A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Today Emlyn Jones takes a look at one of the few footballers I could actually look down on in a literal sense although his significant achievements on the pitch make the metaphorical impossible. On top of his supposed physiological disadvantages today’s subject also had to spend a decent amount of his career being mistaken for his team mate Mark Draper although, as he pointed out in the questionable quote attached to this sticker, Draper was taller. Over to Emlyn. To provide some context to this introduction, I am 6’ 7” . I also very regularly have this pointed out to me. The answers are that I was not good at basketball at school, the weather up here is broadly identical and I can't just lean over and place darts into a dartboard. The last one in this list is one I keep count of in my head; so far there hasn't been a single week in the past six months where I've turned up to play for my pub team and an onlooker or opponent hasn't made that joke. Despite this, I wouldn...

Shortly before the birth of our son my wife and I were told by a number of helpful friends and family members that we would find lots of time to read during the early months of his life. With the little man now approaching his second birthday we both managed to finish the books we had started reading back in the autumn of 2020 during our recent holiday. It’s amazing how much easier it is when a certain someone’s nap time doesn’t signal a mad rush to reload the dishwasher or get a third load of laundry done. I finally completed Clare Pollard’s ‘Fierce Bad Rabbits’ which provides an in depth analysis of the stories behind children’s picture books. It’s fascinating how many children’s authors’ work was born of personal or national tragedy. Martin Waddell, the man behind the Little Bear and Owl Babies books, was nearly killed following an Ulster Defence Association bombing of his local Catholic Church in County Down and took to writing for children after spending six years as the primary c...

Today Emlyn Jones brings us the tale of a diminutive midfielder who was deemed worthy enough to adorn a fantastic piece of 90s nostalgia as well as the jerseys of several big clubs and his country. On the topic of 90s nostalgia I feel the need to throw in that today’s subject was my favourite Corinthian figure growing up (physics defying bend of a Subbuteo ball) and it’s a grave injustice he didn’t make it into the Sainsbury’s Euro 96 coin collection . Over to Emlyn. One of the great applications of Twitter (alongside livestreaming, global trend analysis and vengeful online abuse) is online football trivia. One query that pops up fairly often concerns the nine players to score for six different Premier League sides, inevitably resulting in frustration when obvious names slip the mind. I also found inspiration for this article via one of my oldest friends, Chris. While unpacking his attic to move house, he uncovered an enormous trove of Pogs. Nestled in amongst thirteen Andy Townsend s...

With the football season up and running it’s time to see if the millions that have been splashed about by clubs up and down the pyramid will have been worth it. Liverpool’s marquee signing Darwin Nunez, coming in at a cool £64m, had fans concerned when he failed to make an impact in his new employer’s money spinning 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in Thailand and their equally significant 2-0 victory over a depleted Crystal Palace in Singapore. Just six days later he smashed in four of his side’s five goals away at RB Leipzig and all worries evaporated. Elsewhere Juventus’ returning hero Paul Pogba managed just one questionable warm up game, against Mexican side Chivas Guadalajara in Las Vegas, before his knee gave out on him. Still, at least the Italian giants are only paying him €8m a year compared to the €17m per annum he was apparently raking in at Manchester United. Footballers’ exorbitant wages have long been used as a stick to beat them with and in the current economic climate ...

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...