A Scott to be England captain . . . Why Parker is the right man for Fabio

So its official, John Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy AGAIN! After previously having the armband removed as a result of his alleged affair with Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend, his latest dethroning comes as a result of the on-going race scandal involving Anton Ferdinand. Stripping T...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Stelling and his merry mates bring festive cheer and genuine fear in the absence of any football

If we boil it down, there are two distinct ways to spend the festive period. You either endure the holiday wallowing in a pit of desperate desolation, alone with no hope of joviality, good tidings or communal kinship. Sat crestfallen in front of Eastenders on Christmas night, nursing a bottle of gin...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A battle of wits ends in defeat for Worthy’s warhorses, but football marches on

Let’s face it. Our footballing heroes don’t have the greatest reputation when it comes to brainpower and academia do they? A cautionary glance at the post-match interviews every week on Match Of The Day show us superstars struggling to grasp the complexity of questions such as, “How do you feel the ...

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England: Euro Draw Could Have Been Worse But This Will Not Be A Walk In The Park

Depending on your national orientation, emotions following last Friday’s Euro 2012 group stage draw will have been mixed. If you are Irish, you will presumably be quite gutted that, having qualified for your first major finals in 10 years, perennial powerhouses Spain and Italy were drawn in your gr...

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England: The Group May Be Tough But Let's Be Positive!

Ah, the old draw. It was an interesting affair, as it always is. England have managed to avoid the two Groups of Death (which look insanely, absurdly hard) and have found themselves in an easier group than many other nations find themselves in. It is of course not easy, just easier. Sweden, de...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Lose Again While Bristol Rovers Stage Goal of the Season

Saturdays Championship results would have delighted the bookmakers as both Southampton and West Ham United went down to unexpected defeats. Middlesbrough and Leeds United were both beneficiaries as the top two lost, while Doncasters victory threw more gloom towards Coventry City. Nigel Adkins has e...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Bristol City Are On The March As Northampton Keep On Crumbling

Bristol City posted the eye-catching result of the weekend when they overturned Championship leaders Southampton. As so often happens, the arrival of a new manager has produced a sharp upturn in performance - the gaffer in question this time is Derek McInnes, who is adding yet more lustre to the re...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A test of comedy quizzing is passed with help from the inspiring Irish

Ok, before we go any further let me first congratulate the Irish team on their impressive qualification for the European Championships next summer. There was the inevitable party mood for the second leg of the Republic of Ireland v Estonia match last Tuesday and I’m sure there are not many that begr...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Huddersfield Make It 43 Games Unbeaten as the Cobblers struggle

Huddersfield Town are mentioned a lot in this column but it could hardly be otherwise when a team goes 43 league games without defeat. Thats what the Terriers achieved this weekend when they ground out a hard-fought win over Notts County. This run sets the record for the Football League surpassing ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Spain conquered, but Fabio gets a reality check from a Spurs and England legend

I don’t know if you noticed but the greatest footballing nation of recent years popped over during the weekend. You could quite legitimately be forgiven for letting it pass you by though, as the life of an England supporter over recent times has left the vast majority of us bare husks, bereft of hop...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Fleetwood Sit On The Chairboys, Charlton Show Their Class as Swindon KO Huddersfield

This weeks View Outside the Premier League is really an FA Cup round-up because the Championship is on hold due to internationals and League One and Two sides scrapped it out in the First Round proper. Instinctively we look for non-league success but these events arent quite what they used to be, a...

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Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Birmingham: What game would you like to erase from your club's history?

I think it is safe to come out from behind the sofa now. The trick and treaters have gone into 12 months of hibernation, giving the nation’s doorbells time to recover. The BBC can put the series of Halloween movies back into cold storage. Just how many were there? As football fans we too have exper...

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Stoke City And Greece: Why Should 'Pretty' Success Matter?

The European Championships 2004. Ah, what a tournament. The Greeks told every single one of us that fairy tales can come true. They defeated France and Portugal along the route to triumph and won a major international tournament for the very first time as rank outsiders. Unfortunately, what came...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: ITV begin to repay their debt with a feast of Man City delights

It’s the 12th June 2010. Seven thirty-four on a warm summer’s evening. My friends and I are huddled around my television, just as a million more expectant eyes are doing at the same moment up and down the nation. Then pffft … nothing. A moment’s darkness was followed by some guff about Hyundai cars ...

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Could ex-players as referees ever work?

Ah, referees. Nasty men in black, the forever stern officials of our game, often painted to be rather humourless beings who get out of the house on Sundays to escape their nagging wives and only serve to annoy us. There is a theory, which Roberto Marinez brought up back in January of this year,...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A bad week for JT just gets worse and worse as the news hacks attack!

It’s been a bad old week for Chelsea and England captain John Terry hasn’t it? The on-going racism row between Terry and his accuser Anton Ferdinand has been front and back page news since the incident occurred a week ago and the story shows no signs of halting. Like most I have seen the footage...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Make Their Mark While Burton Hit Barnet For Six

As statements of intent go, Southamptons victory over Middlesbrough could hardly have been more emphatic. Taking on the side with the best away record in the Championship and the meanest defence, the Saints swept them aside by a three-goal margin. Ever since the campaign began the South coast clu...

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Arsenal, Coventry and Leicester: Can a new ground be blamed for a lack of success?

It has been a traumatic decade for followers of Coventry City. The Sky Blues were relegated from the Premier League in 2001 and in the proceeding 10 years the Midlands club have rarely threatened a return to the big time. You could argue that the club’s move to the Ricoh Arena has hindered their pro...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Mancini’s Manchester magicians spoil the party… and this column

Why always me? This week I was going to talk to you about the light-hearted Sky Sports knockabout quiz Take It Like a Fan. I was armed with reams of faint praise for the show and was readying my keyboard for a glittering review and even a possible recommendation for you all to check it out. But al...

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Can any player, including Messi, be considered 'the greatest'?

Ah, the Champions League. Bringer of drama, stopper of dreamers, platform for Ray Wilkins to say ‘my word’ 50 hundred thousand times. And there are other things that are nearly always discussed, certainly when seeing the two dominant Spanish sides play. The great debate has moved from trying to ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Football on Sky is becoming a fairytale thanks to Wilkins the Wizard

So we were repeatedly told that it was the ‘biggest club game in world football’ as Liverpool and Manchester United met at Anfield on Saturday for the ever-intense North-West derby. The fevered atmosphere was apparent at Sky for Live Ford Football Special and there was an almost fairytale mood in ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Leicester Get The TV Blues Again

The Championship returned after the international break with a televised game on BBC. Leicester City fans must wish that the Beeb would leavetheir team alone - for the second time this season they were undone in front of the cameras by a penalty and a sending off. The Foxes appeared to be comfo...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Rooney and Savage liven up the tedious break in play

There are not many things that evoke a true hatred and frustration in my usually dreary and featureless disposition, in fact there are only three: anybody who thinks the enjoyment of a night out is heightened by the commencement of dancing, any television programme in which the words “Piers” and ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Chesterfield Succumb At Fortress Hillsborough

With no Premier League or Championship games this weekend the spotlight fell on League One where one of the rarer local derbies took place. Just 13 miles seperates Sheffield from Chesterfield but meetings between the Steel City clubs and the Spireites can be infrequent. This was the first league...

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England: Does anyone know what is wrong with England?

Fabio Capellos England qualified for Euro 2012 last night with a point at Montenegro. Despite Wayne Rooneys red card and blowing a two goal lead, England fans will be travelling to Poland and Ukraine in mass in the summer. But in the build-up to the game the same tired questions were being asked ag...

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England: Would you welcome Arsene Wenger as England manager?

England take on the might of Montenegro tonight in a game that could seal their place at Euro 2012, however most of the talk building up to the match has been about who will follow in the footsteps of the Italian Fabio Capello after the tournament in Poland and Ukraine. Will it be everyone’s favouri...

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Is the relegation battle better than the title fight?

In football there exists a range of different types of satisfaction and senses of glory. What makes (or perhaps used to make) the FA Cup so special is the entrancing magic, the irresistible history of the competition and the draw, the captivation of having your name alongside such names as Nat ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Tevez, tantrums and Trigger? The pundits pull no punches when it comes to Carlos the Jackal

By the time this weekend came around I, like most, was sick to death of hearing about Carlos Tevez this, Carlos Tevez that, suspensions, fines, lip-readers, caveman, Aleksandar Kolarov, Argentina, Mancini. The whole overblown schism engulfed the country’s consciousness like some toxic mist and re...

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Tevez, Mourinho and Zidane: Why football loves those shocking moments

When sitting down, reclining and watching the football on the TV, there are a few annoying things that one can expect. The first is that we will be subjected to some truly awful punditry and the second is we’ll probably be listening to the brilliant atmosphere – thousands upon thousands of footb...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Sven's Leicester On The Move

Early defeats to Reading and Bristol City put a sizeable dent in Leicester Citys aspirations but since the first weeks of the season the Foxes have steadily been improving. Everything came together nicely on Saturday evening when they thumped East Midlands rivals Derby County by a four goal margi...

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What was football like without Soccer Saturday?

Since its inception in 1998, Soccer Saturday has become a national institution. Let’s start by giving a brief overview, for those who have never seen the show. Each week four ex-footballers are positioned in front of TV monitors. The panel are then entrusted with describing the action to the viewer...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: You’re On Sky Sports… or should that be Moron Sky Sports?

There are three clearly defined pursuits enjoyed by the average football fan. One, demonstrating the unwavering certainty that they know the best way for their team to play. Secondly, morphing into yob-like tyrants at the very sight of an opposition supporter and lambasting them with vociferous ange...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Forest's McClaren Finally Gets A Break

A managers tenure can turn on individual events. Steve McClaren could have been staring at a sixth straight defeat with Nottingham Forest if Watfords former Forest player Joe Garner had buried a close range header midway through the second period of Saturdays evening game. The Hornets paid for it w...

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Should football introduce a wage cap?

On Tuesday night I had the honour and privilege of commentating on Rochdale’s Carling Cup third round game at Aldershot for our official club website. Despite going into half-time 1-0 up, we managed to lose 2-1 and Aldershot progressed to the last 16 of the Carling Cup at our expense. Despite this,...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Morning Glory could soon be a thing of the past for the guys at Soccer AM

Morning. The time of day when we, as human beings, fall into two distinct categories. On one hand you may be an enterprising, full-blooded marauder, charging about here there and everywhere with an unbounded vitality and zest for adventure. Alternatively, you might be a feckless layabout. Those of u...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Notts County's Great Week

Its been a long time since Notts County were in the top flight but anyone who understands the history offootball knows the place the Magpies have in the games tradition. Thats why the squad were playing Juventus in midweek. Juve play in black and white shirts because their original coloured ones ra...

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Top 10 bizarre injuries to footballers

Swansea City’s vice-captain Alan Tate is set to miss most of the Swans’ debut season in Premier League after breaking his leg in a freak golfing accident. The versatile defender was a passenger in a golf buggy that lost control and Tate will have to watch the majority of the club’s rollercoaster adv...

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Give me Port Vale and Peterborough over England any day

What did you do last Saturday? Maybe you went shopping with the missus, did some DIY or watched some ropey film on ITV. If you follow a club in the Premier League or Championship it would not have involved watching your favourites in action, leaving the field clear for clubs in League One and Two. ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Golden Oldies at Sky prove to be Masters

The legendary American comedian Bob Hope once quipped, “Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle”. This observation proved to be spectacularly apt as I tuned in to Sky Sports’ Grand Final Masters this weekend. If you’re unfamiliar with the annual Masters summer contest it runs...

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The View Outside The Premier League - MK Dons Challenge Looks Strong

With the Championship suspended for international week the spotlight fell onLeague One and MK Dons turned in another impressive performance to bag three points from the long trip to Carlisle. After reaching the play-offs last season Karl Robinsons squad are targeting automatic promotion. For many f...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Middlesborough Start Smoothly

Five games into the Championship season and Tony Mowbrays Middlesbrough are unbeaten and playing good football. For the previous two seasons Boro were expected to make the promotion pace, but forthis campaign the Teesiders started under the radar. Last year Gordon Strachans revolution stalled after...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Adkins Has The Saints Marching

As Southampton maintained their perfect record for the season with a hard-earned win over Millwall its worth reflecting on the managerial career of Nigel Adkins - not the biggest name but mightily effective at getting the best out of the resources to hand. Adkins lost just 72 of the 200 games he ha...

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The match-day rituals of a lower league fan

Every football fan has a match day ritual, whether they mean to or not. Sometimes match day rituals can be so trivial that you can barely notice that you do the same things week in week out in preparation for the 3pm on a Saturday (or whenever your team plays). Now, as you might have figured out f...

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The 10 Worst Opening Day Defeats in Football

Queens Park Rangers returned to the Premier League this season full of optimism and excitement. Unfortunately that was drained out of them after 45 minutes when Bolton’s Gary Cahill delivered a sucker punch just before half-time. Up until then the R’s had looked promising. In the second half though,...

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Should football be axed over city riots?

Major cities across England have been caught up in widespread chaos and looting over the past few days bringing carnage and destruction to many law abiding citizens. Businesses have been destroyed, buildings and homes burnt to the ground and lives ruined. The country is in turmoil because certa...

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Squarefootball's Fantasy football invitation

There is less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2011/12 Premier League season and time is running out for you to enter the Squarefootball fantasy football competition. Last season more than 100 teams competed for the Squarefootball title, which was won by P Oxenby and his team FC Poxo. He...

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Who is your club’s greatest signing?

It is time to dust out the sheepskin coat and training gear with matching initials. Yes we will soon be picking our fantasy football teams. The right signings will determine your chances of becoming the next Ferguson, Mourinho or Hiddnk. The chequebook has certainly assisted those who play for real....

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What five things would you do before the season starts?

Isn’t it normally New Years Eve when you get a top 100 favourite moments of the year or top 500 best movie credits or some other poor excuse for a programme? Well I thought I would also use it as a poor excuse for an article, but rather than boring you all with a list consisting of 100 or more items...

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Tevez, Modric, Nasri and co - Quit your moaning!

One of the lessons that I had drilled into me as a youngster is the old adage “asking never gets”. Maybe you too can recall a time when you asked your mum for a Penguin or something and she trotted out some half-cocked lecture about it being polite to wait to be offered blah, blah, blah. Well clearl...

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Football in 3D - A new risk to average attendances?

The world has evolved and developed a lot since the 1950s with the invention, evolution and development of everything from bladeless fans to electric cars and high definition broadcasts and beyond, but what have the boffins responsible for 3D been doing for 60 years since its inception? 3D today i...

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