By John Nicholson Football provides many social functions in society, from instilling local and civic pride to giving people an excuse to avoid doing DIY on a Saturday afternoon. However, one of its least recognized but most important functions is what your psychiatrist might call, if they were uneducated in psychiatry and was in fact […]

Growing up in Britain, there were quite a few holiday periods that resulted in huge numbers of matches being cancelled because of snowy conditions. This holiday season it may be fog that will cancel many matches — something which state-of-the-art pitch heating systems can't solve. So when you're watching matches on Fox Soccer Channel and […]

Merry Christmas to all EPL Talk readers worldwide. While many of us are opening presents or giving them to our loved ones, Charlton fans will have something to cheer about this morning knowing that manager Les Reed has been replaced by Alan Pardew. While I believe Charlton made the correct decision in sacking Iain Dowie, […]

I received a Happy Holidays card today from Fox Cable Networks, parent company for Fox Soccer Channel. The greeting card programmed in Flash shows some highlights from its major networks. I counted four *very brief* clips for soccer. Unfortunately more airtime was shown during the Flash video for BMX Racing than soccer : ( Happy […]

If you're wondering where The Gaffer has been the past couple of days, you can find him over at the EPL Talk Community site where he's been propping up the bar chatting to passerbys. Seriously, I've decided to start posting more on the EPL Talk Community site as well as here. Visit the Community site […]

ESPN.com is reporting Peter Nowak the former Chicago Fire captain and Polish International has been let go as Head Coach of DC United, the signature franchise of MLS. Much more on this story to come for sure.

It's been a few weeks now since I've returned from my trip to England to watch four Premiership matches and one Champions League match in the space of eight days. During that time, I've had a chance to reflect on what I saw. I was originally planning on writing a series of articles for the […]

By John Nicholson A couple of years ago I wrote a column for football365 saying that it was time for a European Super League. It wasn't widely welcomed then. But I think that's changed now. To recap the concept; the top four of the Premiership go into the European Super league. At the end of […]

The Guardian reporter Lestyn George has written an interesting article about Setanta Sports from a business perspective. Among the several interesting facts in the story is witnessing a conversation with a Sky Sports presenter (see Sky Sports Anticipating Exodus of Commentators to Setanta?), how many former Sky employees work at the Irish broadcaster, and what […]

This article can also be found at the EPL Talk Community @ http://epltalk.communityserver.comAfter a few days of pondering why exactly Freddy Adu, the great American hope was dealt from the marquee US domestic club DC United to expansion Real Salt Lake, I have come to the conclusion that it makes no sense whatsoever. But then […]

For those of you who read this blog regularly and listen to the EPL Talk Podcast, you'll know that I'm enamored with football grounds. So, thanks to a tip from the Tokyo Toffeeman, he pointed me to an article on the BBC Sport blog entitled "Do you care where your team plays?" BBC's Football Focus […]

One of American Soccer's great pioneers passed away yesterday at 74. Hunt was best known for his work in American Football as owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and one of the founders of the Super Bowl. But Hunt was probably the first big American business man to become interested in Soccer. Hunt owned the […]

I had a really interesting conversation tonight with Ronaldo from the 101greatgoals.com web site. I interviewed him for the next EPL Talk Podcast, which you will hear this Sunday as part of a special holiday edition. Other interview guests on the show will include Graham Bell from The 2 G's, Phil McThomas from Soccer Shout, […]

Who for you are the top 10 most boring sides in the Premiership this season? The competition for the top 10 spots is tougher now than in quite some time. Here are my top 10 most boring sides: 1. Manchester City 2. Watford 3. Charlton Athletic 4. Fulham 5. Middlesbrough 6. Blackburn Rovers 7. West […]

The latest episode of the EPL Talk Podcast is now available, which features an exclusive interview with Reading and U.S. goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann. Hahnemann is arguably the top U.S. keeper in the world right now with Friedel faltering a little behind a weakened defence at Blackburn, and Kasey Keller (Borussia Monchengladbach) and Tim Howard (Everton) […]