest of this entry »

Orange crush

February 22nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment

Thanks to Steve @miniboro_dotcom.

The Week That Was

February 17th, 2012 § 2 Comments

Zlatan Ibrahimovich celebrates after scoring against Arsenal

Yay Herve Renard! Yay fitted cotton shirts! Yay for the grand narrative! « Read the rest of this entry »

One By One: Grand Tour

February 14th, 2012 § 1 Comment

European flags

So the Champions League is back. Are you excited? A bit? Yeah, me too. The football’s decent, though there is the ever-present sense that it’s all a charade, played out to line the pockets of men that are already insensitively rich. Plus, Heineken’s shite. « Read the rest of this entry »

The Pre-Match Handshake Is A Pointless Exercise In Nonsense And Must Be Stopped Immediately, Else I’ll Go Postal

February 10th, 2012 § Leave a Comment

This piece first appeared on SB NATION on 3 February 2012. However, the fact that Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez will be playing one another this weekend means it remains relevant. Thank you, football. Thank you.

In the end, amid rumours that the entire of Queen’s Park Rangers’ side were set to “snub” John Terry’s limpid and outstretched foreleg in solidarity with Anton Ferdinand, the FA did the sensible thing, and sent both sides onto the pitch without insisting that they line-up in front of the director’s box and wobble one another wrists. The disappointment from the assembled media was palpable, as both sides of the delicately stoked either/or, will he/won’t we narrative collapsed into “oh, we’ll never know”. A thousand opinion pieces cried out, and were suddenly silenced. « Read the rest of this entry »

The Week That Was

February 3rd, 2012 § Leave a Comment

The transfer window, eh? Not with a bang, nor even a whimper, but a gentle click of mutual skintness and prudence. Premier League clubs being sensible? Lunacy.

« Read the rest of this entry »

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