By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
So, the FA have finally got their man. The man they have been so patiently waiting for. The man
everyone loves. The man doing so well in the Premier League. The man so obviously the right choice
for the England job – Roy Hodgson.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Ashley Young's arrival at Old Trafford has been met with mixed reaction amongst Manchester
United fans. At around £15m some say he's good value English talent when compared to the £20m
Liverpool paid to bring in Jordan Henderson from Sunderland, but could he end up being a £15m
bench warmer?
Barton and Bendtner's Battling Egos - AFR Podcast Ep13 iTunes /Â
Soundcloud / RSS
Oliver Sparrow, Dominic Vieira, and Eric Beard run rule over everything going on in the world of
football from the past week.
Topics include: Copa Libertadores, the latest in transfers and signings in the
Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A, the CONCACAF Gold, Youtube's decision to stream all of Copa
América, the madness going on between Aston Villa and Birmingham, the talent on show in the UEFA
U21 tournament in Denmark, Arsenal Magazine's twitter getting hacked, hipster and egomaniacal Joey
Barton, Marcelo Bielsa reportedly agreeing to become Athletic Bilbao's new manager, FIFA's fixture
date farce, Budweiser being the sponsor of the FA Cup, and more.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Under 21's tournaments usually don't tend to hold a lot of interest for the average English
football fan, but occurring as it does in a dead spot in a fallow football summer devoid of much
meaningful sporting interest (even the miserable weather conspired to rain off today'stennis final
at Queen's), a fair few eyes will be cast over the tasty-looking encounter between the young stars
of England and Spain this evening; made all the more interesting by the big-money transfers of
Jordan Henderson to Liverpool and Phil Jones to Manchester United (prospectively).
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
"If we can go to Man Utd and get something and that keeps us up, I think that will be the best
story that I've ever read or seen unfold - never mind anything that William Shakespeare's ever
written." – Ian Holloway
Fifty-seven minutes of Blackpool's do-or-die last game of the season again Manchester United had
elapsed.
 By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Finally the fateful day has arrived - Survival Sunday. Come this evening we'll all know who will
be joining poor old Scott Parker's West Ham in The Championship and who will be staying up to enjoy
another season of fun and frolics in the Premier League.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
What a fantastic game of football - I think I've just about managed to recover my breath. The
beautiful game doesn't get much better than this. I can't recall having watched a better match than
this in any league, cup competition or major final.
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The AFR House was rocking once again, although this time around we couldn't manage to get any of
our female writers to join in on the pod. But regardless, we're not raging sexists, so we still
managed to have intelligent conversations on the most pressing topics in the beautiful game.
[Alan Pardew is the next lucky man to be taken for a ride on the managerial merry-go-round by
Mike Ashley...]
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
As discussed in our most recent AFR podcast, Newcastle United have this week parted company with
their manager Chris Hughton after only sixteen games of the Premier League season after guiding
them back to the top flight this year.
Listen on iTunes or on Soundcloud
The AFR House was rocking as we let out of all of our angst and emotion from the mad week that
was in the world of football. Oliver Sparrow, Eric Beard, Darshan Joshi, and guest contributor
Andrew Weber splashed out the elegiac prose this time around.
Download the Podcast on iTunes.
The AFR Team convened once again to talk the footy. This week we were lucky enough to be joined
by Brentford FC's David Hunt as we preview his club's midweek Carling Cup match against Birmingham
City. We also talked about Wayne Rooney, the week that was in the Premier League and the Champions
League, Barcelona's recent membership changes, and the recent dark side of football including
racism and hooliganism.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
United stuttered to their first away win of the season after they scraped a 2-1
victory over a battling Stoke side at the Britannia stadium.
It was a match that United had to win, starting off the day an already massive eight points
behind Chelsea.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Stan Collymore unleashed a scathing attack on BBC's ‘Match of the Day' via
Twitter last week, calling it ‘stale, clichéd and smug pap'.
Usually I don't agree with Mr. Collymore, whose outspoken and brusque views are often
ill-considered and unsupported by valid evidence, but on this occasion I can see where he's coming
from.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Mikel Arteta and his potential eligibility to play for England is one of the hottest topics
buzzing around the English media at the moment.
Arteta has now resided in England for five years, after joining the Toffees in 2005, meaning he
is now eligible to apply for British citizenship.
Does anyone else think that Joey Barton is looking increasingly similar to Ian Rush as his
‘tache grows ever thicker? They really could be ‘brothers from another mother'.
I have an intense dislike for Joey Barton - I often wonder how he's not in jail. However, I
admire his crusade to bring back ‘taches to the Premier League, along with his other Newcastle
compatriots.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
With this hard-fought 1-0 victory, Roy Hodgson became the first Liverpool manager since
Bill Shankly in 1964/5 to win his first three European games in charge of the Merseyside
club.
Hodgson, having previously stated that his focus this year was on the Premier League, sent out a
weakened squad at Anfield.
Albrighton was a name that didn't ring any bells for a lot of people when they heard the
commentator utter his name during the Aston Villa v. West ham game on Saturday. It seemed the
fleet-footed winger had snuck under the radar. However, he hadn't gone unnoticed by conscientious
Aston Villa fans, contrary to the story published in the Daily Mail today.
By Oliver Sparrow, who was watching the game at Wembley
This was not a good England team performance by any stretch of the imagination. England only won
courtesy of two fantastic Steven Gerrard goals, which on most days wouldn't have gone in. England
must also remember that they managed to go one-nil down to a very average international team with
no world-class players.
By Oliver Sparrow, who was watching the game at Wembley
This was not a good England team performance by any stretch of the imagination. England only won
courtesy of two fantastic Steven Gerrard goals, which on most days wouldn't have gone in. England
must also remember that they managed to go one-nil down to a very average international team with
no world-class players.
Ladies rejoice, it's that wonderful time of year again. It's almost Fall and time to hit the
shops for your new Premier League blouse! We review each club and let you know which beautiful
blouse you should be donning this season.
Read More
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
With only eight days to go until the kick-off of the new Premier League season, what are your
predictions?
Alright, so Blackpool winning the title is about as likely as Alex Ferguson leaving United to
become England manager, or Sepp Blatter embracing the use of video technology, but what do AFR's
readers really think will happen this year?
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
In April, when Manchester United announced the £7m signing of Javier Hernandez from Mexican
side Chivas de Guadalajara, few people batted an eyelid. In fact, the more cynical side of me
thought it might have been another of United's not-so-subtle ploys to garner some more
international ‘fans' (shirt-buyers).
Oliver Sparrow and Eric Beard had the pleasure of spending an hour with esteemed author and
journalist Jonathan Wilson on the AFR Podcast. Jonathan writes for The Guardian, The Independent,
Sports Illustrated, World Soccer, and FourFourTwo. He is also the editor of a quarterly publication
called The Blizzard, which is filled with content from some of the biggest names in football
journalism.
Subscribe to the AFR Podcast on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud
Â
We're happy to bring you our first feast of football for your ears in 2011 with the 8th episode
of the A Football Report Podcast. This time on the AFR Podcast were grateful to have Iain Macintosh
(UK correspondent for The New Paper) in the figurative AFR house alongside Oliver Sparrow (London),
Dominic Vieira (Lancaster), Eric Beard (Boston), and Darshan Joshi (Kuala Lumpur).
Subscribe to the AFR Podcast on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud
Growing up in Japan, Ryu usually only had the photos in the newspaper to assist his
imagination in developing the scenery and atmosphere surrounding some of the biggest matches in
football.
Subscribe to the A Football Report Podcast on iTunes or on Soundcloud!
While a few members the AFR team were caught up studying with final exams or sprinting away from
uni faster than Aaron Lennon to get home, Oli Sparrow and Eric Beard were keeping things cozy at
the AFR quarters to talk the footy.
Listen to the A Football Report Podcast on iTunes or on Soundcloud!
The team got together once again in the figurative AFR house to talk the footy. With
contributors Oli Sparrow, Dominic Vieira, Ulysse Pasquier, Eric Beard, and Gordon Fleetwood
representing England, Portugal, France, the USA, and Jamaica, the Podcast lent itself to the global
melting pot that is the beautiful game.
By Eric Beard (Boston). Photos By Oliver Sparrow (London).
As most of our readers know, here at A Football Report we use the Tumblr platform for the site.
Tumblr has been expanding at a nearly exponential rate and is quickly becoming one of the most
popular websites in the world.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London.
In the words of my unimpressed girlfriend as she caught me hunched in front of the computer
screen in my darkened front room: "Bloody hell. You must be desperate!"
 And in a sense, I was. My girlfriend was disappointed, but I was starting to get football
withdrawal symptoms.
Newcastle United 5 - 0 Manchester United, October 20th 1996
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
How strange that a match in which the team I have supported since I was a nipper got thoroughly
thrashed is the one that I remember the most.
The AFR team is sharing its diverse perspectives on the drama that unfolded yesterday in
Switzerland in a series of posts throughout the next day or so. The series features perspectives
from our writers who call places like Montreal, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, London, Manilla,
Boston, and Lisbon home.
By Oliver Sparrow and Ulysse Pasquier, writing from London and Montreal
Join Oli & Ulysse as they foretell of a Wellington versus Napoleon-esque encounter between the two
old foes of England & France at Wembley tomorrow evening (8pm GMT)
"Friends, football fans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Blanc.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Tonight at Wembley a resurgent England face a Montenegro
side who have perhaps unexpectedly won their first three qualifying games. The side from former
Yugoslavia lie top of the table with 9 points after consecutive 1-0 victories over Wales, Bulgaria
and Switzerland.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
England go into their first Euro 2012 qualification game against Bulgaria at Wembley tomorrow night
with a very different squad to that of the World Cup in South Africa.
David James and Ledley King have both been left out by Capello.
Paul the octopus, the eight-armed Nostradamus of the deep, has died at his
aquarium in Germany.
The clairvoyant cephalopod enthralled the whole planet during this summer's World Cup in South
Africa by predicting the outcome of all of Germany's seven matches, as well as predicting Spain as
the eventual winners.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
As I turned up on a dreary night to a dreary pub and sat down in front of the TV with my flat,
dreary pint of lager, I was fully expecting to be slowly numbed into a subdued state of lethargy by
a dreary stalemate played out in the pouring rain of Basle.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
The rumour doing the mill two days ago about Edgar Davids joining London-based
Championship side Crystal Palace has turned out to be true – and what a signing it is for the
Eagles! We covered the story on AFR as soon as it broke.
Rumours of Craig Bellamy's return to Wales were confirmed today after it was
announced that he is moving to Championship side Cardiff City on a season-long loan deal.
In a statement on the Cardiff website he said "I'm thrilled to be coming back home to
Cardiff...I am excited at the prospect of wearing the shirt and playing for the club I've supported
since I was a boy.
