The football blog for fans of all clubs
Updated in December 2015 Born:Â March 20th 1984 Fernando Torres was born in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid. Joined Atletico Madrid:Â 1995 First professional contract:Â 1999 Torres signed his first professional contract with Atletico Madrid when he was 15-years-old. European Under-16 Football Championship, May 6th 2001 Torres was the highest scorer in the competition and scored the only goal […]
Manchester City were undoubtedly the best team in the country last season. They scored the most goals, conceded the least, and played the best brand of football. Dominating the English game and amassing trophies is their long-term plan; a distinct possibility given the resources at their disposal. Despite the obvious positives of City’s first championship […]
“My heart and soul was tied to Arsenal with a fisherman’s knot. I don’t think even Houdini could have unravelled it. Not for one minute did I see myself leaving. There was only ever one club in England, let alone London, and that was the Arsenal.” – My Defence, Ashley Cole. Ashley Cole is a […]
When it comes to surviving in the Premier League, managers and pundits alike will often speak about reaching the magical 38-point mark. It is very rare, however, to hear talk of how many points will be needed to attain any other positions. With that thought in mind, I decided to look back through the Premier […]
ROY KEANE Honours: 1993-2005 – 480 appearances (51 goals); Premier League 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003; FA Cup 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004; Champions League 1999; Inter-Continental Cup 1999 Quote: “If I was putting Roy Keane out there to represent Manchester United on a one against one, we’d win the Derby, the National, the […]
I’ll be honest. I never used to like Brendan Rodgers. I used to think he thought he was special, because of his training under ‘The Special One’, but since he’s taken the helm at Liverpool, I’ve started to like him. For the way he plays his football (I knew this before of course, but I […]
Just two weeks have passed since Paris Saint Germain completed the mammoth double €62 million signing of both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva from Italian giants AC Milan, and in that time frame there has been multiple reports and rumours about just where the Rossoneri are going to turn next with Dimitar Berbatov and Mapou […]
Roberto Carlos was born in the city of Garça, São Paulo, in 1973. He had a poor childhood and used to spend his time between helping his parents in farm jobs, and playing with his friends after all his work duties were over. In 1981, Roberto Carlos moved with his family to Cordeirópolis. In 1991, […]
What does a football manager look like? It might sound like a facile question but it matters. In Britain, a top-level football manager is likely to be a white, middle-aged man. He is extremely likely to have been a former football player. In the higher-levels of the game being Scottish helps disproportionately as does a […]
The FA ruled that on the “balance of probability”, Luis Suarez racially abused Patrice Evra in a game between rivals Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield. The most damning evidence was probably the argument that “negro” could only be considered a safe term if used in a friendly way. Given that Suarez and Evra were […]
I watched the 2005 Champions League final with my buddy Andrew. Andrew is Scottish, so thus doesn’t really care about football, instead preferring that darkest and most pious of arts, rugby union. As Liverpool scored once, twice, three times, Jerzy Dudek pulled off a miraculous/fluke save from Andriy Shevchenko then that penalty shoot-out, events escalated […]
After making five appearances for the first team from the bench, as well as a hattrick for the Reserves against Middlesbrough, 18-year-old Andy Carroll was rewarded with a four-year deal with his boyhood club, Newcastle United. “I am delighted to sign the new contract and I hope to have a great future at Newcastle United,” […]
Coming off the back of a successful 3-1 win over the United Arab Emirates, one thing that stood out with regards to the Team GB squad was the true lack of a potent up-and-coming marquee striker for England that is still young enough to play at U21 level (or below!) for their country. Wayne Rooney […]
There’s nothing wrong with the game itself. There’s no harm at all in spending a lazy afternoon getting Exeter City into the Champions League. There are far too many people, however, who seem to have lost sight of one of the most fundamentally important aspects of the top-selling management simulator, Football Manager… brace yourself… isn’t […]
Having pulled out of the Great Britain Olympic team with a back injury, Gareth Bale upset a few people when he showed up in a Tottenham Hotspur pre-season game before any Olympic football had even been played. He scored in Spurs’ 1-1 draw with LA Galaxy and played 75 minutes. Bale then started Spurs’ game […]
These days it would normally be a term of abuse to call a Manchester United footballer ‘an amateur’, but it wasn’t always so. Sometimes it’s simply been a statement of fact, albeit applying to less than a dozen players in United’s history from the 1880s to the 1960s. Thoughts about this select band who pulled […]
“I can’t believe that in England they don’t teach young players to be multi-functional. To them it’s just about knowing one position and playing that position. To them, a striker is a striker and that’s it. For me, he is somebody who has to move, who has to cross, and who has to do this […]
The MLS All Stars showed how much progress football in the USA has made by beating newly crowned European Champions Chelsea in a pre-season friendly. Chris Wondolowski, the 29-year-old American who plays for San Jose Earthquakes, look the lead after 20 minutes after a cross from Thierry Henry. Twelve minutes later Chelsea equalised with a […]
It seems an age ago since the Martin O’Neill era at Aston Villa. When we look at the position of the club last season it is a far cry to that of a club that not too long ago had become perpetual top six finishers in the Premier League under the Northern Irishman. Under O’Neill’s […]
Not since the days of Pierre van Hooijdonk have we seen the threat of industrial action loom over English football like it has in the last few days. That’s not entirely true; there have been strikers before and since. Who can forget Carlos Tevez’s golfing tour of Argentina (apart from Mancini of course)? But van […]
