After scanning the under 21 squad list for the upcoming fixtures against Portugal and Lithuania, I realised that we have a fantastic group of young players. Look at them: Wiltshire! Smalling! Albrighton! Rodwell! Carroll! All these youngsters have shone in the Premier League for their respective clubs, so why can’t they make the step up [...]

Thousands of football fans have pledged their support to a Five Pound Football Club aiming to pool their expertise, passion and resources to help establish Britain’s next loved club.

Let’s stop this England failure from happening again

As another World Cup comes and goes, it’s another disappointment for the ever passionate and loyal England fans.

We’ve heard the excuses from the FA and Fabio Capello. “The players were tired” the manager said. Funny that, because against Germany, England players ran further on average than their opposition who still managed to rattle four goals past us.

The week’s Ultimate 11′s is total Mustard! It’s our first all Mustard line up. Matt Quinn gives us his beloved Barcelona 11, and what a team. Just look at that bench!

I hate that I do!

Those toffs at the FA had me in a bloody head boiling rage when I read this the other day. They have sent out a warning to their Football Foundation stakeholders of a proposal to cut 20% from their £15m-a-year contribution to the grassroots sport charity.

Marceltipool – the fledgling club for London-based Olympique de Marseille, Celtic and Liverpool fans – is coming along very nicely. Disappointingly, still no Marseille fans are involved but our first training session should be taking place over the next week or so and ideas are being bounced around for next season. The club even has a nickname! I wonder if “Mc’ool” will catch on…

Football and religion

Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has criticised the Premier League for scheduling games on Easter Sunday, saying it should be a day to spend time with those we love. I like Dr Sentamu. He speaks a lot of sense, most recently suggesting that making St George’s Day a national holiday could promote unity in England. I feel he is wrong, however on this latest issue.

I remember when I used to answer the phones for Danny Kelly (now talkSPORT) and we’d sit in the studio wondering what would take off that week. How could we get the phones buzzing? And the one that caused meltdown more than most? The best ways of getting into the ground for free.

Onwards and upwards

Many moons ago when flicking through copy of the free Sport newspaper I stumbled upon a piece on a website that acted as a classifieds directory for football teams searching for players and vice versa. With the best of intentions (specifically: offering myself as a lazy inside-left with a shot outcome sequence of goal kick, trickled into keeper’s arms, throw-in and goal) I vowed to sign up that evening. I fell short.

There was a sickening moment last year when a well known celebrity died and the 24-hour rolling news networks couldn’t make up their minds if he’d actually left this mortal coil or not. Reason being, they reported rumour before checking out the facts.