The crowd started to drift out of Villa Park with more than thirty minutes left to play, yesterday afternoon. This has been a wretched, dismal Christmas for the supporters of Aston Villa Football Club, who have, in the course of just three matches, seen a quiet sense of unease at the progress – or lack thereof – that their team had been making this season turn to something approaching outright alarm. First up came an eight goal thrashing at the hands of Chelsea in a match as one-sided as anything that we have seen in the Premier League in the last ten years or so. This was followed up by a home defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur which ended in a four-nil defeat, but which could have been considerably worse.

And then came Wigan Athletic at Villa Park. This, the previous two matches had confirmed, was now something of a litmus test for manager Paul Lambert, a simultaneous litmus test and half-term report for a team that has continued to stall since the departure of Alex McLeish during the summer. It was a test that Lambert’s team comprehensively failed. A goal down within three minutes, two further Wigan (...)

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one… from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” - Charles Darwin

According to Darwinian evolution, the species that survives is the one most responsive to change. Natural selection is driven partly by competition, and the situation is clear: to stick around, be adaptive.

Well over 100 years since Charles Darwin sailed past Anderson’s home town in The Beagle, the struggle for existence has been a theme running through the life of the player from Porto Alegre.  His father, a depressive alcoholic who according to Anderson “didn’t want to live anymore”, died when his talented son was 13 years old. Most of Anderson’s childhood friends, in his words, “passed away, mostly from drug addiction or being involved in drug dealing”. Anderson however, clearly fancied sticking around a little longer.

"'Scared? I’ve never been scared of anything," says Anderson."And when the subject is playing football I’m not scared of anyone. In football you can’t be scared. You are there for the football; (...)

One debate within football which has started to pick up pace over the last few months or so has been that concerning the return of safe standing to top level matches in England. Several clubs have already expressed an interest in trialling safe standing areas in grounds, and this week has, perhaps, seen a story emerge from Sunderland which demonstrates why it would be beneficial for such a trial to begin as soon as possible. This week, Sunderland AFC deactivated the season tickets of thirty-eight supporters for “persistent standing” at the Stadium of Light, and have followed this low-tolerance approach by taping up the vacant seats of those that will no longer be attending matches there with a warning which stated, “This season card has been deactivated due to persistent standing.” If this threat were any more thinly veiled, it would be naked.

The big question for Sunderland supporters is that of what happens next. It’s widely recognised that a large proportion of the club’s support does stand throughout matches, and this in itself is not against the law. As the Football Supporters Federation confirms on its guide to standing at matches, “It is widely believed that this practice (...)

Rewind back to mid-September, a time in Spanish football where the team shining brightest happened to be on an island off the east coast of Spain.  The Balearic Islands were home to one of the most startling teams of the season so far, with Real Club Deportivo Mallorca situated around the first and second places in the Primera División. Five games into the season, Mallorca were unbeaten and chilling in the Champions League spots.

Over the next nine league matches, Mallorca would not win a single one, picking up a grand total of two points.  Currently, Los Vermillons sit on 16 points, just one point above the relegation zone. The manager masterminding the teams form, ‘King’ Joaquín Caparrós, who was at the initial stages of the season thought to have one of the safest jobs in the country, soon found himself under strain; unless the team starts churning out 3 points, especially with a tough run of fixtures on the horizon, who knows who’ll be in the hot seat come mid-January.

So where do the problems lie? Why has a team so sparkling in early parts of the season frequently faded to a crumpled mess?

Well firstly there’s (...)

It's often said that the lifeblood of a soccer club is its supporters. Without them a club is nothing. The most easily recognised aspect of fans' importance lies in their support of the club: motivating the players with their enthusiasm, cheering and song. They give their clubs personality and culture.

In a more basic sense, supporters enable the club to exist. They provide a revenue stream with which the club pays its players. From ticket and merchandise sales, to sponsorship dollars paid by companies hoping to capitalise on the legions of devotees already known for brand loyalty, fans are a club’s most valuable capital. Without them, they could never pay the bills.

But is this dependence two-way; can supporters exist without clubs?

When it comes to European clubs and their analogous supporters groups -- many with century-long relationships -- determining which came first is quite the chicken or the egg debate. Were there fans of football before the club, or were fans drawn to a side already assembled? While someone undoubtedly knows the answer to that question when it comes to Europe, I don't. However, the great thing about being in America at this point in our country's football evolution (...)

In the Guardian last week, Barney Ronay delightfully described football as “descending into a state of toxically vomiting incontinence”. After the recent Manchester derby in which the United captain Rio Ferdinand was hit on the head by a coin thrown from the opposition stands, the faux outrage and brouhaha that followed suggested football in England is so feral that fans should now be caged behind nets to protect the players.

As unpleasant as the Manchester incident no doubt was, on the same day here in Kolkata, India, the mother of all football derbies - East Bengal v Mohun Bagan - lasted no longer than 45 minutes; the game being abandoned at half-time due to a catalogue of incidents that made events at Eastlands seem like a game of tiddlywinks.

Witnessing the Test Match at the glorious Eden Gardens in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), we were grateful to England who were gracious enough to wrap up the cricket early on Sunday. This allowed us to venture across town to the enormous 120,000 capacity Salt Lake Stadium and witness the Indian I-League’s marquee fixture: the vociferous Kolkata derby.

Cricket, of course, is huge in India and it’s true that it transcends all other (...)

If one game encapsulated David Luiz’s career at Chelsea, it was against Leeds United in the quarter-final of the League Cup on 19 December.

On 37 minutes, the Brazilian – deployed, on paper, in his natural central defensive position alongside Branislav Ivanović – audaciously, and foolishly, tried to chip the lanky Sam Byram with the outside of his boot when well-positioned outside Leeds’ box.

With possession easily recovered by Byram, the pacey Jerome Thomas was allowed to exploit the space behind Ryan Bertrand and seamlessly set-up Luciano Becchio (who Luiz had previously handled to good effect).

However, to be fair to Luiz, these fairly regular ‘moments’ never completely throw him and just over forty minutes later, he played a sumptuous, side-footed, raking pass – as a polar parallel to his lazy first-half dink – to release Eden Hazard to coolly finish on 81’.

Admittedly, a one-dimensional argument can be made that Luiz’s mistake in the first-half would have been just as costly had he been deployed as a defensive midfielder – with the leggy John Terry/Gary Cahill returning in the heart of the defence alongside Ivanović – but that is a disservice to Luiz.

An easy target for the British (...)

Twenty-six long years have passed since Hungary last participated in a major footballing tournament.  It was the World Cup of 1986 in Mexico and even though confidence was high, the Magyars crashed out in the group stage after disappointing results to France and their bitter foes, the Soviet Union.

In 1985 Hungarian football was at the centre stage of European football as a small side named Videoton from Szekesfehervar in Western Hungary shocked the continent to reach the UEFA Cup final after beating English giants Manchester United along the way.  A 3-1 aggregate loss to Real Madrid in the final was to be expected, but nonetheless, it took nothing away from the achievement of the players who became the first Hungarian side to reach a major European final since Ferencváros ten years earlier.

Twenty-seven years on, Hungarian football couldn’t be more different. Since the inception, in 1992, of the money-making machine that is the Champions League, smaller nations from the east of Europe have struggled to make any impact in Europe’s major competitions and the bigger, wealthier countries have taken a stranglehold on the European game.

Clubs from Spain, England, Germany, Italy and Portugal can now have up (...)

An unforeseen side-effect of the Rangers International Football Club share issue was the regurgitation of the “TUPE” issue surrounding the transfer of old Rangers players to Charles Green’s new Rangers on June 14th. The share prospectus, issued on December 5th, referenced an Employment Tribunal claim against Rangers Football Club Limited “on behalf of 67 un-named players.” Caught unawares by this ‘revelation,’ sections of the Scottish press splashed with what they thought was a new legal nightmare for Rangers. However, it wasn’t ‘new’ at all. Green’s  half-successful share issue campaign – institutional investors over-subscribing in search of early profits, supporters excusably under-subscribing in tough economic times – has commanded most of his oratorical energies recently. Previously, he devoted much of them to Rangers players who “objected” to their transfer of employers from old to new Rangers, after Rangers’ CVA failed. Green appeared not to expect any such objections and made every effort to appear affronted by them. Without claiming deep expertise, I have knowledge and personal experience of TUPE, or ‘Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment)’ legislation, having been ‘TUPE-transferred’ myself and been a union representative of other transferees. The legislation prevents employment conditions being altered detrimentally as a direct (...)

“Earthling Borough? Does that mean we’ve been playing on the Planet Zog these past few years?”

The Coventry City fan who asked this question may well have enquired. The suggestion that the club could up sticks to play their home matches at Nene Park in Irthlingborough, once home of Rushden & Diamonds, 45 miles distant, has brought to a head the sorry tale of the Ricoh Arena.

This blog has gone on record before in wondering whether moving from Highfield Road in the first place was a good idea. The old ground was antiquated in places but enjoyed a much more central location and seemed relatively modern compared to some, significant renovations having been carried out as recently as 1995.

The Sky Blues’ slow on-pitch decline hasn’t helped and nor has their lack of control over the premises, with the stadium joint owned by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edwards Higgs Trust charity.

Comically oversized at 32,000, this nonetheless imposing edifice has become a millstone around Coventry City’s neck. Recently, an impasse has developed with the club’s owners, Sisu Capital highlighting the extraordinary levels of rent needed to continue playing there.

With other teams (...)

There are few people in lower division football for whom more vituperation is reserved than Graham Westley. The Preston North End manager has a reputation for management-speak and self-aggrandisement that is well known, but such character flaws are hardly unfamiliar in football management – even at its lower levels. Westley’s unpopularity runs deeper than that, though, tapping the sort of raw nerve amongst the supporters of other clubs which can render even the most placid and level-headed amongst us incandescent with dumb, impotent rage. As the manager of Stevenage Borough, he took the club into the Football League and then into League One whilst also beating Newcastle United in the FA Cup before moving on to join Preston North End, but his achievements as a manager remain somewhat tarnished by events that took place more than a decade ago.

Westley was, prior to the beginning of his managerial career, an accomplished non-league player who might have had greater success on the pitch had he not apparently had such as restless nature and been so unlucky with an injury that ended his playing days at just twenty-eight years of age. In eight years as a player, he played for thirteen different (...)

It’s time to don your Christmas jumpers, sit back on the Val Doonican rocking chair and enjoy the third Christmas Special from the Football Sofa. This year, we’re going to Catalonia.

Many years ago, before time itself, it had been prophesied that a messiah would be born.

Our Lord Diego, sitting upon his throne of majesty with his right hand forever attached to the Holy Football of the Azteca, had witnessed generation after generation of his children wantonly turn their backs on the virtue and goodness he had bestowed upon them. His Great Game had been shunned by unbelievers who sought to grow fat on the profits of Champions League expansion. Those living under their protection had sought to curry favour by committing the heinous sin of the defensive formation.

As a consequence of this, Lord Diego despatched his emissary, the archangel Gabriel Batistuta to the Catalonian capital of Barcelona where he visited the Virgin Guardiola in a vision. She would give birth to the Saviour who would shine a light onto the world and remind Diego’s children that His way was the only way. The archangel whispered into her sleeping ear that her boy would be known forevermore as (...)

by Tim Palmer

It is easy to see why the 4-2-3-1 formation is so popular. The back four is protected by the security of two midfielders, while there is natural width high up the pitch to flank a central striker. On paper, it’s a very standard, effective formation. With so many sides preferring that shape, it is tempting to say that tactical diversity has diminished.

But increasingly, the key difference between two sides playing 4-2-3-1 is the identity of the central attacking midfielder.

Some managers prefer to have a classic playmaker, like Mesut Ozil, floating between the lines solely focused on creating chances, while sometimes a more physical presence like Yaya Toure is preferred for defensive security. Coaches who crave possession at all costs will generally select a calm, reliable passer in the Xavi mould, while central wingers such as Mathieu Valbuena are also popular, instructed to move from flank to flank to create overloads down the sides.

But what if you could have a combination of all four? The proposition of such a versatile player is extremely promising, and is exactly (...)

Hero or fall guy? Donkey or destroyer? When it comes to dividing opinion and causing debate amongst the St James’ Park faithful, there have been very few players who have split opinion the like our Shola. After recently celebrating his 31st birthday, and having now spent over 12 years as a senior pro, I’ll be honest; as a Newcastle fan, I still can’t make my mind up.

For over a decade now Shola has made us who venture to St James’ Park on a regular basis want to pull our hair out in frustration more times that we can remember, but along the way, he has also given us moments where he has saved the day and made us scream with ecstasy. I have been present in SJP when he has been mercilessly abused and jeered by the home crowd, and witnessed ironic cheering as he has been hauled off after an inept display leading the line. But, and it’s a big but, I have also been present when he has produced moments of brilliance, goals out of nowhere, an unplayable performance, or holding his nerve under extreme pressure when others would have wilted. All the while, he’s gradually, (...)

Imagine last season if Manchester City, upon winning the Premier League, had decided to refuse their entry into the Champions League because they didn’t want to travel the extra distance midweek.

This, in many ways, is similar to the situation in the Northern League currently, with teams paying an abundance of money in wages to players to win games and take leagues by storm only to refuse promotion to the Evo-Stik Division One.

Clearly there is a difference between City missing out a trip to the Bernabeu and Whitley Bay, for instance, giving a trip to Skelmersdale a miss, but there is a common theme.

Most, if not all, sports fans and players would relish the chance to pit their wits against higher quality opponents and the idea of refusing the chance would raise eyebrows but it seems to be the case in the Northern League that promotion is simply an inconvenience.

Clubs themselves argue that the extra cost of travelling from the north-east to places such as Warrington, Prescot and Burscough just isn’t sustainable on their crowd levels.

However, that said, many clubs in the league are hardly short of a bob or two.

A recent investigation by Sky (...)