More Than Mind Games

In memory of, and in tribute to, Humphrey Jennings, the great British film maker, some of whose work is excerpted here. Amongst the psychologically significant events of September 1939, including evacuation and call-up, was the abrupt closure of public sport (alongside cinema and theatre). Government’s later change of heart on this issue have obscured its…

And a rough, experimental one at that. The sound in particular will be a great deal better next time..

Two fresh and welcome additions to the blogroll: The Sixth Day is for Football is a new project covering historical and sociological sides to football, whilst Just Like My Dreams is that rarest of things, a worthwhile team fan blog. It’s a West Ham blog, moreover, and, IMHO, shows how this kind of thing should…

I can’t help thinking it’s significant that we’re not shown or told what happened after this, or what brought it about in the first place… nevertheless, it’s what a lot of people want. If I were one of the men in vests, I’d assume that we were in a lot of trouble and that the…

I’m going to be away for a week. You can spend it watching Derby County: versus Real Madrid, European Cup 1975 versus Manchester United in the snow in 1970 versus Nottingham Forest in 1971 versus Arsenal in 1972 versus Burnley in 1975

Football is a beautiful game, both balletic and combative, calling on the very highest levels of physical awareness, quick thinking, intelligence, courage and guile. Paul Scholes epitomized everything that is best about it in turning around Manchester United’s match against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday. Afterwards, Mark Hughes said of him: In those situations he has…

..and to bring some fresh air in after the last post – Denis Law, the greatest Scottish striker of the post-war era, the best until Dalglish, and a proper human being by all accounts too: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ONqxJV__fE] Clough v Nicholson: Derby County’s greatest team come back from the dead against one of my favourite Spurs line-ups…

A couple of months ago, I talked briefly about celebrity fandom. The situation where a self-described working-class football club has some success, and suddenly finds all kinds of supporters coming out from pinholes in the woodwork. Whether or not the actual support that these characters profess is genuine or long-established or simply flag-of-convenience, it’s the…

Here are the answers to yesterday’s short quiz: Brian Clough was manager of Leeds United for 44 days. How long was Jock Stein’s reign at the club? Also 44 days. Stein left to become manager of Scotland. Role model to an entire generation of football bosses, by the time he became took over Leeds a…

We all know that Don Revie went off to Dubai after resigning the England job. But no one seems to know how he got on there. In another vein, we all know that Sir Alf won a championship with perhaps the most unlikely club in the history of the Football League, but few could tell…