Has football gone completely mental? Following the news that Glenn Whelan put a pig's head in the locker of Kenwyne Jones yesterday, an email has emerged from Brighton in which Gus Poyet claims that someone carried out a rather smelly act against playoff opponents Crystal Palace. Poyet, who has been suspended along with his staff, [.
Michael Chopra doesn't do things by halves. Some people just go to a racecourse to have a little flutter on the nags, whilst Chopra went into a spiral of debt of £2million and had to borrow £250,000 from Ipswich. Just last month, Chopra stated: I have extensive debts and loans and simply cannot afford the [.
Guzzling a beer in the stands whilst cheering on your team is very much a thing of the past. Or is it? In response to the hooliganism that heavily stained British football culture three decades ago, a law was passed in 1985 to remove a fan's right to drink alcohol in their seats or terrace. [...]
Yesterday was a day for strange stand name changes. After we brought you news of Sheffield United
naming a stand in honour of Jessica Ennis, that turned out to be the second weirdest one of the
day. Because Championship side Burnley have signed a sponsorship deal with Totally Wicked, the
makers of a range of [.
One may have thought that the off-season was a difficult time for the footballer's WAG. With little interest in football, you have to put up with your significant other cluttering up the house, playing FIFA with his mates and counting his money in a vastly expensive onesie. That certainly seems to be the opinion of [.
If Raul Meireles does something wrong, then he does it in style, ok? The Portugal midfielder, who now plays for Fenerbache after leaving Chelsea was sent off for his side in their big derby game against Galatasaray at the weekend, a match which Fenerbache lost 2-1. Not happy with his dismissal for a second yellow [.
When rumours surfaced that Ashley Cole had stalled over negotiations for a new contract at Chelsea,
many were quick to claim that the defender's demands for a huge pay increase were to blame. Arsenal
fans in particular will have shook their heads knowingly, after Cole stated in his autobiography
that he almost crashed his car [.
AVB craziness Last time Chelsea had a Portuguese manager there was usually a whirlwind of
conspiracy theories and paranoia swirling around. But with Jose Mourinho at the helm it was usually
created for the benefit of the club. Under Andre Villas Boas it seems the manager himself is the
biggest victim.
Two of the best teams to have graced not only La Liga but the world football stage are undoubtedly are the 'first' galacticos of Real Madrid and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team of recent years. But which team exactly boasted the best possible squad? Starting with Real, huge fortunes were spent on the likes of Luis [.
This is something that's been in OTP's thoughts for a couple of seasons. But it's never really
seemed appropriate to bring it up (what with Pep winning all trophies before him and everything).
Given that he's announced that he's quitting as Barcelona boss at the end of the season, it
suddenly seems more appropriate.
Panic has set in among many boardrooms over the past few weeks as chairmen roll the dice for the last time in the hope that a change in manager will be enough to turn fortunes around in the latter stages of the football season and in most cases, avoid relegation! March saw a total of [...]
The managerial merry-go-round has gone in to overdrive recently with no fewer than 11 managers across all four English divisions leaving their positions in the past five weeks. Nine of those were sacked whilst two resigned to fill vacancies elsewhere, making it a total of 13 clubs who have been searching for a new manager [.
Oh Neil Lennon, such a sweet and mild-mannered manager! The Celtic boss is facing a possible three-match ban after being reported for swearing profusely at Jim Goodwin of St Mirren during their clash last weekend. After Goodwin made a challenge that Lennon did not like, the manager shouted: ""Well done Jim, you're a f**king hard [.
Rangers youngster Gregg Wylde has become the first player to leave the club as administrators Duff
and Phelps look to cut the Ibrox wage bill. The midfielder has left without a pay-off after his
offer to take voluntary redundancy was accepted. The 20-year-old has painted the decision as a
pretty selfless one.
Damage limitation is a strategy with which Liverpool are becoming increasingly familiar in their dealings with Luis Suarez. The striker's recent comments that if another team "with more prospects of competing in international club competition games" approached him "they are very welcome", will not only have put Europe's top clubs on high alert, but will [.
'The Great Scouse Summer Splurge of 2011' as absolutely nobody calls it will be forever be remembered with heavy hearts by Liverpool fans. Armed with long promised funds from across the Pond, newly-appointed permanent manager Kenny Dalglish and his trusty director of football Damien Comolli waded into the murky depths of the transfer [.
February may be the shortest month of the year but there was still more enough time for the Sack Race merry-go-round to gather pace. As the business end of the season draws closer, plenty of chairmen and owners were clearly getting twitchy during February, with a number of managers finding themselves out of work entering [.
Nov 2, 2012 | Football dive analysis number 4 Danny wellbeck by TomDaley1994 on Keek.com For years now Tom Daley's name has cropped up in reference to a shameless dive in the Premier League – a badge of dishonour for a piece of simulation good enough to give the precocious Olympian a run for [...]
When the England squad was announced last week, there was a tangible sense of indifference as the
the whole country shrugged their shoulders. This is partly because there are a lot of familiar
faces in the squad a generation that have proved more muddy copper than golden and also because the
majority of [.
Chelsea remain in contention to progress in the Champions League by the skin of their teeth, but
last night's 3-1 defeat to Napoli leaves English football staring down the barrel of not having a
single representative in the quarter-finals. With Arsenal needing to climb a mountain against AC
Milan, and Manchester United and Manchester City [.
So, once again FIFA has drawn up its list of the 23 most famous footballers of the year, or the Ballon D'Or as they like to call it. At first glance it all seems rather straightforward. Lionel Messi? check. Cristiano Ronaldo? Check. Nearly half the players from Madrid or Barcelona? Check. Mario Balotelli?
There are lots of markets available for people to bet on football and millions of pounds are spent
this way every week. But never before has the betting market on whether a 37-year-old man will
represent a scratch international football team in a competition that isn't particularly valued at
the upper echelons of the game [.
Garth Crooks has become the new Mark Lawrenson in my eyes. I used to criticise Lawro's BBC website predictions on a weekly basis, but it became akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Now, Crooks' Team of the Week feature is the recipient of my rant. A couple of weeks ago we examined Crooks' decision [...
The BBC do pretty well to employ pundits that annoy us. Mark Lawrenson's predictions are dreadful, Alan Hansen is cripplingly negative and Alan Shearer is as boring as watching dry paint dry. Thankfully, they've managed to make it that little bit worse by allowing Garth Crooks to choose his team of the week in the [.
With players using Xbox Kinect able to interact with characters within their device, creators of
FIFA 13 have decided to add a feature within the game whereby you can call the referee a w****r.
That all seems wuite funny and twee until you remember that we have had a fairly high-profile court
case recently in [.
With players using Xbox Kinect able to interact with characters within their device, creators of
FIFA 13 have decided to add a feature within the game whereby you can call the referee a w****r.
That all seems wuite funny and twee until you remember that we have had a fairly high-profile court
case recently in [.
In an incident that could have given birth to the updated version of Spot the Ball, the referee in
the Spartak Moscow v Zenit St Petersburg match at the weekend invited the crowd and TV audience to
play Guess The Reason For The Red, a new game where we have to try and deduce just [...]
If you didn't know that Joey Barton had a new website then apologies for raising your curiosity,
but you will be able to guess what it is about: Joey Barton. At http://www.joeybarton.com/ you can
read Joey's views on politics, culture, life at QPR and footballing matters in general. Latest
blogs include his thoughts on the [.
I would hope that it wouldn't surprise any of our readership that I am not a Joey Barton fan. His
mock-philosophical guff makes me feel like vomiting, and the assumption that his opinions have more
validity than the rest of us just because he used to be violent and has now apparently reformed
makes my [.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment to come out after Italy's excellent showing at Euro 2012 was the
news that talented young playmaker, Marco Verratti, has left recently promoted Pescara for the
nouveau-wealth of Paris Saint German. Verratti has already been lazily billed as the next Andrea
Pirlo, after the Juventus midfielder reminded the English media he [.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment to come out after Italy's excellent showing at Euro 2012 was the
news that talented young playmaker, Marco Verratti, has left recently promoted Pescara for the
nouveau-wealth of Paris Saint German. Verratti has already been lazily billed as the next Andrea
Pirlo, after the Juventus midfielder reminded the English media he [.
Hunting around the betting sites looking for the bookies' choices to be the new Manchester United manager this week, we were reminded that perennial vacant job dark horse Alan Curbishley is still out of work and featuring surprisingly high in some lists of contenders to replace Sir Alex Ferguson. Despite the fairly generous odds on [.
He just can't believe his luck can he? After a period of time out of the game, Harry Redknapp is back doing what he knows best, spunking millions on footballers. It has been confirmed that alongside Loic Remy (fee of £8m, contract worth £18m), QPR have today signed Christopher Samba from Anzhi. The defender will [.
Sir Alex Ferguson was not full of much Christmas cheer this morning, it appears. After the Manchester United manager was lucky to escape FA action after harassing Mike Dean and his officials during his side's home game against Newcastle, the Magpies' manager Alan Pardew suggested that Fergie was lucky not to be sent from the [.
Footballers are not know as the most humble bunch, and Spartak Moscow's Nigerian striker Emmanuel Emenike has done little to change that particular mindset. After hitting a run of good form last season, 25-year-old Emenike was linked with moves to Chelsea, Spurs and Juventus. However, as Spartak have struggled in the league this season so [.
We all know that ITV are fairly dreadful when it comes to football coverage, but this the first time we have seen one of their highlights shows in a while. With the start of the FA Cup proper, the channel produced it's highlights programme of the first round and, true to form, it contained some [...]
Reading striker Jason Roberts has announced that he will not be wearing the customary 'Kick It Out' this weekend, after revealing his anger and disappointment at the lack of action from all quarters in tackling racism recently. The Grenadan striker spoke about his frustration that Kick It Out, despite promising much, have not shown the [.
A few high-profile diving incidents followed by the vacuum of the international break put 'simulation' at the top of the footballing agenda in recent days. Perhaps the most attention-grabbing piece of analysis on the subject was provided by Alan Hansen, who noted that Liverpool's Luis Suarez "goes down too easily".
An interesting day to be a Bournemouth fan. Their side was beaten 1-0 at home by MK Dons, but that
was very much the start of the craziness. Towards the end of the game rumours began to surface that
the wife of the club's billionaire Russian owner had forced herself into the home changing room
[...]
The law that rules that players must be cautioned for taking their shirts off is much-debated. Why
should you not remove your shirt, is that big a deal? But the players know the rules, so why should
we feel sympathy for them? The rule regarding entering the crowd to celebrate is easier to
understand, because [.
