James Hamilton on Sport History and Psychology
Martin Samuel criticises the siting of the National Football Museum in Preston on the grounds that The National Football Museum, like all projects of historical worth, has to be based where it is accessible. That is why there is a Tate Modern; not a Tate, Preston. This is uncharacteristically crass. What about Tate St Ives,…
There was a period in the early 1980s when the great clubs of England’s industrial cities gave way to smaller clubs from quieter places. Southampton, Ipswich, Norwich, Watford and Luton all had their great days between Clough’s first European Cup and the end of the Falklands Conflict. To this south-eastern boy, they were home teams,…
Aged five, I’d be there on the brick floor of my gran’s scullery taking apart an old clock with a screwdriver. There were quite a few to choose from as one by one my mother’s half of the family died away and their priceless knick-knacks found their way to our terrace. I still own one…
I got the news earlier in the week that Christopher Nicholson had suffered a bad stroke. He was receiving care in Bedford Hospital. Visitors said he was very poorly and likely to be there for some time. So much energy and drive immobilised. I can’t imagine it. No more can I imagine anyone not knowing…
According to Ruth Gledhill here, The latest Alpha (Ed: obviously the Alpha Course run from Holy Trinity Brompton) has a wonderful first-person account by a top TV psychotherapist of how he and his family began going to church and became Christians after seeing one of the Alpha ads from last year on the back of…
Oliver Postgate died yesterday. Apart from Blue Peter, he wrote everything I saw on television until, when I was at the age of ten, I first saw the evening news. I never cared much for The Clangers but adored Bagpuss, a silly and therefore infinitely wise creature who had overindulged his Good Food Guide when…
My wife turns 40 today. I’d like to have bought her a horse. But this one belongs to Westons, the cider people. And our flat’s on the first floor. Next year.
Darren Anderton has retired, but I’m absolutely staggered to discover that he’s only done it today. Yet there he is, large as life on Sky Sports News, looking the picture of health and happiness, bowing out at Bournemouth. Arsene Wenger thinks that there is a new generation of British players about to come through who…
The more closely one looks at Roy Keane’s resignation, the more one is driven for explanation to Hamilton’s Big Red Book of Psychobabble. It wasn’t that he was a bad manager. He didn’t even come across as an inexperienced one. Could he improve players? It’s a key skill, albeit one that several surviving Premiership managers…
And suddenly, it’s not so much of a son of Clough, son of Fergie kind of tale. That never worked for me anyway. As if playing for them was like touching saints’ relics and the ancient DNA rubbing off onto your fingers. When you have to shave, it can be hard not to interpret not…