A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Emlyn Jones brings us the story of an oft-overlooked footballing mastermind today who is undoubtedly partly responsible for the fact that Wales are heading to their first World Cup since 1958 this winter. If there is any justice the Manic Street Preachers will be on hand to pay tribute ahead of the spectacle in Qatar. Over to Emlyn. Today's article was inspired by the fantastic Left-Sided Problem 's excellent article on Mark Hughes ' time as manager of the Welsh national team – a time I remember fondly as the first time I could personally feel some pride in Wales' football exploits after years of complete bilge . Reading about that period of the nation's history brought to mind another man that deserves a huge amount of credit for the improvement in fortunes since the dark days of the 1990s: oft-unsung hero Brian Flynn. In his youth, Flynn was regularly told he was too small to make it as a professional. Standing a diminutive 5’ 4” when he received his first boot s...

Although this week’s hideous heatwave served as a reminder for why it would have been a terrible idea to have hosted it in the summer it is undeniably strange to be waiting around for this year’s World Cup until the winter. At least we can be safe in the knowledge that Qatar, a country steeped in footballing history, will be putting on the global showcase and providing a warm welcome to people from all backgrounds on a par with the country’s admirable record for human rights. Perhaps it’s unfair to cast aspersions about a country I have never been to but in purely footballing terms I’m not holding out too much hope for a national team which has recently failed to win friendlies against Northern Irish club side Linfield and Slovenia who last qualified for a major international tournament twelve years ago. The gaping chasm in this summer’s sporting schedule caused by FIFA’s entirely footballing decision to award the World Cup to a country which regularly experiences average summer temper...

This week Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at some of the highlights from one of the noughties’ biggest footballing characters. Despite his penchant for silliness it’s worth remember that today’s subject was a handy footballer with a liking for unexpected wonder goals from midfield. You’d definitely rather be stuck in a lift with him than his similar sounding contemporaries too. Over to Mat. “Better than Steve Gerrard, thinner than Frank Lampard.” The one and only Jimmy Bullard. Amazingly, he never got an international cap . Neither for England, nor Germany. Apparently, he was making noises to Jurgen Klinnsman of his German grandmother ahead of the 2006 World Cup . Somehow, he never got the call up to Die Mannschaft, with the German boos preferring the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, Torsten Frings, and Thomas Hitzlsperger . He did get called up to the Three Lions squad in August 2008 for World Cup qualifiers but never actually made a debut. Again, this comes as a surprise given that this...

This week Emlyn Jones brings us a look at a former Welsh international who made good use of the skills he picked up in his formative years at Millwall and Wimbledon. The short bio provided by the good people at Merlin describe him as “reading the game well” which might be disputed by some of his victims. Over to Emlyn. Some teams, for various reasons, get a reputation as playing on the line between fair and foul play. The Leeds United teams of Don Revie were the origin of the 'Dirty Leeds' title, while Arsène Wenger's Arsenal sides were regularly reprimanded by the officials, resulting in an impressive 118 red cards during his reign as manager. The focus of this article started his career playing for two other sides famed for playing hard football, Millwall and Wimbledon, however would find his greatest controversy later in his career. He was also described by Rich in the blog WhatsApp group as looking "like he belonged in the bottom set of every GCSE maths class acros...

This week Richard Allinson brings us a look at an old fashioned forward who enjoyed little more than hitting the back of the net throughout a long and successful career in English football. Due to the plethora of attacking talent in the country during the 1990s he never quite hit the international heights enjoyed by his namesakes Ashley and Joe but neither of them won the Treble or released a questionable single so who is the real winner? Over to Rich with the answer. I love a goal scorer. I mean, who doesn’t? In the lower leagues it is hard for clubs to find a twenty goal-a-season man. Generally, they are rarer than a Sumatran rhinoceros and if a player is capable of scoring so many goals then they’re not available for transfer and certainly not within most clubs’ budgets. In the upper echelons of the game, the same considerations don’t really apply, as money guarantees goals. Just take the £52m Chelsea spent on Fernando Torres. Or the £47m Chelsea spent on Timo Werner. Or the £40m...