Sports Then and Now

A new Premier League season is nearly upon us, as three new clubs look to take their place among the elite of the national game. Many will be looking to follow the example of Leicester City, who combined shrewd investment with an attacking philosophy to survive their first season in the EPL. This was despite the club being rooted to the bottom of the Premier League for most of the season, and there is no doubt that the newly promoted clubs will be in for a roller-coaster experience.

So who are these newly promoted teams, and what should we expect from them in the next nine months.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth recently announced a sponsorship deal with Mansion casino, and the club has been engulfed in a genuine sense of optimism since its promotion. This is despite persistent rumours that Aston Villa have targeted the club’s star striker Callum Wilson as a replacement for the departing Christian Benteke and a significant lack of spending to date. Manager Eddie Howe is a positive and charismatic leader, however, while his teams attacking style may just be enough to ensure the Cherries survival this term. Read the rest of this entry →

As football fans all over Europe ready themselves for the Champions League Group Stage draw this week, Liverpool fans will be looking the other way whilst remembering those halcyon days of the late 70s, early 80s when it was their club who were the best in Europe.

Liverpool won the first of their five European Cups back in 1977 with a team that had been put together by their legendary manager, Bill Shankly. It was just sad that he had retired by the time the team won the Trophy and the plaudits were taken by his replacement Bob Paisley.

The 1977 team still had several of the greats Shankly brought to Anfield, players such as Tommy Smith, an uncompromising defender and dedicated Liverpool player. Ian Callaghan one of the most reliable of all wing players as well as captain Emlyn Hughes, known as “Crazy Horse” to his team mates. The star of the show however was Kevin Keegan who had announced some months previously that he would be leaving the club at the end of that season to play for Hamburg in Germany.

The Reds won the final against Borussia Monchengladbach by 3-1 with the goals coming from Terry McDermott, Smith and a penalty by Phil Neal. The win gave them the distinction of becoming only the third British Club to win Europe’s most coveted Soccer trophy, following in the footsteps of Celtic, winners 10 years previously in 1967 and Manchester United who won in 1968. Read the rest of this entry →

If you are one of the five or six people who have actually read any of my other irresponsibly chimeric screeds (hi Mom, Aunt Kate), then you no doubt realize I have a peculiar fondness for the bizarre and the off beat.

I also possess a passion for the sport of soccer, which is a fortuitous thing, as the world of association football is literally overflowing with all manner of chiseling crooks, dangerous thugs, craven lunatics and twisted perverts. This means that the well of weirdness that FIFA keeps in the secret attic of a small church in southern France will never run dry, much to the satisfaction of those like myself who take great pleasure to revel in the arcana of the beautiful game.    This is something that many American fans overlook; the petty dramas of the transfer market, the vicious hatred between rivals fans, the wealth of impossible personalities and the far fetched happenings of international soccer.

Take the case of the Togolese national team. I mean, imagine you are a Togolese international, and you awake one morning, switch on your TV and see a match report from a friendly in Riffa, Bahrain that you are pretty sure never happened–at least not with the Togo team you play for. Read the rest of this entry →