No, They Won’t Shut Up and Dribble
The beginning of the new, expanded UEFA Champions League recently has brought the footballing world back to the discussion of its ever-worsening calendar. Of course, the increasing of games is not a…
Qarabag FK – Caught in the Crossfire
Tottenham’s preparation for their Europa League clash against Qarabağ consisted of an underwhelming smash-and-grab job against Championship Coventry City and a much more assured victory over Brentford. For the Azerbaijani outfit, it…
Women’s Super League 2024-25 – Preview
Best league in the world? That’s open to more debate than the English media may have you believe, but it’s fairer to say that the Women’s Super League is an outlier among…
The Rise of Hungary and the Carpathian Brigade
As a Hungarian, who is infatuated with the national team, growing up in the late naughties and early 2010’s, I was not exactly accustomed to seeing my beloved reds represent the country…
The Curious Case of Gareth Southgate’s England
Like most things in the age of social and mass media, the reputations of footballers and their abilities are front and centre for those of us who deal with the ups and…
Venezuela’s Copa America – Built on Faith but Broken by Misfortune
Every four years, football writers from around the world will be whimsically redeployed from their usual stations and assigned to the Copa America, CONMEBOL’s continental competition in which Argentina and Uruguay reign…
Todd Boehly, Chelsea, and Strasbourg – Players in an Elaborate 4D Chess Game
When the BlueCo consortium became majority owners of Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg in June 2023, it marked the beginning of another multi-club ownership model. BlueCo, the same financial vehicle used to…
Gareth Southgate’s England – More Than the Goals
When did you notice they stopped taking the knee? Did you even notice? Don’t worry, we’ll get back to that. Gareth Southgate’s final attempt to coach the England men’s team to a…
The Saudi Pro League: Much Ado About Nothing?
Last summer, it seemed as if the future of football was shifting. Almost out of the blue, big-name players from top European Leagues began departing on masse. Their destination: Saudi Arabia. Karim…
Ode to Joy
1. I am not sure why, last winter, sat beside my dad in the Ninian Stand, I was thinking about the way the pitches I played on as a child used to…
Torcia Verde – a Unique Pocket of Football and Lisbon
“Sporting Clube de PORTUGAL!!” was something I would get used to having shouted at me during my few days in Lisbon every time I mistakenly used the despised term “Sporting Lisbon.” Many…
Emma Hayes, Carla Ward, and exhaustion in the women’s game
“I just feel re-energised,” Emma Hayes said after her first game in charge of the US Women’s National Team (USWNT). “You can see we’re building something.” And so Hayes begins the building…
Manchester United and Erik ten Hag – Standing, but on Flimsy Foundations
After weeks of deliberation, Manchester United’s new sporting owners have made a call about their men’s first team managerial position; Erik ten Hag stays. Yes, two trophies in two seasons makes for…
Ange Postecoglou and the Price of Dogma
Over the past year, the footballing world has received a taste of Ange Postecoglou to the extent it never had before. He has been around for quite a while as a manager,…
Breaching the Golden Glass Ceiling: Arsenal and The Invincibles
David Dein and Arsène Wenger first met during the 1988-89 season, a relationship embarked upon through “chance conversations and spontaneous invitations”, as detailed in Amy Lawrence’s fantastic Invincible: Inside Arsenal’s Unbeaten 2003-2004…
Imagine Sisyphus Happy – Jurgen Klopp: Part-Manager, Part-Philosopher
As a woman and a professor of philosophy, I have seen football always very differently. I had poor knowledge of tactical systems, but I enjoyed from all my heart the great spectacle…
Switzerland Women’s Euros 2025: Are We Actively Progressing?
Women’s football is being catapulted into wider exposure, greater demands, and higher levels of investment in a once male-dominated industry. With the back-end success of the Women’s Euros in 2022 and the…
Manchester United: Like a Rolling Dice
In football, a single game is often too brief a sample of events to draw definitive conclusions from. Even the most formidable teams have their off days, appearing as mere spectators while…
The Boehly-Roman Empire: What the New Chelsea Regime Is Missing
I know what you’re thinking: that pun is just taking it too far. You’re right. It is. But there’s more at play here than a contrived attempt at punnery, and with these…
The Richarlison Remontada
It’s no secret that Richarlison struggled at the beginning of his Spurs career. He needed help and sought therapy, struggling through injuries, and didn’t have a regular position under Antonio Conte. However,…
Martin Ødegaard and Arsenal: A Perfect Fit
Tony Adams was just before my time. The man nicknamed Mr. Arsenal, who captained the club for 14 years, retired the summer I started watching football, having just led the team to…
Dear Liverpool FC: A Love Letter to the Reds
Football is just a leisure activity, but one we all love and one I cannot imagine my life without (though it certainly sometimes ruins our whole weekend). We shape our lives in…
Pape Matar Sarr – A Key Piece to the Spurs Puzzle
You wouldn’t think when the young midfielder sat on the bench for the majority of last season, that he would start every game he was available in this season. The young Senegalese…
The story of Sunday Mba, Nigeria’s unexpected hero at the 2013 Nations Cup
Football has a knack for producing the unlikely, whether in the form of a modest nation’s fairytale rise or a football club achieving greatness against all odds—like Greece at the 2004 Euros…