Feel Football (UK)

How to kill English football in one move

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:37:20 -0800

Had he been around the American Midwest in the pioneering days of the nineteenth century, Bolton's chairman Phil Gartside would have no doubt appointed himself commander of any wagon trains heading towards the Californian gold rush. ...

Chelsea's African problem

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:46:17 -0800

Last night Didier Drogba showed what an asset he is to Chelsea. Currently the second best centre-forward in the world after Fernando Torres, he was magnificent away at Atletico Madrid, personally securing Chelsea's qualification to the knock-out stage of the Champions League with two typically robust, muscular goals.

It was apt pay-back for the suspension he earned himself with his comedy performance after last season's semi-final. ...

King is not a typical footballer

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:27:57 -0800

Marlon King claimed in court this week that he hadn't assaulted a 20-year-old student in a night club, breaking her nose after she rejected his clumsy advances.

It was, he said, a case of mistaken identity. If so, it wasn't the first time he had been involved in a such an error. For a start, there was the time Steve Bruce paid £5 million for him in the belief he was a Premier League striker. Clearly it was someone else Bruce was thinking of. ...

Carling Cup now playground of rich

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:48:42 -0800

Assuming that the game does not succumb to the sort of contagion of hacking and spitting not seen outside the movie 28 Days Later, Chelsea will take on Bolton Wanderers in the Carling Cup tonight.

The home side will be fortified against the arrival of the swine flu in the Bolton baggage by Carlo Ancelotti's patented remedy: warm milk and red wine. ...

It all depends on Torres

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:35:11 -0800

It was not perhaps the terminology his manager might use, but Glen Johnson was accurate in his assessment of what Sunday's game against Manchester United means for his club's season. Speaking in Liverpool's training ground earlier this week, the England full-back described the fixture as "s*** or bust". ...

Benitez is right out of luck

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:58:51 -0800

Never mind a stray black cat, the luck he is having Rafa Benitez must have run down an entire cattery on his way to work at Melwood. As if losing to a comedy blow-up goal was not enough to make him think the world was conspiring against him, last night's game against Lyon would surely have had him considering a lifetime membership of the Paranoid Society (mission statement: "You talkin' to me?"). ...

That's what you call a derby

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:54:24 -0800

For most clubs in the Premier League, a visit to Blackburn would represent the trip least likely to excite the masses. Most fans scour the fixture list when it is printed to check out the date of visits to Old Trafford, Anfield, the Emirates and possibly this season, that home of the new Harlem Globetrotters, the Blue Camp, the City of Manchester stadium. ...

Fabio's limited choice

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:56:14 -0800

Peter Crouch and Gabriel Agbonlahor are likely to start for England against Belarus this evening, with both Shaun Wright-Phillips and Aaron Lennon beetling down the flanks.

Rightly so. If Fabio Capello's expressed managerial intention to pick his England team on form rather than reputation is to have any meaning, then they must get their chance once proper circumstances allow. ...

Would you miss Ronaldo?

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:50:19 -0800

So would you miss them? Would, in your opinion, the tournament be reduced by their absence? Or are you so one-eyed in your affection for England the fewer obstacles in their way the better? The fact is, if things do not go their way over the next few days, there is a very real chance the World Cup will kick off next June without the participation of the two finest current protagonists in the world game. ...

Sven's comedy turn

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:06:40 -0800

If you are one of the boundary-pushing million to have signed up for internet coverage of England's game in Ukraine, and assuming you have a broadband connection sufficiently substantial to cope with buffering and disconnects, and assuming you haven't been unplugged by aggrieved junior members of the family anxious to get back to poking their friends, then you are in for an unexpected treat. ...