Search: ' Barrie Thomas'

Patrick Kelly discusses the theatre production The Game, set in 1913, which is about football corruption in the North of England; an issue that still exists in the modern game

A corrupt business deal, a wealthy owner, a bribe to throw a crucial match. The latest production from renowned theatre company Northern Broadsides sounds like a contemporary take on modern football. Except that the script for The Game, which premieres in Halifax’s Viaduct Theatre on September 16, ahead of a national tour, was written in 1913.

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Everyone has a novel inside them, the cliche says, while failing to point out that most of them would be unreadable. A similar principle appears to apply to football podcasts and, as they are easier to produce than books, there are a lot of awful ones out there, though Ian Plenderleith does find a few worth a listen

 Are podcasts an important part of the brave New Media era, or just blogs with sound? I’m not that good with new stuff. I abandoned vinyl as late as was decently possible, and took a while to catch on to the idea of downloading music and having songs on your hard drive instead of on your shelf. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t see what broadband could do for me that wasn’t already available through my dial-up connection. And neither had I listened to a single podcast, even though the concept had been nagging me unpleasantly for a while. As in: “I suppose I ought to listen to one some time.”

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by Mickey Thomas
Century, £18.99
Reviewed by Ashley Shaw
From WSC 261 November 2008 

Buy this book

By the end of this book it’s difficult not to feel angry with Mickey Thomas. The stench of natural talent wasted for the want of a smidgen of intelligence hangs over most of his career, even if the author appears to have learned his lesson by the book’s close.

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A recent documentary film claims to reveal the dynamics of a German dressing room – that of the national team at the World Cup. But Matt Nation has witnessed a very different side to coaching techniques at a lower level

Rarely has a U-rated film in Germany been as scandal-soaked as Söhnke Wortmann’s Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen (Germany: A Summer’s Fairytale), the fly-on-the-wall documentary about Germany’s World Cup campaign. It revealed more false bonhomie in the German dressing room than at a ­civil‑service office Christmas party. It demonstrated how David Odonkor makes just as much sense when interviewed with a mouthful of toothpaste as without. It exposed young men in sickening states of undress, including flip-flops and towelling socks together. But, most of all, it gave Jürgen Klinsmann the chance to add to his motley collection of alter-egos, in this case as Motivationsmeister.

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Selling a star striker was the worst mistake Scunthorpe ever made. George Young recalls how the Iron threw away their best chance to reach the top flight

Last season West Ham were disappointed by their fourth place in the First Division. Their failure to go up was linked to the sale of their best striker, Jermain Defoe, by an unpopular board. Which is pain­fully familiar to any middle-aged Scunthorpe United fan, since that fourth position, achieved in 1962, still represents the pinnacle of our achievements. Not only that, but the club’s best striker, Barrie Thomas, was sold mid-season – a decision that still has re­percussions for the Iron today.

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