Defending The Indefensible: Do Billericay Town Deserve to be ‘The Most Hated Team in Non-League Football’?

You wake up on a picturesque August morning, peer outside the window of your £18m rural mansion and see the sun streaming down onto your collection of classic cars. The waft of freshly brewed coffee saunters up the stairs, and you head to the kitchen to greet your beautiful wife and your picture perfect family. […]

The Story So VAR…

Last week, Premier League clubs voted against the introduction of Video Assistant Referees to the league, instead preferring to observe another season of the system being used in the domestic cup competitions in order to make an educated decision as to whether to implement VAR in the future. With the new technology coming under severe […]

When The Winter Breaks

With many Premier League teams enjoying a fortnight off from domestic duty thanks to the double header of the FA Cup Quarter-Finals and International Break, it offers a chance to reflect on the recent announcement that the FA are considering introducing a winter break into the English game in the 2019/20 season. With the rest […]

Vampires & Wolves

With Wolverhampton Wanderers streaking away at the top of the Championship it’s looking more and more likely that they’ll be lining up in the Premier League next season after a six year absence. Alongside the opportunity to test themselves against the best sides in the country on a weekly basis and the untold riches that […]

Death Of The Salesmen

The official announcement of Virgil Van Dijk’s £75m transfer to Liverpool on New Year’s Day takes Southampton’s gross profit from player sales in the last five years close to £300m. In that same time, they’ve refreshed and restructured their squad using the vision of five different managers, trying to remain competitive in the Premier League […]

The Checkatrade Atrophy

The Football League Trophy was conceived as an opportunity to provide cup football for the teams in the lower tiers of the football league who traditionally have not troubled the later rounds of the League and FA Cup. An opportunity to retain an interest away from the humdrum of weekly visits to the likes to […]

To Be or Not to Be?

“Tuscany! Tuscany! We’re the famous Dulwich Hamlet and we look like Tuscany!” The tongue-in-cheek chant from the ‘Dultras’, inspired by a complaint from an East Dulwich resident when planning permission was requested to upgrade the club’s Champion Hill stadium, has been ringing out in this corner of South-East London for 25 years. There are growing […]

Nuthin’ but an xG Thang

First they came for the Action Area stats, but I did not speak up because I wasn’t interested in Action Area stats. Next, they came for the Effective Passing Combination stats, but I did not speak up because I couldn’t care less about Effective Passing Combination stats. Then, they came for the Heat Maps, and […]

Anger is an Energy Drink

Eyebrows were raised when Thai energy drink Carabao were announced as the new sponsors of the League Cup ahead of the 2017/18 season. Cup sponsorship is nothing new, and the American credit card company Capital One had previously backed the competition, however more than a few cynics saw the deal as another roll of the […]

Jim White’s Lines (Don’t Do It)

It’s the most ludicrous time of the year. The bi-annual collective mind-prolapse of football managers, players, fans and media that is Transfer Deadline Day is once again upon us, and offices across the country are mysteriously half-filled as grown adults use their annual leave to sit watching other grown adults standing outside football stadiums trying […]