Vernon Boothe

Will Blackpool, like Wolves before them, be facing the prospect of a fine for fielding a weakened side against Villa last night? Manager ian Holloway made wholesale changes to his side but so what? They played well and narrowly lost. The fact that the Premier League has given itself the power to make such judgements […]

Some nights of football defy you not to enjoy them. Even the most mean-spirited Arsenal fan must surely have felt at least a small stirring of joy in their souls at Spurs performance against Inter Milan. If Spurs can keep this kind of performance up and it is a big if, there will be two […]

Tony Mowbray took over as manager of Middlesbrough yesterday. I think all my fellow Boro fans will be delighted at this news. For a start, he has taken a side out of the Championship before when he took WBA up, which wasn’ t something that his predecessor could have claimed. But his appointment is more […]

After an astonishing performance in Milan, there surely can't be any doubt that the answer is a categorical yes. Who else is playing as well? Who else is having such a major impact? Who else has scored such a brilliant hat-trick on such a stage? Had such a magnificent, irresistible hat-trick being scored by someone […]

Football press conferences are usually quite predictable affairs with the manager trotting out the usual clichés and obfuscation in response to the same old questions from the press. They are rarely places to deploy an extended metaphor but someone must have forgotten to tell Rafa Benitez because his latest comments about his time at Liverpool […]

I'm sure most Middlesbrough fans are pleased that Gordon Strachan has resigned and walked away without compensation. Our league position tells its own story. It plainly wasn't working and his increasingly eccentric media interviews revealed a man who looked to be under intense pressure. This didn't stop a majority of the fans from turning against […]

Can we have our football season back now please? The golden days of Autumn are upon us, the first frosts leaving a kiss of silver on our parks and gardens; the chilled Chablis gives way to a robust Argentinean Malbec and cardigans begin to look attractive, once again. There is something magical about the Fall […]

Another England game and for many it leaves another feeling of slight depression. Our response to the outcomes of football matches largely depends on what our expectations are. Hence, Scotland concede three at home and lose but come away feeling good about themselves because, in scoring twice and coming back from two nil down, they […]

As Liverpool have gone 20 years without winning the top division, especially to a younger generation, the enormity of LFC has probably never seemed quite powerful as it does to those of us who grew up with the club as an imperious, all-conquering club who simply won everything. It is testament to the legacy of […]

Seeing Kevin Davies name in an England squad may be a shock to some people, indeed it may be a shock to Kev himself. Is it some sort of madness by Capello? Is he really so desperate for strikers that he has to select this Bolton Wanderers journeyman? Well, yes. At 33 years of age, […]

Something great happened to me this week, my latest book We Ate All The Pies: How Football Swallowed Britain Whole was listed for the William Hill Sports Book Of The Year 2010 prize; the most prestigious sports book award in the UK. Naturally, I’m super chuffed by this as are my publishers and literary agent […]

Controversy about fielding 'weakened' sides in the League Cup looks set to rage on after this weeks patchy results for Premier League teams. Increasingly it is starting to look like a very bad idea, not so much in principle because its good to give squad players a game and get some experience, but more because […]

As Rangers walk out at Old Trafford today, old timers will recall when clashes between English and Scottish clubs were some of the biggest, most vibrant, most electric games imaginable. The European Cup semi-final clash between Leeds and Celtic in 1970 was one of the most momentous games of that decade, possibly of all time. […]

As England get set to play Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday a large section of the UK media will be sharpening its knives ready to plunge them into Fabio Capello. There is a sizeable majority of the media who would be only too pleased to see England lose to Bulgaria as it would ensure his […]

A lot of football fans and football people in general disregard the Europa League as a status-free, unwanted distraction. The argument goes that it offers neither the financial rewards nor the glamour of its flashy cousin the Champions League and that there are too many games to play. All that may be true but try […]