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Or should that be, pray for rain? Anyway, just one way in which weather can influence the progress of a game of football.

I wasn’t expecting to like Simon Jenkins on Beckham. It’s been years since I liked Simon Jenkins on anything. Except, of course, for architecture, where, thanks to him, we no longer have to put up with Karl Pevsner’s tin eye and Open University prose. Jenkins had become one of those columnists who went further than…

If you have Flash and speakers, enjoying playing with the BBC’s collection of radio and TV clips here: And this is glorious: the great Brian Clough, looking incredibly young, reacting to his Nottingham Forest side’s reaching their first European Cup Final: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN3F19y8HMM]

I was asked by email what I advice I’d give managers. On the proviso that I’m not really into giving “tips” as such – it’s best to treat each person and situation on their merits – I came up with ten rough points. Some of these will be familiar to regular readers: British football is…

With apologies to Andrew Sullivan: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0PBPeyHDc]

Here’s one of them: Hi James, I saw your site on the blog of Clive Davis. I also run a site, the URL is http://www.101greatgoals.com/. We have added you to our “footie blogs” section and it would be great if you could link to us. All the best! In the way that you can sometimes…

You all know what I think. And I want to know what you think: this weblog welcomes intelligent comments. But football is too important a subject in the UK not to spread the net wider, so I’ve been harvesting recent opinion and here’s what interested parties from around the country have had to say. For…

Waste some time with this online free kick game. And see how close you think they come to an authentic atmosphere (speakers on, preferably). http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/174115

When I told the Vicar that I was interested in being confirmed, his face fell. I could sense his inner “oh, no, not another one”. But I wasn’t surprised. He’d seen me coming for him at the end of the service. But bolting into the vestry and shutting the door hadn’t helped, and now he…

Promoted from comments, Mark Holland draws attention to Albert Einstein’s brief and unsuccessful football management stint. Matthew Turner provides the Times’ coverage of the first radio commentary, and this from the last Spectator: Radio days The Spectator (London); Jan 13, 2007; Ruminating here a couple of weeks ago on those whom the wretched reaper had…