Jan Molby is a player that I have a lot of time for. The Danish footballer was a maestro in midfield. While he's best remembered as being a pivotal player for Liverpool during his time there between 1984 and 1996, he has a special place in my heart for being a pioneer with the club I support, Swansea City, where he introduced a beautiful style of play as player manager which laid the groundwork for Roberto Martinez's arrival, much later, in 2007.

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Ian Edward Wright, known now by many a name but during in footballing career he was fondly known as ‘Wrighty'.

Born in the fine year of 1963, he went on to be a half decent striker at Crystal Palace and then Arsenal and boy, did he love to score!

He had a bit of a strange start to his career in football, he had trials at both Southend and Brighton while in his teenage years but neither club thought he was good enough and let him go on his merry way.

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As we continue with our build up to this weekends FA Cup Final between Lewes and Hampton and Richmond Borough, something exciting arrived at EFW Towers this morning which I'd like to share with you.
Forget your 101 Greatest Goals DVD, forget James Nesbitt's Own Goals and Gaffs DVD (with pleasure - Ed), this is the DVD to be seen with this Christmas. Click to continue reading...

Without doubt the highlight this weekend is the climax of the season in Malaysia with Kelantan taking on Negeri Sembilan in the Malaysia Cup final at Bukit Jalil. Earlier in the season some 40,000 fans from the north east descended on the nation's capital to see their heroes take on Selangor in the FA Cup Final only to go home broken hearted. Click to continue reading...

It's the FA Cup First Round this weekend so, in the first of five pieces about the Oldest Cup Competition In The World (and there's a phrase that is probably copyrighted by The FA), we take a look back at Wycombe Wanderers' run to the semi-finals of the competition in 2001.

The FA Cup is a competition that throws up surprise results every season, but some records remain and one that may never be broken is that no-one from the bottom two divisions of the Football League has made The FA Cup final.

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More than a decade before "The Full Monty", the decline of the city of Sheffield and the effect of the collapse of the city's steel industry was already well documented. This week's Video Of The Week goes back to 1984. "Steel City Blues" traces the decline of the city and ties it together with Sheffield Wednesday's attempts to get back into the First Division for the first time since 1970.

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David Moyes - Management is a lonely job at times

To say it was a week to forget for Evertonian's is an understatement.
Three games, three defeats, 10 goals conceded and a casualty list befitting a small battlefield, it is no wonder Toffees fans are wearing concerned expressions at the moment.

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Joe Royle, Football and Management legend and current ESPN UK co-commentator joins us on the EPL Talk Podcast.

Hear Royle's thoughts about the opportunity to work with the legendary Jon Champion on ESPN, as well as his memories of the epic second division playoff final at Wembley between Manchester City and Gillingham.

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Everton manager David Moyes has not contained his anger at the Carling Cup organizers for forcing a Tuesday kickoff at White Hart Lane. The match will be Everton's third in a six day span, and Moyes is pointing the fingers at the tournament's organizers.

The Carling Cup fixture against a strong Tottenham Hotspurs side comes just days after Everton's Premier League fixture at Bolton and their Europa League fixture away to Benfica.

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The Goal That Saved Fergie's Career
Uploaded by RepublikOfMancunia.

The legend goes that had Mark Robins not scored to put United through to the 1990 FA Cup final, which we went on to win, Sir Alex Ferguson would have been given the sack. This is a story that the manager denies but after almost four years in charge and not a trophy in sight it stands to reason that time might have been running out for the manager.

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Rafael Benitez's six seasons at Anfield have been marked by one consistent trend: when his team's fortunes appear bleakest, the Reds have the ability to summon their finest efforts. On Sunday the concept of "Rafaball" was once more on display.
The last time LFC lost four straight, Margaret Thatcher was enjoying high tea with Ronald Reagan. Click to continue reading...

Last week's Thai FA Cup final between Thai Port and BEC Tero marked a watershed in Thai football. It brought together the new look TPL, rebranded and emphasizing community, against the old style Thai football. Corporate with no community backing.
BEC Tero are backed by a Thai TV station and have had their moment of glory in the recent past but even a commercial tie up with the Arsenal isn't enough to pull in the punters. Click to continue reading...

Big Story

Today most newspapers are running with the extraordinary pressure on Rafa Benitez's Liverpool to win their fixture today against Manchester United, a game that Gary Neville recently called Manchester's "real" derby.� Following last week's infamous (foot)Ball on (beach)Ball action and a home loss to Lyon in the CL, the fans and press have their fangs out for Liverpool's big man, and if not for him, then the American whipping boys Gillette and Hicks.

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For some cracking images Gromit, of Thai Port fans on FA Cup Final day last Friday check out these from the Thai Port blog.
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Is it time for ASEAN football to be shown on regional TV?
I was flicking through the channels of South African TV the other day in a bar and I was seeing shows, or previews, dedicated to Zambian football, Kenyan plus of course South African. And that was in just 60 seconds.
It will never happene here though. Click to continue reading...

I had intended to do a Jakarta Casual TV broadcast for this but decided I didn't really have the time to source the pictures or prepare visuals. After all, no bugger wants my boat glaring out at them from their computer screen.
Some Indonesian action around the islands. On Sumatra new boys PSPS Pekanbaru are winless after their opening three games but they face a tough challenge tomorrow when they host Persijap who currently sit 3rd boasting a 100% record. Click to continue reading...

Quarter final first legs tonight. Favourites Selangor take on Terengganu at the Shah Alam Stadium and in my humble opinion could be in for a hard night. And that piece of wisdom is based on 90 minutes watching the team known as the Turtles beat Johor 4-2 earlier in the month. Their assistant coach Mohamad Nik is warning them against losing concentration. Click to continue reading...

As with so many of his compatriots, Rafa Benitez likes nothing more than unwinding over a game of 'mus', a traditional Spanish card game devised in the Basque country, which pits teams of two in a battle of tactics, concentration and collaboration. To the uninformed, mus sounds similar to the sedate, cerebral game of 'bridge'. Click to continue reading...

Hang your head in shame...
11 Players That Have Been Sent Off At Wembley Stadium
1. Antonio Rattin (for Argentina v England, 1966 World Cup)
2. Billy Bremner (for Leeds v Liverpool, 1974 Charity Shield)
3. Kevin Keegan (for Liverpool v Leeds, 1974 Charity Shield)
4. Kevin Moran (for Man United v Tottenham, 1985 FA Cup Final)
5. Click to continue reading...

We have received an email from Joey Kearney who is a fellow Evertonian in Florida and is looking to start an Orlando chapter.Joey has also emailed some photos of Everton taken in Salt Lake City at the MLS All Stars game as well as one taken on a trip back home to England to see Everton in the FA Cup Final. Click to continue reading...

On May 17, 1990, Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 1-0 in the FA Cup Final replay to win the first silverware of Sir Alex Ferguson's 22-year reign at Old Trafford. It had taken the Scot three-and-a-half years to achieve it, but 32 trophies later the adoring Mancunian fans have no qualms about the bedding-down period Ferguson was granted. Click to continue reading...

The FA Cup Final, May 1989 was contested by Everton and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium. It became one of the most memorable FA Cup Final in terms of excitement, emotions and tension. John Aldridge had put Liverpool 1-0 up after four minutes but Stuart McCall equalised in the 89th minute to force extra time. Click to continue reading...

Colorado Rapids - With the Rapids two draws last week they are now 3rd int he West and 5th overall in MLS. New England and Chivas are lurking right behind them with games in hand though, and Colorado no longer has games in hand over the teams in front of them. The Rapids are tied for 2nd in goals scored with DC and Columbus and are 6th in goals allowed. Click to continue reading...

Infamous Chelsea flop Chris Sutton has been appointed manager at Lincoln City.

Sutton moved to Chelsea from Blackburn in 1999 for a cool £10 million following Rovers' relegation. He proceeded to net just one goal in 26 league appearances. He was even left out of the squad for the Blues' FA Cup Final win in 2000.

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Tim Howard played a blinder in his first season at United, so much so, he was named PFA Keeper of the Year. It is important to note he fought off competition from Jens Lehmann who had just enjoyed an unbeaten season with Arsenal and Chelsea's Carlo Cudicini, who both conceded fewer goals than him.

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ERIC SAMUEL
Former national coach B. Sathianathan has accepted an offer from Kelantan to take charge of their team for the Malaysia Cup competition which kicks off on Saturday.
Sathianathan, who met KFA president Tan Sri Annuar Musa in Kota Baru yesterday, said that details of the contract would be drawn up soon. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal 2-0 WBA

Strictly speaking, this is no match review. I couldn't listen to the game, I didn't hunt around for a stream in a haystack and I've not got time to watch the re-run on Arsenal.com. So seeing as, at the time of writing, all I've done is flitted in and out of Twitter, I've not got a lot of insight into the game itself.

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I would never be one to suggest that constipation is a good thing.
But a positive side effect of having occasionally eaten too many pies is the requirement to stay a little longer in the bathroom than perhaps one usually would.
Such delays enable one to spend some time perusing the copy of "1001 Football Moments" residing on top of the laundry basket. Click to continue reading...

A funny thing happened to the "We need relegation so that late season games involving teams who are out of the playoffs won't be so meaningless and dull" theory:
It got blown all to hell.
Already-eliminated New York and might-as-well-be-eliminated San Jose*, both of them dead last in their respective divisons would, under a single table/relegation format, currently be working out their transfers to USL1 even as we speak. Click to continue reading...

ERIC SAMUEL
PETALING JAYA: Peter Butler has resigned as coach of Kelantan, throwing the team's preparations for next week's Malaysia Cup competition into disarray.
Azman Ibrahim, the chairman of the team management committee, said Butler had on Thursday informed the Kelantan FA (Kafa) via fax of his intention to resign with immediate effect as his wife was ill. Click to continue reading...

Welsh legend Mel Charles joins us on the podcast.

Hear about his book "In The Shadow of a Giant"

Also discussed:

- The 1958 Welsh World Cup Team
- Who was the best attacking player Charles faced
- His brother John's career
- The Cardiff City vs Swansea City rivalry
- Thoughts about John Toshack both as a player and a manager

Related posts:

1. EPL Talk Podcast: Questions Please For Mel Charles
2. EPL Talk Podcast: Mikel John Obi
3. Why this Welshman will be Supporting Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final

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Interesting article on The Roar today regarding the viability of having the A-League on Free To Air (FTA) TV. It has generated a substantial amount of discussion amongst the readers and got me thinking about where I stand on the topic.
Although author Adrian Musolino makes some good points I cannot help but think he has missed a critical one. Click to continue reading...

I remember the 1981 centenary FA Cup final, if not like it was yesterday then a lot more recently than 28 years ago. It was the season I began supporting Spurs, and so I'll always have very fond memories...

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The TV ratings are in for ESPN2's opening game of the 2009/2010 Premier League season, which featured Chelsea against Hull City. And the results are pretty decent� especially considering that EPL Talk didn't break the news until 7:46pm ET on the night before the game. Plus, the fact that the game kicked off at 7:45 ET on a Saturday morning.

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Since the beginning of August there has been a 'fun' game to select a 'team to follow' in this year's FA Cup which begins tonight with the Extra Premliminary Round.
Due to an overwhelming number of votes (precisely NIL) it was down to the editor (ie me) to decide the match number and therefore the team to follow, all the way to Wembley to the FA Cup Final next May, 2010. Click to continue reading...