Category: Blogs

  • Have The Toffees Come Unstuck?

    Have The Toffees Come Unstuck?

    When Everton are in the mood, they are very good, with flair players all over the park. On form, they could sneak a European spot at the end of the season but that depends on two things. First is that they need to put teams away when they are on top in matches instead of…

  • Manchester United: A Tough Road Back

    Manchester United: A Tough Road Back

    Manchester United’s last nine days were like the week from hell. Not only have their dreams of Champions League football ended after a 3-2 defeat away to Wolfsburg but they dropped more points at the weekend after a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth in the chase for the title. The millions lost by going out of…

  • Barcelona Begins To Look Like The Real Deal Again

    Barcelona Begins To Look Like The Real Deal Again

                    For 90 minutes at the weekend, all of us went back in time a couple of years, to a period when one football team so eclipsed all others that they were being considered not just the best side on the planet at that moment but one of…

  • A Sport That Ignores What It Doesn’t Like

    A Sport That Ignores What It Doesn’t Like

    I love football, but there’s something about the game that’s pretty hard to deny. Football, above and beyond any other sport, is incredibly good at ignoring problems. Its leaders are incredibly good at wishing they’d go away. I’m writing a lengthy piece for this site on the continuing trials Scottish football is enduring as the…

  • Not So Special Anymore?

    Not So Special Anymore?

    So is this how it ends? With a whimper? With a team languishing mid-table, out of the title race by November? Does the career of one of the most interesting, and successful, managers in the history of the game really come crashing down like this? Jose Mourinho has been at the top of the global…

  • EPL Matchday 10: One Bore Draw And Many Harry Returns

    EPL Matchday 10: One Bore Draw And Many Harry Returns

    Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea took another battering, on and off the pitch, over the last few days as this weekend’s Premier League matches saw them defeated, again, this time to West Ham. They followed that up with a penalty kicks defeat at Stoke, in the League Cup, although like most of the other top clubs that’s…

  • Chaos At Leeds Shows No Sign Of Ending

    Chaos At Leeds Shows No Sign Of Ending

    Being from Scotland, and being a Celtic supporter, I have followed the story of British football’s most dysfunctional club, the one at Ibrox, keenly. Some of what has happened there is without parallel anywhere in the game, except perhaps for the rash of arrests and indictments at FIFA, but only someone who knows nothing about…

  • International Blues

    International Blues

    Is it only me who hates international weeks? Perhaps it’s a Scottish thing. All too often, our performances are the kind you watch from behind your hands, but only if there’s no room behind the sofa. The match against Poland was a case in point; you could feel the tension mounting up as the game…

  • EPL Matchday 7 Roundup: Sanchez Hits Hat-Trick In A Big Weekend

    EPL Matchday 7 Roundup: Sanchez Hits Hat-Trick In A Big Weekend

    Kane and Rooney finally scored. Sanchez hit a hat-trick and Newcastle blew it … again. It was a big weekend for in the EPL, with wins for Manchester United, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Stoke, Southampton and, of course, Liverpool and Spurs. In the latter match, Harry Kane ended weeks of fevered speculation about whether or not…

  • Ligue 1 Review: Montpellier 2-3 Monaco

    Ligue 1 Review: Montpellier 2-3 Monaco

    It’s been a dismal start to the season for Montpellier, who now sit bottom of Ligue 1 with just a single point taken from their opening six games. The result in this game didn’t make things any better …. Monaco’s start, while not exactly meeting expectations, has been better. They sat in 12th on 8…