Cultured Football #27
Shooters gonna shoot
This week I spent ninety minutes watching a pre-season friendly which, to put it kindly, was pretty drab. Still, this is arguably the best time of the season, where hopes are at their highest and reality hasn’t come to bite.
Seeing that pre-season is also the time for experimentation, I’ve done something a bit different with the introduction of the average reading time for each article. As always, extremely interested to see if this is something people appreciate.
'Welcome back to normal life. You have left that golden cage.'
This is quite an eye opening interview. Bruno Berner once played for Leicester (helping them to promotion from League One) and Switzerland but once his career came to an end he opted for a complete change in scenery, going for a job in marketing. “I worked Monday to Friday which meant I had the whole weekend to myself with my family and it felt amazing. The next time that I had to think was on Monday morning.” Ultimately, however, the pull of the weekend adrenalin rush was too much to resist.
Reading time: 7 minutes
Son Heung-min's incredible journey to the top
Here’s something that I did not know: Son Heung-min had trial at Blackburn and Portsmouth but was not taken on. Here’s something that I do know: Son is a fantastic player who I love to watch even though he doesn’t play for the team I support. His journey to the very top hasn’t been easy but it has been spectacular.
Reading time: 26 minutes
Christophe Galtier’s OGC Nice: An intriguing partnership
Having led underdogs Lille to the French league and with a number of high profile managerial jobs available elsewhere, one would have expected Christophe Galtier to move to either England, Germany or Italy. Instead, he has opted to go to OGC Nice who had just finished an unremarkable ninth in Ligue Un. And yet a combination of factors means that this isn’t the step backwards that many are seeing it to be.
Reading time: 12 minutes
Saved by a football
This is one of those weird stories from history that, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for. It deals with a shipwreck and the role that Watford FC played in helping save some of the survivors from the wreck. Honestly, just read it.
Reading time: 5 minutes
Shooters gonna shoot
The inclusion of this article is something of an experiment. Whilst talk of data and statistics is now common within football, not many can really explain or show its use. Which is what attracted me to this conversation about judging players purely on their shots at goal. What it does is rope in a number of other factors like style of team’s play and opposition’s reaction to kick-off a debate on how to truly measure a striker’s effectiveness.
Reading time: 14 minutes
Last week’s most read
It would seem that everyone is interested in finding bargains at relegated clubs because that is the most read article for last week’s issue.
Reading time: 12 minutes