Simon Kuper on the pleasure of playing just for the sake of playing.
Moritz Volz talks of player platitudes and interviews.
John Giles’ thoughts on the arrival of Dennis Wise at Newcastle.
I received an e mail over the weekend that said I was full of you-know-what when I claimed that Guinea was ranked third by FIFA in Africa. Sorry but here is the FIFA ranking for Africa.
An excerpt from an interview Robert Pires gave to Champions magazine.
Paul Doyle says that the African Cup of Nations is more than just another tournament for the players.
Jonathan Wilson looks at Benin’s preparation for the tournament.
Here is another place where you can access the African Cup of Nations. You can buy per game, the group phase or the highlights. Muntari’s winner against Guinea was an absolute cracker.
A BBC article marking the 25th anniversary of Garrincha’s death. For anyone who has not read Ruy Castro’s book, get it and you will enjoy. It is an incredible story. Someone once said that before there was George Best there was Garrincha – that applied to the on-field and off-field exploits.
Harry Pearson's original review of the book contained the following: "It's hard to imagine the biography of any English footballer featuring cannibalism, masturbation contests and the subject losing his virginity with a goat inside the first twenty pages..."
A very sober and fair assessment of Kevin Keegan from Nick Townsend.
And Rob Hughes’ take on the Liverpool Boot Room, Hicks, Gillett, Rafa and possibly new owners.
The latest on cuddly Jack Warner from Andrew Jennings. It’s a pity that the larger CONCACAF nations can’t gather up the courage to take a run at this on-going embarrassment.
Here is some additional background to the Antigua story.
Celtic executive Peter Lawwell looks at what the dismantling of the G-14 means for his club as well as to club football in Europe.
Finally a massive thank you to all the people I met at the NSCAA convention in Baltimore. And in particular thank you to Charlie Cooke for his patience in listening to my boyhood memeories of his time in the dark blue of Dundee and Scotland.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
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