MALCOLM ALLISON, that big, brash, iconic figure from the early 1970s, once said the period between 1967 and 1972 was a golden age for English football. Of course, during that time, Manchester City were quite successful, so naturally, Allison would look back on this six -year spell as special. But this was an age where […]
THE PREMIER LEAGUE, thankfully, has finished and the FA and the clubs must be breathing a collective sigh of relief. It has been a peculiar campaign, unprecedented in so many ways, but even without the disruption of the pandemic, it has not been a classic year. Liverpool fans, will, of course, claim it is the […]
MANCHESTER CITY’s two-year ban from the UEFA Champions League might have been overturned, but the critics won’t let the saga close without further snipes. Managers at other clubs, league officials and media commentators have all suggested the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was foolhardy. José Mourinho said it was a “disgraceful […]
THIS COULD be the year in which one of the clubs that has had its eyes on the UEFA Champions League for the past decade could finally lift the trophy they all covet. With Manchester City reprieved from a two-year ban, which had greater implications than an absence of UCL football, they can go into […]
LIVERPOOL’s 2-0 win against Aston Villa gave the newly-crowned Premier champions 89 points from 33 games, a record win rate of 87.88% and points per game of 2.7 – all astonishing figures. While Manchester City have slipped a little from their highs of 2018 and 2019, other members of the so-called “big six” have certainly […]
LIVERPOOL’s 2019-20 champions cost the club around half a billion pounds in transfer fees, less than the amount paid to assemble Manchester City’s team in 2018-19, but still making the reds the second most expensive side to win the Premier League. Long gone are the days when clubs developed talent for their first teams – […]
THE RECENT news concerning Newcastle United’s £ 300 million takeover by the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund has sparked fresh debates around Middle Eastern and Asian interest in European and British football. Football’s legions of followers often get over-excited about the prospect of their club being taken over by a rich benefactor, but knowing your […]
BETWEEN 1968 and 1971, the late Dave Sexton, Chelsea’s softly-spoken and erudite manager, received a string of letters – written with a duck-egg green Osmiroid pen – that highlighted the skills and attributes of a midfielder plying his trade with Manchester City. The young lad who wrote these testimonials was giving Sexton the benefit of […]
SERGIO RAMOS, one of the figureheads of the modern Real Madrid, will sit out the second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie with Manchester City. At 33, you never know if it will be the last Champions League campaign for the “Svengali of white-shirted bastardism”, to quote a leading UK journalist […]
