Cultured Football #65
Cultured Football #65
Norwich City's Relegation. CONCACAF Sex Scandals. Don Carlo Ancelotti. Klopp and Guardiola Forever. Rise of the Full Backs.
What a week of football that was, eh? Villareal against Liverpool was great. Real Madrid’s win over Manchester City, however, will probably go down as an all-time classic. Or the final few minutes certainly will. It has also been a great week for football writing, and we’ve had to make some tough choices on what to leave out.
Norwich City’s yo-yo status is partly structural, but they’ve also made errors
By Ian King for Football365
At the start of the season I felt that Norwich had a decent chance of staying up. True, they’d lost Emi Buendia but they’d made some decent signings to a side that had dominated in the Championship. Clearly, I was wrong and arguably they were poorer this season than two years ago. However, given the money that those who stay in the Premier League get, can more really be expected of a side like Norwich?
5 minute read
“You need to have sex with Fifa officials”
By Romain Molina by Josimar
For more than a decade, officials from Concacaf and Fifa created a system where female referees had to give sexual favours in order to get international assignments. Disgustingly, little has been done to address the abuse. Horrific story, great journalism.
5 minute read
Carlo Ancelotti is a solid gold Sam Allardyce, the ultimate firefighter for football’s rich and famous
By Daniel Storey for iNews
I’m not too sure that Sam Allardyce would be many people’s reference point when writing about Carlo Ancelotti but that’s where this article goes. And, you know, it kind of makes sense.
6 minute read
Can Klopp and Guardiola keep doing this forever?
By Grace Robertson for Grace on Football
“Klopp and Guardiola are both rewriting the rules of modern football. For this to work, my gut instinct is still that we’ll need to see a little more player turnover than we’ve witnessed so far. That is slowly underway at both clubs.” Great piece on two of the defining managers of game.
6 minute read
Charting the Rise of the Full Back
By Jon Manuel for The Analyst
There have been few roles on the football pitch that have gone as dramatic a change over recent years as full-backs. A role that previously was as unglamorous as they come now the sees likes of Trent Alexander Arnold, James Reece and Joao Cancelo rightly considered as key players in great team. Here’s a deep dive into how that transformation happened.
8 minute read
And Another Thing…
There’s a new issue of the These Football Times' magazine, this one focusing on iconic African forwards and Borussia Dortmund. As always, it promises to be great.
Oh, and lovely artwork by the supremely talented Yoni Weisberg.
Last Week’s Most Read
The footballer whose life changed with one header By Ryan Baldi for The Guardian
Not many 20 year-olds get to be general managers of a football team after having been forced to retire from the game. Then again, it seems that Bobby Copping isn’t like most people. This is a fantastic read about a young man who hasn’t allowed mis-fortune to keep him down or define him.