Putting to one side thoughts of scraping together £229 for a personalised message from Peter Shilton, magazine editor Andy Lyons, writer Harry Pearson and host Daniel Gray discuss footballers’ food from problematic condiments to Dino “Five Eggs” Zoff. There is a delve inside the pages of WSC magazine issue 403 including the demise of black boots and great tea bar names of the non-League, Record Breakers takes us to Prague, Turin and South Norwood and Ian Rands from the Four Blades in the Pub podcast talks to Dan about all things Sheffield United.
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Stories
by Stephen Constantine
De Coubertin, £12.99
Reviewed by Neil Andrews
From WSC 368, October 2017
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Cameron Carter bemoans shallow and immature football programmes
Some day, all programmes will be made this way. 20 Football Transfers That Shocked The World (ITV4, October 18) was a list programme that raised several questions. Was Manchester City’s acquisition of Steve Daley the worst business of the 1970s? How did Brazil’s World Cup-winning captain Socrates come to play for Garforth Town? Has Fabio Capello nothing better to do than add his comments on a list programme? Surely if he were at a loose end between qualifiers, the FA could give him an experimental side project, such as trying to kill white mice simply by scowling at them from a technical area.
Simon Tyers on how documentaries investigating football’s underworld are flattering to deceive
If making an impression is as much about what you don’t say as what you do, Martin Tyler gave a masterclass after Fernando Torres’ eye-rubbingly bad miss in the Manchester United-Chelsea match on September 18. After an “Oh no!” in the shock of the moment, Tyler couldn’t bring himself to elucidate about what we’d all just seen for a full five seconds. Hardly Pinter length, but by Sky Sports standards it was the sort of delay that would make nervous editors prepare an apology caption. Andy Gray would have shouted all over it. It was quite sweet, really.
Gavin Barber feels the need to warn us all about The Football League Show, before it’s too late
Manish Bhasin, Steve Claridge and Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes are on a mission. Their mission is to convince you, the viewer, that the Football League is really, really great. They’re going about this with an evangelical zeal, offering up praise, worship and persuasion through the weekly ritual of the Football League Show.