Outside the Box – Football on TV: No handshake for Evra and no love lost between the partisan pundits at Sky

Think about this for a second. How many times do you think you have seen Luis Suarez’s hand this weekend? Ten times? Twenty? A hundred? I’m sure I’ve seen his wandering hand more than I’ve seen my own two in the past 48 hours, such has been the swirling media-frenzy since he refused to settle his di...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Confusion reigns at City as Coleman fluffs his lines

Have you played Football Manager 2012? You may wonder how a game brimming with data, facts and incalculable statistics comes to contain such a dearth of information. Well, in the early stages of the games development, some spotty oik is charged with the task of finding someone close to each of the 7...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Manchester disunited but the magic of the FA Cup is alive and well

The much talked about magic of the FA Cup was present in abundance this Sunday during the huge third round Manchester showdown, in fact there was more magic contained in the 90 minutes than during a Paul Daniels swingers party. Chris Foy’s card tricks, a disappearing City captain and most mystifying...

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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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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A hair-raising spectacle on Saturday turns to sombre reflection on Sunday

Take a look around you. Chances are that if you are reading this in a public place; a library, at your office while you should be working or perhaps even on the Tube, then someone close by is displaying some facial hair that seems to be a little out of place. These moustachioed menfolk are either un...

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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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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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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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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Manchester United ensure a Super Sunday at Sky

This weekend brought with it the first meeting between two teams that finished in the top four last season, which inevitably meant that the Sky cameras were there for Live Super Sunday. Old Trafford was the setting for a fixture that always grabs the attention of any football fan. I was disappointed...

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Premier League preview (part two)

With only a matter of hours until kick off, we’d better get on with it. So here is the second part of my Premier League preview. Manchester City Key signing: Sergio Aguero The noisy neighbours are fast becoming neighbours from hell for Sir Alex Ferguson. Do not be fooled by the red herring of the...

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Championship Preview (part two)

Here we are, part two of my preview of the new Championship season. Hull Key signing: Paul McKenna (no, not that one) Nigel Pearson was an uncompromising, monosyllabic and tough centre-half as a player and has reinvented himself as an uncompromising, monosyllabic and tough manager. Never one to o...

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Manchester City: Tevez, Telephones and Tedium

Im not sure whats been worse over the last week or so, the phone hacking scandal or the Tevez transfer saga?Maybe if the News Of The World was still in existence it could report, with its tele-pathic powers, where Tevez will be moving to? If I were a Manchester City fan I would just like to see th...

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Has Berbatov made any progress?

Just over a year ago as the enigmatic Dimitar Berbatov was going through a lax spell, just as he is now, I wrote a piece entitled: ‘Berbatov: Is he on borrowed time?’ The article consequently underwent a bombardment from what were presumably Manchester United supporters, saying he needed more time ...

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Can Sir Alex Ferguson's Punt On Michael Owen Still Deliver?

England striker Michael Owen is fit again and registered on the scoresheet in Manchester Uniteds 7-1 romp over a League of Ireland combined X1. So can the former Liverpool star make a significant contribution to Uniteds season? There were plenty of nay-sayers when Sir Alex Ferguson brought Owen to ...

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Manchester United: Fabio’s Rooney request deserves the hairdryer treatment

England boss Fabio Capello has seen his World Cup plans thrown into disarray these past two weeks. First off John Terry’s alleged affair with former Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex Vanessa Perroncel was plastered all over the papers, causing a potential dressing room rift and forcing the Italian...

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Cartoon: Blame it on Rio Part 2

Following accusations by the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, that the press was responsible for Rio Ferdinand's decline in form the fourth estate has dramatically apologised ... ...

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Is Berbatov On Borrowed Time?

Flashes of brilliance best defines Dimitar Berbatov’s Manchester United career to date, (the sublime goal line turn and flick to set up Ronaldo against West Ham comes to mind), but surely £30m warrants more than intermittent touches of class.At the time of writing, his career at Old Trafford represe...

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Summer Departures: Who Will Cope Best?

With Xavi Alonso’s contract at Real Madrid finally penned, the eye of the storm finally arrived over Anfield. And with Cristiano Ronaldo lauding it up in the Spanish capital as the most expensive footballer on the planet - many Premiership clubs face the ‘life after…’ syndrome. This season brims wit...

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Man United’s Quintuplet assault – Better squad than 1999?

Ten years ago in 1999 Sir Alex Ferguson masterminded a Manchester United treble winning team. Barring replays, United are potentially 23 games away from a outstanding quintuplet of trophies in 2009.As time goes by this season, with the possibility of Utd achieving this mammoth feat, comparisons will...

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Players we love to hate: Cristiano Ronaldo

Some players are hated because they play for our fiercest rivals, others are hated because of their constant moaning and cheating, while others are detested purely because of who they are and what they've done. Cristiano Ronaldo unfortunately falls into all three categories! The Manchester United ...

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If United didn't, would you prefer Arsenal won the Premiership?

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have had more battles than Gordon Brown and Tony Blair over the past decade so it was surprising to hear Fergie praise the Gunners ahead of the crunch game against Chelsea at the weekend. The fiery Scot was quoted in the Daily Mirror to have said that if the Red...

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Alex Ferguson starts the mind games early

Sir Alex Ferguson is never one to miss an opportunity to spin a line to a passing journalist. Whether it is to object to speculation that is unsettling one of his players, perhaps add a little speculation about a possible arrival or simply to suggest that a rival manager is talking nonsense Ferguso...

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A tale of two managers in one city - Ferguson and Eriksson

It is difficult to understand just how Sir Alex Ferguson does it. On another night of gut-wrenching football at Old Trafford Europe's senior manager was again able to smile and rejoice - when many of the people watching were fit for little more than a sit down somewhere quiet. How Ferguson marshalls...

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Ferguson senses history

By Antony Melvin With Manchester centre filling up with the noisily confident fans of Barcelona there is growing disquiet in the press that Manchester United are about to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Europe. United have been here before though, with the semi-final away goal ...

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