Football

One of the most annoying aspects of the Fulham meltdown is the way it is represented in the programme and website. The earliest Fulham programmes were edited by Merula who did not hold back in his criticism. Under the stewardship of Dennis Turner, up at 7-30 to edit the programme for 30 years [...]

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 [...]

Last night as the sponsor of goalkeeping coach Antii Niemi I was invited to the sponsor’s dinner. The idea is you sit at the table with your charge and are photoed with him. The only problem – but it’s quite a significant one – is that he was not there. The reason for this [...]

Yesterday at a Fulham gathering I had the privilege of meeting Sean Davis. The word legend is over used but appropriate for Sean. He played 155 games for Fulham but the crucial feature of these was that they were in all 4 divisions, a rare feat.  The one we recall the best took place almost 15 [...]

Fiorentina won convincingly in the Olimpico to go through to the quarter finals of the Europa League. We are advancing on all fronts as we beat Roma there in the Coppa and defend a 2-0 lead over Juventus  in the return leg in Florence on April 7th and should reach the final. All this is impressive [...]

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 [...]

I never much like receiving the red card from the postman of non-delivery of signed-for items. It involves a journey to the sorting office for bad news. So yesterday when I queued up in the cold I was less than happy. Little did I know. Readers will know that many of our sports Rusters love sports [...]

Fiorentina are committed on three fronts: the serie a, the Coppa and the Europa League. Montella our manager has to juggle his resources and prioritise his targets. On Monday we crashed – the Italian word is ‘ crolla’ -to Lazio 4-0 which all but ended any hopes of a top three [...]

“Are we heading for oblivion?” and “I watched a horror movie …” were two of the messages I received after the Bournemouth debacle. Let me say straightaway that the Cherries were extremely good just as the last two teams to put five past us – Derby and Watford [...]