“I fully intended to sign a new contract after the Champions League final, but the events of the past five to six weeks have changed all that.” – Steven Gerrard, July 2005 “If, at that point in time, I was offered a contract, I most definitely would have signed...
I’VE been thinking a lot about outrage lately. I get the feeling outrage has been applied to almost all aspects of daily life in recent years, and as a result we’re in danger of the whole concept becoming neutralised. In a week where outrage has been attributed to all...
I READ an article yesterday which cited this week, the first full working week after the Christmas period, is the one we often find the most physically and emotionally draining of the whole new year. Often seeped in the guilt and lethargy of overindulgence and the...
SO, we’re still top. And it seems they still don’t like it. In the buildup to yesterday’s media-driven hyperbole of a “title-deciding” game at the Etihad Stadium, which it never at any point was, sections of passionately timorous social media tribes were collectively...
THE continued rise and fall of Liverpool and Manchester United was encapsulated in The Reds’ 3-1 victory at Anfield on Sunday. Given that it was swiftly followed by the departure of Jose Mourinho from Old Trafford, a sense of revisionism has been necessary for both...
MOHAMED Salah is the best player in the world right now. We can all be precious about such statements in football, especially when it doesn’t align with the impounding truisms we hold as fans of our respective clubs. Judging by the current mood of some Everton fans...
LEADERS shone through at Burnley on Wednesday night. Leaders all over the pitch, in what was eventually an excellent win on the back of the ecstasy and elation of the Merseyside derby. Last week I wrote about leaders and specifically captains, yet the truth is this...
I’VE often pondered what constitutes a captain’s performance in football. There are some which instantly spring to mind, Steven Gerrard in the 2006 FA Cup final, Roy Keane away to Juventus in 1999 and Tony Adams against Everton on the final day of 1997-98. All of them...
FOOTBALLERS are a strange bunch. Isolated from modern society by virtue of their trade, they live in a constant microcosm of evaluation and debate as well as being undeniably privileged. The modern footballer cuts a paradoxical figure at the best of times. The thing...
THINK back to the person you were three years ago. Have you changed? Have you matured in any way? Have you ever given it a second thought? I can categorically say that both I and my life have changed for the better. This is likely to do with me evolving past my 20s...
