Articles by Rex Mitchell

About Rex Mitchell

Rex Mitchell is a Brentford supporter from childhood. This has not prevented him having a distinguished Fleet Street career as a sports reporter and later deputy football editor. A widower, Rex is a bit of a bandit golfer off his official handicap of 20 and is currently chairman of his local bowls club. More Posts

This whole Liverpool thing

I was delighted that Manchester City beat Liverpool. My first email was a clip of Jurgen Klopp extolling the glories of Liverpool. “It’s not a club, it’s a family. we don’t have chants but anthems”. And so it went on. There was no mention of Heysel, nor of Bob Paisley who won [...]

January 4, 2019 // 0 Comments

Sunday Supplement/ Sky

Like many I am a keen fan of the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. He examines the crucial issues with the big political players. So I was disappointed yesterday to see no programme. My telly was set on SKY Main Event which was broadcasting the programme Sunday Supplement. It must have been a good 15 [...]

December 24, 2018 // 0 Comments

The young German coaches

In one important respect the Bundesliga outperforms the Premier – the production line of highly competent young national coaches. In the Premier all we have is Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche. In the Bundesliga, Julian Negelsmann aged 30 has performed wonders at Hoffenheim, a small club, where he [...]

September 14, 2018 // 0 Comments

Swimming against the tide

The wonderful world of supposed female political-correctness continues to dominate the British media agenda because, of course, that is where some of its most articulate proponents live and work. From this world-weary and cynical observer’s perception – and I do acknowledge the qualification [...]

August 2, 2018 // 1 Comment

Croatia 2 England 1

In the end the expectations caught up with the team. Gareth Southgate managed the nation’s expectations superbly but social media and the endless renditions of ‘football’s coming home’ placed too much of a burden on those young shoulders. The fears that the Rust’s correspondents [...]

July 12, 2018 // 0 Comments

World Cup reflections

England had little difficulty in disposing of Sweden. As usual The Racing Post was the best informed of the morning articles. They were the first to point out that Sweden were no mugs having qualified for the World Cup by overcoming Holland and Italy and beating France. Yesterday they informed [...]

July 8, 2018 // 0 Comments

Reflections on a great night

Gareth Southgate has earned the nations’s undying gratitude for the way he has managed and prepared the team. Sometime between supported by loathsome fighting far right yobs and a more peaceful fan the England team lost its connection with their support. Gareth Southgate referred to being [...]

July 4, 2018 // 0 Comments

The World Cup so far

It’s too early to make any predictions as winning World Cup teams tend to grow in stature rather than hit the ground running but it’s nonetheless valuable for the Rust to present its customary contrarian view. Pre-tourney there were many fears in the popular press of hooliganism provoking a [...]

June 20, 2018 // 0 Comments

Bobby Robson/More Than a Manager: the documentary

A strong case can be made for Bobby Robson being the most successful post-War British manager. He brought a decade of success to Ipswich, he oversaw England’s most successful World Cup campaign in 1990 since 1966 and he managed abroad achieving trophies at Porto, Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven. Sir [...]

June 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

The facts of sporting life

On the subject of female sport and the general (absurd) drive to ‘increase diversity/equality’ by pretending that all women’s sport is at least as important as men’s and should therefore be given equal billing, radio/television coverage and indeed money … Here’s [...]

May 21, 2018 // 0 Comments

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Thoughts upon the word of news – and vaginas

February 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

One aspect of the universality of social media and the internet is that it has not just broken the mould of what used to be the traditional (and for ages presumed [...]
Interesting times

February 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

We can all remember times when it seemed the world was just coasting along with nothing much happening – and there are periods like now (let me suggest that this one [...]
Grenada

February 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

Today, I’m leaving for Grenada as part of a Rust Party comprising Duggie Heath, Daffers and Nancy. This time, ably assisted by Nancy, I organised the trip. It’s a British [...]
Celebrating those who empathise with the past….

February 19, 2019 // 0 Comments

A recurrent theme on the Rust is the difficulty we oldies have in dealing with the present world of internet, diversity and political correctness. The Leave campaign in the [...]
The golfing image

February 18, 2019 // 0 Comments

Golf’s image has been tarnished this year. Sergio Garcia was paid $500,000 for appearing at the Saudi International and vandalised 5 greens; many including me were [...]