Cultured Football #71
Transfer Guide. Scouting French Football. Spain 82. Football Shirts. Clive Charles
I have to be honest: I thought that it would be hard to find good articles to share now that football seems to be in a break. But it wasn’t the case. Enjoy this week’s cultured football.
Transfer guide for every Premier League club in 2022/23
By Various Authors for iNews
If you want to know what every Premier League club is looking for this summer, then you won’t find anything better than this. A mammoth exercise that looks at each club, what they need, why and what the most significant rumours are.
30 minute read
Ten Ligue 1 stars that should be signed by a Premier League club this summer
By Jason Soutar for Football365
Speaking of transfers, I love the occasional listicle like this one which looks at top players in the French league that could be interesting for English clubs.
5 minute read
When the man who could organise anything nearly met his match
By Brendan Madden for Futbol Es La Leche
I don’t know what I love more about this story, whether it is the introducing me to a character as intriguing as Raimundo Saporta or its description of all that happened in the lead up to the 1982 World Cup. Either way, it is definitely well worth reading.
9 minute read
Football shirts: 'People put such value on these bits of polyester'
By Simon Armstrong for BBC News
Alongside transfer of players and pre-season friendlies, must clubs are busy these days launching new kits for next season. For all the fanfare that accompanies these announcements, often the end result is a kit that is pretty much the same as everyone else. Perhaps that explains why so many people are turning to vintage football shirts, which is becoming an increasingly more expensive hobby.
5 minute read
From West Ham to the West Coast: How Clive Charles Quietly Built American Soccer
By Billy Merck for Howler
Clive Charles left West Ham in the early 1970s for the North American Soccer League and ended up an American coaching legend. He was a unique man and his story is one worth knowing.
20 minute read
Something Else We Loved This Week
StatsBomb, one of the first wave of football focused data companies keep on undertaking increasingly more ambitious projects. I’d love to be able to spend a month going all the work that they do for the various clubs that engage them but, for now, I’ll have to made do with this report on the defensive styles of teams in the German Bundesliga using our standard data and our 360 data. Endlessly fascinating document to geek over for days. If you like to comb through the likes of defensive activity, counterpressures and defensive positioning - or are moderately interested in - then you MUST download a copy.
Last Week’s Most Read: the Invincible who never was
By Robin Mumford for Football Bloody Hell
Some players are destined for greatness. For others, fate has a completely different plan.