Football Articles Thread: Post Your Long-Winded Puff Pieces Here

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Ray Parlour > Football Articles Thread: Post Your Long-Winded Puff Pieces Here

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Since I read a cool article about how Dimitar Berbatov is cool, I thought it was necessary for there to be a thread where we can aggregate cool and good articles that don't really have a home in the monthly Premier League threads or Football Photos, or whatever.

So here, start with these three:

A SERIOUS MAN: Unravelling the persona of Dimitar Berbatov

A Soccer Comeback for a Long-Struggling Country (it's about Albania, which is either good or bad, I dunno. Let the vile race myths fly!)

Brazil's Finest Who Fade Away or Why Do Brazilians Turn Into Fatties So Quickly?

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 16:41

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:15

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Waroduce posted:

How a Soccer Star Is Made - New York Times Magazine piece about Ajax youth academy

This is quality stuff

# ¿ Sep 15, 2015 19:03

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A long-winded puff piece about how Chris Smalling came up through the ranks and is now a good defender

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 21:23

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A profile of Paul McGrath.

I'd imagine there are more extensive articles out there. I knew he was this great defender with a drinking problem, but had never heard of that story at the beginning of the article. Sad.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2015 02:15

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

In memory of Duncan Sperguson, a nice enough dude, and a good poster. Melted down, I believe.

The night Duncan Ferguson became the legend before he became the player

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 02:57

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Cross-post from the FIFA Corruption thread, an ESPN piece about the US investigation. Finally we can figure out who the hell RICO is.

e: You missed an important part of this post m8

e: Oops. Thanks, dogg.

TheBigAristotle fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 20, 2016

# ¿ Feb 20, 2016 01:49

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A nice piece on a player for whom I have nothing but man-crush feelings.

Thomas M�ller: the modest assassin

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 03:19

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A long, detailed blog post on why Villa is poo poo and dead

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 16:12

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

While I'm sure I'm about to read a cogent argument, I can't help but answer their headline of "The Kante-Gueye conundrum: How are Leicester so good and Villa so bad?" with one name: Tactics Tim

# ¿ Apr 17, 2016 15:18

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A nice article about the "untrainable" Marko Arnautovic, the poor man's Zlatan

# ¿ Jun 3, 2016 19:58

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

There's a blog called The Regista (I know, lame) that's got some pretty good write-ups of different football stories that feature quotes from various sources, press, biographies, etc.

They're fairly short, but it's interesting to see the quotes from say, Ferguson and Keane's biographies, telling vastly different accounts of the same events.

The Evolution of Mourinho vs. Guardiola

Totti vs. Balotelli

The Breakdown of Roy Keane and Alex Ferguson

# ¿ Jun 13, 2016 15:29

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Here's a story on some guy who made those socks with the dots running up the ankle that you may or may not have seen.

Pretty interesting stuff.

quote:

Later we meet up with Gareth in Wales and he says like a happy kid �Hey, have you seen my foot on the pause button on FIFA?� And sure enough TruSox is there on FIFA because they want everything to be authentic. You will not find them there anymore though.

I then discover the lengths (a rival company) had gone to try and ensure he didn�t wear the socks. They had (told people) �If you wash these things you will lose your job�, so Gareth Bale had to take the socks home each night and wash them himself.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 16:29

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Vegetable posted:

How is rubbery anti-slip fabric inside socks a new thing? I've been wearing them for like eight years.

I guess these ones hold up a lot better over the course of a match. I guess they're good enough to make major apparel providers unhappy.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 23:47

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Daniel Agger: �Maybe my story will make other athletes take fewer pills�

quote:

On Roy Hodgson:

�I completely lost my desire to come to work because his training sessions were really hard to get through. Not physically but mentally. It was the same and the same and the same. Day in and day out.

�Often we had eight forwards playing against me and Martin Skrtel [apparently to let Fernando Torres score to regain his confidence]. Skrtel and I had a really hard training session as we were defending against eight with two but the eight players attacking were just faffing around. They had hardly run a kilometre and it was so uninspiring.�

# ¿ Jul 20, 2016 19:00

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

A nice story about Paul Pogba's early life

quote:

As treasurer, Moressee is waiting to hear the good news from the French football federation (FFF) about the training payment Roissy will receive for Pogba�s transfer to United. Under Fifa regulations, any club who develop a player at 12 or above are entitled to 0.25 per cent of his transfer fees, for each year they coach him. Paul was at Roissy from six to 13 and the club estimate they could be due as much as �400,000 for their one year.

Given that their annual budget for the 30 teams that they run is �60,000, this is enormous. Roissy will be able to buy a new minibus, kits, washing machines and subsidise trips to play away games � crucial given that few of their players have parents who are able to drive the boys to matches. The future of this marvellous little club is secure. If Ed Woodward ever shows up in Roissy-en-Brie, he will not need to pay for his own drinks.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 17:27

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Here's a story about how transfers work.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2016 20:42

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Good read. Dunno if these have been up, but the Player's Tribune has some interesting stuff by athletes:

More Complicated Than Hate - Gary Neville

For Rome - Totti
(Bonus Italian version for those who can read it )

My Journey to Manchester - Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Live From Leicester Fuching City - Christian Fuchs

The Game - John Harkes recounts USA - Colombia '94

# ¿ Dec 2, 2016 02:35

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Here's a piece on Mino Raiola. It's pretty interesting.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2016 02:02

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

This thread is on constant life-support, but I'm proud of the quality over quantity

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 16:05

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

The complete story of Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison�s diverging careers

e: upon further reading, http://thesefootballtimes.co/ looks like it has quite a bit of content. Gonna read this over my lunch in a few minutes:

The making of Luis Su�rez: a year in Groningen

e2: These are some spicy titles that I am going to check out this weekend:

The 1962 Asian Games: when India conquered the continent

The muddled history of Japanese footballers in the Premier League

TheBigAristotle fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Dec 30, 2016

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 19:53

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Ronaldinho - Letter to My Younger Self

Ronaldinho posted:

Where you live in Porto Alegre, there are drugs and gangs and that kind of stuff around. It�s going to be tough, but as long as you are playing football � on the street, at the park, with your dog � you will feel safe.

Yes, I said your dog, by the way. He�s a tireless defender.

Dogs are indeed great defenders.

TheBigAristotle fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jan 18, 2017

# ¿ Jan 18, 2017 05:59

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Cybernetics, Cesarean Sections and Soccer�s Most Magnificent Mind

quote:

He was not a player of any great note. He has never managed a club. Instead, Frade, 73, is that rarest of things: one of soccer�s most noteworthy theorists.

His great contribution to the sport is tactical periodization, an approach to management that is often characterized � much to his evident frustration � as a coaching style. �It is not a method,� he says, almost as soon as he sits down. �It is a methodology. You have a methodology so that you don�t need methods.� The last word is issued with disdain.

To Frade, his approach is a management philosophy, a personal dogma and a belief system rolled into one. It is a way of thinking more than a way of playing, one conceived and crafted in this office, at this university, but that can now claim devotees around the world.

Its most famous evangelist is Jos� Mourinho, who deployed it to considerable success at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, and who now hopes it can revive Manchester United. But Mourinho is not alone. Most of the great Portuguese coaching diaspora carry some of Frade�s imprint: Andr� Villas-Boas and V�tor Pereira most directly, from the time they spent at F.C. Porto, but also Monaco�s Leonardo Jardim and Hull City�s Marco Silva at one or more removes.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 21:15

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Gigi Galli posted:

Decent article by Paolo Bandini on why Coverciano consistently produces good managers:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2706090-inside-italys-manager-school-where-conte-ancelotti-and-allegri-learned-to-win

This pic alone is worth a click

# ¿ May 4, 2017 19:49

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Football365's series of write-ups on iconic footballers has been a solid series and Socrates is a real cool guy.

Portrait of an Icon: Socrates

# ¿ Jun 1, 2017 15:24

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Hashtag Banterzone posted:

im putting this cool article here cuz we don't a separate article thread imo.

I didn't realize the italians let women play football before the brits

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/17/rose-reilly-scottish-footballer-world-cup-italy-milan

# ¿ Jul 17, 2017 15:35

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Good read by Daniel Storey about Rooney's debut hat-trick against Fenerbahce

The Game I�ll Never Forget: Manchester United vs Fenerbahce

# ¿ Jul 29, 2017 03:43

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:15

TheBigAristotle: Feb 8, 2007; I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money.
I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.; Grimey Drawer

Really good piece by Football 365:

A Love Letter to Ian Wright

quote:

Michael Cox wrote to me to mention this � the footage isn�t available.

�There�s an absolutely fantastic section of the programme �Something To Nothing�, that was in the original YouTube-only film but sadly left out of the ITV broadcast (and the original is now gone, sadly). He talked about how, when he was a kid, his step-dad was horrendously abusive, a horrible bully. He refused to let Wright watch MOTD, despite the fact Ian was sleeping in the living room as he didn�t have a bedroom. So he would have to lie, facing away from the TV, hearing MOTD but not allowed to watch it. So when he was first a pundit on MOTD he was overcome with emotion that he�d made it there. �This is my Graceland�, he said.�

I mean, good god. This can be such a cruel world, sometimes. And it is also worth pointing out that when we are harsh or criticise someone�s performance on TV, or in any walk of life, we do not know the struggles they�ve gone through to be in that position, nor what it means to them to have done so. I suppose what I�m saying is, football should celebrate our collective humanity, not try and negate it with witless abuse.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2017 19:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > The Ray Parlour > Football Articles Thread: Post Your Long-Winded Puff Pieces Here