Mark Perryman explains why the growing trend for players to get injured during pre-match warm-ups is a symptom of clubs' disregard for some basic principles of physical training

“The game is about glory. It’s about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.” And with these words from Danny Blanchflower the Spurs Way was born. It’s a fine philosophy and can be used to justify the misdemeanours of many a flair player. It is certainly a lot more attractive than anything likely to be provided by the dull followers of work-rate and route one. But at its heart this philosophy has also too often been used to explain away football’s bewildering ignorance of the importance of physical fitness.

Read more…

Matt Stone heard the Labour Party explain why government intervention is the solution to football's problems

I used to be a member of the FSA. I am still a (disgruntled) Labour party member and a Spurs season-ticket holder. I’m also one of those idiots who would find it difficult to name a ticket price I wouldn’t pay. So I thought I’d probably be interested in Labour’s plans for football, which were unelashed on the world by Tom Pendry and Jack Cunningham at a press conference last month.

Read more…

Reading supporters knew how Leicester City fans felt when Mark McGhee decamped to Wolves, as Roger Titford explains

What’s so great about Mark McGhee that he’s managed to break 25,000 hearts in Reading and Leicester and cost his new employers around £1 million compensation in the past twelve months? What makes him last year’s most expensive temp?

Read more…

Gary Oliver examines the latest attempt to fiddle about with the structure of the Scottish League – and explains why the issue is unlikely to go away

St Andrew’s Day, Hogmanay and Burns’ Night – all significant anniversaries in the Scottish calendar. But football fans are accustomed to an alternative winter night ritual: Self-Preservation Day, the annual attempt to force league reconstruction. Eighteen months ago, the clubs formed four divisions of ten and, to secure sponsorship by Bell’s, agreed a five-year respite from further change. A period of stability at last? You must be joking.

Read more…

Lance Bellers remembers Harry Cripps, who passed away on December 29, 1995

’Arry Cripps was the best player ever to have a name beginning with an apostrophe. Born as Henry Richard Cripps in Norfolk during the war, it merely took a move to East London to give him his proper and rightful name. Kicking off his football career at West Ham, he played just one senior game for the Hammers – against Millwall. Between that Southern Floodlit Cup fixture in 1956 and an eventual move to Charlton in 1974, ’Arry Boy fitted in 447 appearances for the Lions and won the hearts of the Millwall faithful.

Read more…