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: Serious lessons to learn from Fashanu’s footballing family

I’m fairly certain we can all agree that football has its fair share of problems. If it is not the shady transfer dealings of murky agent types skulking around the bins at Tottenham’s training ground, it is the ignorant grunts of ill-informed morons as they boo a man purely for being the brother of ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A prosperous week for Liverpool in the cups but off the field is a different story

The days leading up to the weekend’s FA Cup Fourth Round ties were not particularly pleasant for many football fans, a week in which the unseemly and murky face of football was glaringly apparent. Many column inches were devoted to the tax-evasion trial of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, as well as th...

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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: An incident-packed week at the BBC leaves Savage short of support and Lineker lost for words

They say a week in football is a long time and it can certainly be said that there was enough controversy, incident and wonder crammed into the last seven days of football to keep Joey Barton’s Twitter account going for years. The fallout from the Manchester derby, the return of Scholes and Henry, t...

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Racism is in the spotlight but what is being done to tackle homophobia?

The FA stamped down on Luis Suarez’s racism towards Patrice Evra. And it’s quite right that they did, isn’t it? For when we look back into the past, and certainly in football’s past, we see things that are shockingly vile. In the seventies and part of the eighties, black footballers were subjected ...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Robins Fly High And Rhodes Terrorises Wycombe

This was a weekend when FA Cup action mixed with a number of games in Leagues One and Two. Huddersfields star man Jordan Rhodes got things off with a bang on Friday night by crashing five goals past a hapless Wycombe Wanderers. Manager Lee Clark must have had mixed feelings as his top striker once ...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A football overkill but Fabregas’ Barcelona adventure keeps us watching

At the top of this article you will see, if you can get past the crass, self-congratulatory overuse of my own name, that the tagline for this column mentions that there isn’t enough football on the TV. Obviously this pithy line is actually nonsense as there is in fact far too much football clogging ...

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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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The View Outside The Premier League: Southampton Dominant At St Mary's And Its Presents For The Cellar-Dwellers In League Two

Southampton have had a few blips on the road of late but everyone feels warm and comfortable at home over Christmas and the Saints found life at St Marys as welcoming as ever. Crystal Palace drew the holiday short straw of a trip to the South Coast and went down 2-0 to the Championship leaders. Pal...

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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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West Ham United: What a difference a year makes

Its been a little while since Ive attended a West Ham match. The last two times Id been to Upton Park the Hammers had lost 3-1, so I felt a hiatus from visiting the Boleyn Ground was in order. Futhermore, living in Falmouth, the travel can be killer, in terms of both time and cost. Yet when I was g...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: A love-in for O’Neill as marvel Martin ruins Rovers’ day

It was clear at 1pm on Sunday what the overriding theme of the day was going to be on Sky Sports’ Live Super Sunday. Ed Chamberlain, growing more and more comfortably into the role of football anchorman, opened the afternoon’s football coverage by loudly proclaiming, “Sunderland’s new era begins tod...

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The View Outside The Premier League: Southend Fall At Cheltenham And Crawley Take Advantage

Cheltenham staged National Hunt racing this weekend but Southend were the big fallers in Gloucestershire as they went down comprehensively to the towns football team. Their defeat allowed Crawley to open up a bit of daylight at the top of League Two. Cheltenhan are well in the promotion mix so 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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Outside the Box – Football on TV: The rise and fall of the sprightly Savage is far from a waltz in the park

Do you remember the first time you ever saw Star Wars? That intoxicating and bedazzling rush of pure unadulterated excitement as you sat slack-jawed, unable to wrench your eyes away from all the bright lights, whizzing space ships and questionable acting? And perhaps you also remember the desolate f...

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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 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: 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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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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Leicester City – Nigel Pearson, return of the king or a ghost that that should have stayed buried?

There’s an old adage that is often repeated in the world of football; you should never go back. Players are warned of the perils of returning to former clubs for fear of tarnishing their carefully cultivated reputations at past homes. And managers even more so, lest we forget the almighty car crash ...

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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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The View Outside The Premier League: Diouf And Sharp Blunt Ipswich as Huddersfield extend unbeaten run

Its been an extraordinary few days at Doncaster Rovers. Their perilous position in the Championship was put in perspective by the death of Billy Sharps baby son and then the man himself appeared in a midweek game against Middlesbrough and scored just three days after the tragedy. The dreadful event...

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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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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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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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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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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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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: Derby Lead The East Midlands Challenge

Nigel Cloughs Derby County sent their fans into a rapturous weekend by bringing back three points from the trip down the A52 to Nottingham. Beating Forest is the ultimate for Rams fans, although their manager might have more mixed feelings. Clough isnt one of those managers who storm into a club, s...

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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Dancing, glitterballs and very camp; and that’s just Clem at Football Focus

After the unwelcome interruption of the international break and all of the disappointing baggage it brings for England supporters, this weekend saw the glittering return of our domestic footballers into the spotlight. Over at Football Focus, the boys were practically giddy at the prospect of the wee...

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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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Outside the Box – Football on TV: Strong Dispay by The Football League Show

If you think of Match Of The Day as the stylish kid who has all the best stuff, the coolest gadgets and the best Nike trainers as well as being unfeasibly popular; then The Football League Show is the nerdy boy that lives next door. Understated and slightly unfashionable, you’re more likely to see h...

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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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The View Outside The Premier League: AFC Wimbledon have the fans' goodwill, Crawley have the players

AFC Wimbledon and Crawley Town made their bow in the Football League this weekend and enjoyed contrasting fortunes. AFC went down at home to Bristol Rovers thanks to a late penalty, while Crawley forced a hard-earned draw at Port Vale. The two clubs have little in common apart from a shared promoti...

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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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Arsenal, Spurs or Everton - Where will Joey Barton end up?

We can all remember the kid at school who would not take no for answer, who would run-a-muck among the majority of teachers who were too scared to discipline them. Without the appropriate discipline, self-imposed or not, things can quickly spiral out of control. We’ve seen this a lot in football, le...

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Championship: Who will win promotion to the Premier League?

West Ham United were the biggest casualty from the top flight last season and it’s no surprise to see Big Sams men are among the favourites to bounce straight back up. The former Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers boss has added English grit to his squad in Kevin Nolan and Matt Taylor and they wi...

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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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Leeds United: Signs of faith or signs of madness by Leeds hierarchy?

It’s been a frustrating pre-season for Leeds fans. As mentioned in a previous article, more players seem to be leaving than arriving. Since that article, however, Leeds have signed another goalkeeper, Andy Lonergan from Preston,and have several trialists with them during their pre-seasonfriendlies. ...

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Leicester City – Sven’s revolution gathers pace

Paul Konchesky. Not immediately a name that will fill many of you with excitement, enthusiasm or indeed interest of any kind. Liverpool fans particularly are undoubtedly experiencing white-hot feelings of rage at the very utterance of his name – in fact I’m told that the word Konchesky has entered S...

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