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Articles by Rex Mitchell

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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

Flags of convenience and stereotyping

There is quite a stir in Italian football after the selection of Eder whose only connection to Italy is a great grandparent. Otherwise he is Brazilian. Interestingly the same issue has arisen with Diego Costa the Chelsea  striker who played for Spain much to the chagrin of Brazil but not the [...]

April 1, 2015 // 0 Comments

Champions League: you’re having an laugh.

My title above is a frequent chant of derision directed at teams in the premier seeking their place at the Euro top table. Arsenal have been dining there for 20 years albeit only tasting the final course once. They went out last night and if Manchester City do so too tonight then there is no [...]

March 18, 2015 // 0 Comments

The January Window/Philip Kerr

  Football is not especially well served by literature. The best is probably The Damned United by David Peace on Brian Clough’s reign at Leeds United. Hunter Davies broke new ground when he wrote a revealing account of Tottenham in The Glory Game. Whether it’s fact or fiction or in [...]

February 24, 2015 // 0 Comments

Brian Glanville

After reading Alan Tanner’s report on Fulham’s defeat by Ipswich I perused that of Brian Glanville in The Sunday Times on that game. It made much the same points as Alan: players picked put of place, poor defending, lack of width. I then turned to another Sunday sports section and all [...]

February 17, 2015 // 0 Comments

Appointing a legend … not really

The appointment of local lad John Carver will go down well with the Newcastle fans after the southern duo of Alan Pardew and Mike Ashley. I heard that great sage Mark Lawrenson say that with Ashley it’s all about money. Well actually he inherited a Newcastle club in a financial mess which [...]

January 29, 2015 // 0 Comments

The magic of the cup?

I could not agree more with Tom Hollingsworth’s sentiments that the F A Cup has declined significantly over the past few years.   Its easier to identify why than to find a solution.   There is now much more televised football, the continentals as David Coleman called them do not have the [...]

January 4, 2015 // 4 Comments

Scotland v England: prelude and aftermath

As our readers know virtually all the sporting staff of the Rust enjoy a flutter and that is why we read the Racing Post. Aside from their ability as correct predictors I enjoy their analysis which is far more forensic than the  mainstream football writers’. The latter tend to fill their [...]

November 20, 2014 // 0 Comments

A masterclass

The word masterclass has become something of a cliché but there is no other to describe the 7-1 demolition by Bayern Munich of Roma in the Olimpico last night. Roma are a very good side and will probably qualify over Manchester City in the group. They were unbeaten at home this season and second [...]

October 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

It was forever thus

In the morning papers prior to the Swiss Euro qualifier we read that Roy Hodgson’s job was on the line. There were numerous references to his outburst using industrial language with a little dig that he was supposed to be a man of letters. One article commented  that he would lecture Ashley [...]

September 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

True to form

All four of the big international beasts qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup, so no surprises here. It’s evident that the cavalier, expressive football of the qualifiers has been replaced by something more pragmatic, if not cynical. Brazil committed 54 fouls to oust Colombia [...]

July 6, 2014 // 3 Comments

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