Month: October 2006

I feel the need to have a straightforward statement on the site about sports psychology. Not to inform or entertain – simply something I can link back to in the future. What is Sports Psychology? It’s an offshoot of psychology, which is the study of human behaviour. Sports psychology studies sporting performance and looks for…

Here’s a brief article from this morning’s Times on the life of Subbuteo’s inventor Peter Adolph. I was a Subbuteo enthusiast as a boy. So were most boys. In the 1980s, it was the closest you could get to a simulation of real team football. I helped found a Subbuteo League at school, and over…

I’ve just been astonished to discover that the late (most regrettably, the late) Duncan Edwards wrote a book, Tackle Soccer This Way, and gave the manuscript to his publisher immediately before leaving on the trip that would end in Munich. Not ghost-written, and relatively expensive to obtain now as you might expect.

This simple object sums up within itself everything I do not believe about sport. While I’m about it, a mention of one thing that England got right when building the original Wembley. The steps. Trophy presentations done by UEFA and FIFA are universally kitsch and embarrassing, (the awful special effects, and that bombastic rubbish from…

At the Guardian this morning. Wenger: Recall Beckham. Now that’s not helpful, Arsene. Shouting at Players doesn’t work. Well, I’ve said it on occasion.. Young players compete too much, practice too little… any guesses as to the identity of the unnamed manager? So thank goodness for David Lacey for letting us know that behind the…

It’s only to be expected in these circumstances that people should suggest recalling Beckham to the team. And only natural that the name of Theo Walcott should, as they say, “enter the frame” given his recent performances for the England Under-21 team and for Arsenal. Brian Clough once wrote: Football management can be a torment,…

In today’s Telegraph, Henry Winter takes it upon himself to suggest a five-point strategy to “revive England”. This is the second five-point strategy we’ve had from the press in the last four months. You’ll remember the last one, as I keep mentioning it: Drop Beckham Get rid of Sven and appoint an English manager who…

In reality, England are beset with injuries and the remaining key players are badly out of tune. If the situation is correctly handled (which I hope it will be, not in expectation) this will pass. But last night’s result was the failure of a bigger project. A project summed up in McClaren’s unfortunate phrase “an…

Clive Davis: Assuming Martin O’Neill is tied into his contract, is this the moment to start a Bring Back Graham Taylor campaign? No, and I think last night’s result slightly more complicated than that. And perhaps it really is time now for a few minutes’ reflective silence from the press. They got what they wanted…

The build-up to tonight’s match is increasingly centred on the “hostile reception” England can expect from the Croatian fans – including, perhaps, racism. I wonder. Over the summer there were a number of stories emanating from a country far more dead set against les rosbifs… and this brave man set out in full regalia to…