A Knight to Remember
May, 1968. Wembley Stadium, London. After a hundred and twenty minutes in their 54th match of the season, Manchester United have just conquered the mighty Eusébio and his flamboyant Benfica 4-1 to claim the ultimate prize of all for the first time, more than a decade after first campaigning for it. In terms of emotional significance, historical baggage and narrative surrounding…
Keep readingThe Ballad of Edinson Cavani Gómez
The setting was a deepish shade of orange. The Curva Sud, full of jovial Partenopei, had kept on singing all evening. With good reason too. Napoli led their arch-rivals by two goals on the pitch and five league places. Amidst the merriment and excitement, Ezequiel Lavezzi picked up the ball on the inside right channel, facing the Bianconerri net and…
Keep readingRunning In Circles
The hair had almost completely gone, the legs were on their way. After a hundred and twenty minutes of this one and fifty two other games all season, Manchester United’s all time leading goalscorer and World Footballer of the Year not long ago, stood on the Wembley pitch, sweat drenched and physically spent, soaking it all in. Literally and otherwise.…
Keep readingCrossroads Once Again
“Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.” And Gotham lived on, to see another sunrise, to face another day. Life went on. As is it’s way. I do not…
Keep readingWhen Skies Are Grey
When December arrived in ‘89, and the faint sounds of Christmas carols got louder with every passing day, the start of a new decade loomed on the horizon. It’s a merry month, December. Not so much, I’d assume for a certain Alex Ferguson when the phone rang in his office. FA Cup third round. It hadn’t been the easiest of…
Keep readingJack Grealish – A Touch Of Theatre, Elegance And Art.
A little over an hour had gone by when the substitution board went up. On it, was a 7. In red. As Wembley stood up and erupted into applause, Jack Peter Grealish could be seen walking slowly, steeped in a sudden fug of melancholy, towards the far touchline. It was a walk with a touch of theatre, flounce and authority.…
Keep readingManchester United – On The Brink
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looked up at the lights beaming down onto the pitch at the Polsat Plus Arena in Gdańsk. It was the 26th of May. As far as this football club is concerned, 26th May is auspicious. It is Sir Matt Busby’s birthday. It is the date of one of Manchester United’s greatest ever nights when Ole Solskjaer, won a corner and got…
Keep readingIn The Eye Of The Storm – Derby County
Rotherham United took an eighth minute lead against Cardiff City as viewers world-wide were just about warming up to a lunchtime kickoff on final day for all Championship clubs. Final day of a Championship season is an unique spectacle in itself but more so, for teams that have seemingly everything on the line. The dreaded ‘R’ word is more than…
Keep readingSo Long, Roy!
You’d be lying if you said this picture of Roy doesn’t remind you of one of Michael Caine’s henchmen in The Italian Job. Champagne picture, champagne gentleman and a career that’s unlikely to be repeated ever again. But the start of this article takes me to Brighton, to one of my favourite games of the season. The whole dynamic and…
Keep readingYOU WIN NOTHING WITH KIDS
‘You win nothing with kids’, Alan Hansen concluded on Match of The Day, hours after United had been beaten 3-1 at Villa Park on opening day of the 95/96 season. While it was a reasonably sensible thing to say for a pundit, in saying so, not only had he overlooked the fact that a ridiculously young Ajax team had won…
Keep readingThe Day Football Died
ESL statement: “Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new mid-week competition, the Super League, governed by its Founding Clubs. AC Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Real Madrid +Tottenham Hotspur have all joined as founding clubs. Anticipated further 3 clubs…
Keep readingCloughie – On The Verge
The only way to simplify football is to make it complicated. As such, understanding who Brian Clough was and his impact on football seems appropriate for a man who embodied swagger, coolness, class, genius, insanity, arrogance, and brilliance; a man who whittled himself into one of the game’s sharpest thinkers with a winner’s edge. The great leaders in football master the…
Keep readingSam Allardyce – The Last Dance
As this frantic, deranged, ever-so-unpredictable Premier League season enters it’s final third, all the noise and all the attention is focused on it’s loftiest peak. The two Manchester clubs going at it as if it were 2012 all over again. And like 2012, Big Sam finds himself entwined with the ‘R’word. If we were to make ourselves a brew, roll…
Keep reading‘Get stuck in, chief!’
Wembley: May 1968. Even the flintiest man can cry. As Bobby Charlton clasps his boss tightly, his etiquette and decorum melt away. It is impossible to appreciate the cathartic nature of the moment entirely, but the grimace of relief etched across Manchester United’s number 9 is both palpable and haunting. By now, England’s record goalscorer has only a few strands of…
Keep readingWar Of The Roses
Elland Road is buzzing. At the Leeds city centre, fireworks are going off. Leeds have returned to the Premier League after 16 years. It’s a city that loves it’s football. A massive one-club city. And the first chant that goes off after the famous ‘Marching On Together’ is ‘Are you watching Manchester’. Rewind back thirty years when United were visiting Leeds thrice over…
Keep reading‘Dirty Leeds’ and the Revie Years
There’s a schizophrenia inherent in supporting Leeds United. In one part of the mind lives the brashness and – dare I say it – arrogance of a club that has been home to the class of John Charles, the brains of Don Revie and the man-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude of William Bremner. We all hate Leeds scum, and we like it that way. But in the…
Keep readingFacing The Sack
On Saturday 1st of November 1986, a home draw with Coventry left United nineteenth out of twenty two clubs. It was relegation form. On Tuesday the 4th, they went to Southampton for a League Cup replay and were beaten 4-1. On Wednesday the 5th, Martin Edwards gathered Sir Bobby Charlton and his lawyer Maurice Watkins and rang Aberdeen, asking for a…
Keep readingMANCHESTER UNITED VS ARSENAL: THE PREMIER LEAGUE’S LOST RIVALRY
Arsenal came to Old Trafford at the start of March in 1998, won by a goal to nil from the near unplayable Marc Overmars, went on a run of 8 consecutive victories and won the title in Arsene’s first full season in charge and denied Alex Ferguson his third successive league title. Fergie responded in a way only he could.…
Keep readingAxel Tuanzebe: The Comeback
My earliest memory of Axel Tuanzebe dates back to a very sunny afternoon in North London where he bullied prime Alexis Sanchez all game in front of a packed Emirates! Playing as the outside right centre half of a back three, his pace, strength and aerial prowess was just too much for that Arsenal attack. Fast forward a year and…
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Into Added Time 