The first game I've been able to watch live in approximately a month, and it just had to be the dire one. No matter, the game on Sunday is much more important ( Read more... )

E-mail from PT today with the title of his new book. I've had it preordered for ages, but on his website he recommends Neil Dunkin's Anfield of Dreams, and while I was ordering that, my eye was caught by Brian Reade's 43 Years with the Same Bird. But hey, I was looking forward to a long summer (and ... life, hopefully) of reading about football, so ( Read more... )

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TOMKINS! (duh):

Mascherano is not a silky Argentine of the Messi and Maradona mould, but he has some special qualities of his own. It's weird, he passes beautifully, but is beastly and bullish in harassing opponents and winning the ball. In that sense he's like Graeme Souness, although I'm not aiming to start direct comparisons between the two at ( Read more... )

Ugh, I have four more pages to write, one for each hour I have left. Clearly it's time for drastic procrastination.

So! PT this week, on the defense, and Daggerboy in particular:

While the midfield and strikers worked their socks off, covering every blade of grass in a manner reminiscent of the visiting Valencia side of 2002, it was the defence ( Read more... )

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned this yet, but Paul Tomkins is taking a break from all official writing because of his illness (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). As someone who has bought and devoured three of his books, I feel more than a bit queasy about this, not only because I look up to him as a writer and as a fan, but because it comes as a ( Read more... )

That's all it takes: one ocean (one swivel of the head, one almost imperceptible shift of hemispheres), a man and a book, and, er, $26.20. That's all it takes to make me happy again.


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- Jerzy's such a dork sometimes. I'm so glad they found his stuff.

- Paul Tomkins's tribute to Didi. It's a lot less sentimental than what I wrote last night, but then again, Paul has seen him play from the start, when the kaiser wasn't quite as surefooted as he is now. But yeah, this part made my day:

He was incredible in tight situations, ( Read more... )

Not only is Paul Tomkins profound and touching, but he is also hilarious at times. Witness the end of today's column:

You'll Never Warble Alone

Last Saturday afternoon I took my son to see his mother perform in the chorus of a stage production of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel. Apparently it contained one or two good songs. 'You'll ( Read more... )

The article is odd but okay, but check out the headline.

Rafa revels in fit of the giggles at formation folly
By Guy Hodgson
Published: 23 April 2006
IndependentFootball fans try to go for the underbelly and Liverpool's walking along Sir Matt Busby Way were no different. "Chelsea FC," they chanted, "you ain't got no history." You can imagine ( Read more... )