When it comes to penalties
I’ve just had a quick scan through the laws of the game and noticed that penalty shoot-out penalties are not actually referred to as penalties, as we all tend to do, they are in fact “kicks from the penalty mark”. It’s all gone a bit Tannoy/loud speaker system, Hoover/vacuum hasn’t it?! However, I’m not sure I’d side with the purveyors […]
No more curses, crying and a carrying on (for now)
The 1990 World Cup: a significant tournament in the bookmarking of some of England’s enduring imagery. Penalties, tears and John Barnes rap aside, one incident inparticular, during the semi-final against Germany, has, I think, been the one to have cast the darkest and spindliest of shadows over subsequent national players. But, oh how we larfed, until we […]
Roy’s Greek-esque Tragedy
We knew it was coming, and we all (I thought), after some initial kicking and screaming, had come to accept the inevitability of it. Yet, still Roy Hodgson’s overtly pragmatic approach to the game against France has shaken awake its fair share of detractors. What were these people expecting? As an England fan I have […]
We don’t need another hero
If you were to x-ray the skulls of England’s finest during any major tournament (ignoring the fake turds and paper cuttings of themselves), I imagine all you’d find would be the black and white clips of Bobby Charlton crashing one in from 20 yards, or Bobby Moore perfectly timing a tackle, or Gary Linekar reeling away, or David Platt […]
Racism fears at the tournament
I haven’t seen the Panorama documentary, so admittedly can’t really speak specifically about the questions it raises. However, something the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said in the wake of Andres Breivick’s actions has really stuck with me. He reiterated that “more openness and not less” was the answer. That a more open society must […]
Not A Rant: My Real Pet Hate: Pet Hates
“Lying finds champions in those who recognise that without lies people would have no inner privacy, that life might be infected with boredom and despair, and much evil could result.” A.C Grayling, The Meaning of Things, 2001 A week or so ago I flexed my somewhat flaccid blogging community muscle and submitted my ‘Pet […]
Not A Rant: The Sun in ‘exactly the f*ckwitted sort of thing The Sun do’ Shocker
Whether it’s either, as we might imagine, simply the vitriol of knuckle-headed-knuckle-dragging bigots, or the calculated actions of debauched marketing strategists attempting to shift some units – are we really THAT surprised by this virulent nonsense anymore? Pseudo-moralising (usually on Twitter) is entirely ineffectual and only propagates their unflinching malevolence. STOP. F*CKING. BUYING. IT. They […]
Not A Rant: A Commentator Prefacing A Statement With “Should Have”…
Should have scored from there” / “should have got a hand to that” / “should have looked up” / “should have made that substitution earlier” / “should have won that game”. You get the gist. What I find myself infuriated by is the implication that someone, somewhere, ‘should have’ done better. To most, I’m sure […]
There was something in the heir … Fernando
If like me you enjoy spending a couple of minutes a week sticking Premier League footballers, or European club names, into Google Translate in an attempt to fill the void in your life created by your lack of sociability, you may have discovered that Torres means ‘Towers’ (one of my personal favourites being Otelul Galati, […]
Eat my An Oak Tree
It was inevitable that at some point in my capacity as A. N. Other Football Blogger I would be drawn into attempting to, in some way, address from my own point of view, an aspect of football’s relationship, or lack there of, with ‘art’. In my civvies away from this site, in what would be considered by some in direct contrast, I own and run […]
Gary Speed 1969 – 2011
It remains true that we never quite get over the sorrow caused by losing those most loved, we only learn to live with it, and to live despite it; which – and there is no paradox here – makes living a richer thing. That is sorrow’s gift, though we never covet it. A.C. Grayling (The […]
Engerlund’s irie, I spose.
I stopped sulking just in time to watch both England games this past week after a self imposed exile that stretches back to when the F.A, Capello, or whoever, reinstated John Terry as captain after he’d not actually apologised for all the bad stuff he’d done back in March of this year. I hadn’t missed much in those few […]