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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

The Mixer/Michael Cox

This book is fully titled The Mixer: The Story of Premier League tactics from Route One to False Nines which in one sense sums it up but in another does not give justice to the engagingly anecdotal style with which the writer approaches the topic as this far from being a dry flipboard account of [...]

September 22, 2017 // 0 Comments

Championship Review

In many ways the Championship is more interesting than the Premier and one of those ways is the manager. There are only five British managers in the Premier – Tony Pulis, Mark Hughes, Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche and Chris Hughton – and their expectation aspiration and ambition are for their [...]

August 2, 2017 // 0 Comments

The Cup Final

I have written before as have many sportswriters on the sad decline of the FA Cup. Continental footballers grace our game but they do not “get” the cachet of the FA Cup as their major Cup competition domestically does not have similar prestige; there is now so much live football; the [...]

May 28, 2017 // 0 Comments

The Premier and Championship

Sky will not get the rousing finale of the season going from ground to ground with breathless coverage but rather a damp squib. The only issue to resolve is fourth place and surely Liverpool can get 3 points at home to Middlesbrough to achieve that . Not that the season is without interest . We [...]

May 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

A Natural/ Ron Raisin

A Natural by Ron Raisin is hardly a typical book on football. It features life in the lower reaches of the League and a gay young footballer, Tom Pearman, who was a precocious talent as a kid but descended down the leagues. From the footballing perspective I found it interesting but Melanie Gay, on [...]

April 17, 2017 // 0 Comments

Arsene of the Arsenal?

I have no particular allegiance to the Arsenal though I have several friends who are fanatics. I have viewed the final reign of Arsenal Wenger with interest but indignation too. Some time ago wiseacres were saying that he had the right to determine when he would go. This is plainly nonsense and [...]

March 20, 2017 // 0 Comments

Putting Barca/PSG In perspective

The superlatives will certainly fly after Barcelona’s comeback in a sport dominated by hype and little feel for its history but for me – for a match to acquire the greatest tag – you need more of a contest. I think of the three greatest games I was privileged to witness when only [...]

March 9, 2017 // 0 Comments

In praise of Southampton

At The Rust wwe have many contributors on football who write on their own team who support the notion that often the most insightful view comes from a supporter. I write less often on my beloved Brentford. Many national reporters have an allegiance to a club and indeed the clubs exploit this to [...]

January 29, 2017 // 0 Comments

Same old, same old

For some reason I thought  of the European Championships in Italy  in 1980: riots in the park and England going out fecklessly. After a few tournaments which went benignly in terms of violence since 1998, when there was again trouble in Marseilles, I saw the same dismal scenes of cafes trashed, [...]

June 12, 2016 // 0 Comments

Football finals

Yesterday I watched almost consecutively the Play Off and Champions League Final. Strangely enough I could have attended both. The greatest obstacle in watching the Champions League final is not a ticket but a hotel room. My wife’s South African niece is touring Lake Como and had a hotel room [...]

May 29, 2016 // 0 Comments

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