The EFP Articles - The English Football Post\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Article Archive
Game Getting Greedier
Juststill when we were all enjoying a summer free from the fickle world of football, like low budget reality television, it’s back –once again, in our faces, and sucking us all in. And, though there is something so fundamentally sickening about the modern game, like good...Read More
Carlos Alberto Claims Manchester United are “Raping” Brazilian Football! Is he right?
Carlos Alberto, the Brazilian World Cup winner of 1970, has slammed Manchester United for apparently "raping" Brazilian football.
Following reports that Manchester United have signed up and coming Brazilian star Dodo, 17, from Corinthians for a sum of £5.7 million,...Read More
Final countdown
The first FA Cup Final I can remember is the 1986 one. The day I started supporting Everton. Sometimes, I question that decision – at the final whistle that day, for example. Years later I bought a VHS recording of the game but never watched it, instead ‘lending’ it to...Read More
Weekend Bets 23rd -24th May
Wolfsburg vWerder Bremen
The hosts enter the game knowing a win will guarantee them their first ever Budesliga title. Felix McGath's men have a 15-1-0 record at home this season and have won 13 from 15 since the new year break in Germany. They have the top 2 goalsco...Read More
Mexican Wave
Given the news story that is currently on many people’s minds, especially when they blow their nose, look in their handkerchief and wonder, it is perhaps not a surprise that the following article should focus on a Central American country that is only known to many for its...Read More
Love will tear us apart
- It’s not you, it’s me.
- Come on! That’s what they always say!
- I… I just need a break from you for a while. I need some space. It’s just something I’ve got to do.
- But… don’t I make you smile? Fill your heart with joy?
...Read More
Plight of The Underdog; Looking Greener.
What is it about the underdog I admire so much?
When we started The English Football Post, Stoke City were an outside bet for the play-offs - in the Championship, and Everton had all but relinquished any hope of ever dislodging England's untouchable 'Big Four'.
...Read More
Spurs: A Top Half Finish?
After a dramatic point at Arsenal, two victories over Liverpool and an unbeaten start of five games, Spurs fans could be forgiven for entertaining notions of a top half finish as Harry Redknapp’s arrival galvanized the entire club and vanquished memories of its worst eve...Read More
Away Days key to Stoke City’s Survival
For Stoke City supporters, this season has been an extraordinary journey.
Stoke have come along way since that reality biting opener at Bolton and the harsh lessons dished out during two away trips to Manchester and another in Blackburn.
When the fixture li...Read More
Sweet F.A.
Magic...
Moments...
When two teams are slugging it out to the death for the right to a replay, a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, the chance of a place in Europe, a lucrative home tie, or a strange looking silver trophy.
The FA Cup.
This compe...Read More
The Carling Cup Final: A Foregone Conclusion?
On Sunday, Manchester United stand in the way of Tottenham Hotspur retaining the Carling Cup. It looks a formidable task for a Spurs side flirting with relegation and stretched in the midst of a 6 game spell taking place within 17 days. Of course, Manchester United have ...Read More
Robbie Keane: Re-earning His Spurs
There is no escaping it. Tottenham Hotspur's transfer policy this January was confused. Time will tell if Redknapp's interesting choice of signings prove inspired or spectacularly lacking in imagination. For now, we must fidget (Spurs fans mostly) in the knowledge ...Read More
External pressures loom as Liverpool concede the Title
It's round about now when many of us are feeling deflated.
I recall something I read over the festive period by the Tory Politician Anne Widdecombe who expressed her concern at the counter-productive nature of making over-ambitious resolutions on January 1st. Her pearls o...Read More
Bounce, back, ability…
Greetings once again. Before I go on, please understand that this article is not just about the origins of this title (another attempt at a humorous play on words, before anyone comments) as the media over used it in Iain Dowie’s heyday a few years ago.
Rather, it concern...Read More
A Living Legend
Like many of my generation, I was brought into football fanhood on the coat tails of the launch of the Premier League. Through a selection process that I struggle to recall with great clarity, I was a Tottenham Hotspur fan. It was a sign of things to come that one of my...Read More
Jon 3:16
I have always been a little uncomfortable with the links that some make between football and religion. There is a danger in attaching too much meaning to the sport, many of my previous articles have tried to promote this message. However, on Wednesday night I do believe I wi...Read More
It Is Written
New Year greetings to you all.
Those of you who have read my articles in the past, and are fortunate enough to have already seen Danny Boyle’s new film Slumdog Millionaire will recognise why the movie will have moved me so much. The tears in my eyes were not just a resp...Read More
All I want for Christmas
You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or stick to some straighter line
- Joni Mitchell, ‘Hejira'.
It has been an utterly spellbinding 12 months for us Stoke City supporters, culminating...Read More
Tough at the Top
A couple of weeks ago I read an interesting commentary piece in The Times, which looked at how former players are liable to be drawn into big jobs too quickly, only to be shown the door within months when a string of poor results betrays their lack of experience. Unsurp...Read More
Three French Hens (for Diana)
Those of you who read my last article will realise the relevance of the title. The hens do refer to the ‘holy trinity' of the popular Christmas song, but are dedicated not to a dead princess or lizard ruler (Jane Badler, we salute you...) Rather, to a blonde singer from th...Read More
Premiership Weekend Bets 5th/6th December
Everton v Villa
Everton go into the game with 3 of their 4 strikers injured, Anichebe being the only one fit, while Villa also have their talisman John Carew out injured. Villa's last 2 matches have been 0-0 in the league, while Everton have had 1-0's go either way. Th...Read More
Twelve days til Christmas / The nightmare before Christmas
All my devoted readers will already know of my penchant for Indie music, particularly that borne out of Salford and Manchester in the early 80s. However, many will be surprised to learn that this is almost entirely at odds with my secret passion for X Factor, particularly th...Read More
Sunday 30th Nov betting – The Manchester Derby
Manchester City v Manchester United
After the 6 points taken from them last season it's fair to say the blue half of Manchester have rattled the cage of the avid Jospeh Stalin fan who manages the red side of Manchester. City fans are still awaiting an after match comme...Read More
Premier League’s ‘Relegation War’
In my first contribution to this site, a fortnight ago now, I used Tottenham Hotspur’s John Bostock as a portal to explore some of the issues surrounding young English players in today’s game. And it would be fair to say that the overall tone of the piece was negative....Read More
Stoke tactics vindicated (Italia 90 revisited)
Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below.
- George Orwell, ‘Such, Such were the joys'
On a wet and windy evening, two old adversaries went at ea...Read More
Experiments at school
Okay so this is going to be a weird one but stay with me.
It’s actually part of a bigger project, a University Masters level research topic would you believe. It was inspired by a 1980s Twilight Zone episode featuring Elliot Gould, playing a restaurant critic whose life...Read More
The Youth Today
In May this year Tottenham Hotspur beat off the likes of Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United to sign Crystal Palace’s 16 year old prodigy, John Bostock. Outside the Championship (or, more accurately perhaps, South East London), Bostock was hardly a household name. ...Read More
Rafa’s Red Ambition
If like me, you sufferer from a paranoid disposition, think the majority of newspapers have it in for Liverpool (emanating from growing up in a time when the Reds dominated), or echo thoughts of conspiracy theorists and wonder whether that whole missing piece of the jigsaw t...Read More
The following is a letter I wrote but never sent.
The following is a letter I wrote but never sent, to a gentleman I sat with on the 10.22 Liverpool Lime Street - Scarborough train, one Saturday last month. If you think you might know him, please add a comment below or get in touch with efp direct...
October 9th 2008
De...Read More
Here today, gone tomorrow.
The season is in its early stages, yet already there seems to be a familiar pattern emerging. But with Manchester Utd off to a slow start, neighbours Manchester City rivalling Chelsea in the annoyingly ‘we’re richer than you’ claims, and Euro-beaters Arsenal slipping t...Read More
Back to square one at Vale Park
By Chris Hornsby
The newest question on every Vale fan’s lips is: "who's next in line for this thankless task?" and the only problem is, according to the local press, it is the two men that nobody, including the board, wants to get the job: Mr. Porter & Mr. Glover.
...Read More
Encore une fois (Xabi Alonso)
"...Baby seems like everywhere I go I see you
From your eyes, your smile, it's like I breathe you
Helplessly, I reminisce, don't want to
Compare nobody to you"
...Read More
More than a Shirt
Picture the scene, a sportswear superstore housed in what used to be the Heaven ‘n’ Hell nightclub I used to frequent, 20ft high on Blackpool promenade.
“Are you sure you don’t want this one, lad?” The bald Geordie bloke asked, cheekily. He held up the ne...Read More
A Chemical World.
A few months ago I wrote an article (croatia article) expressing my concerns about the direction of English International football & fears I had going into that game against Croatia. I also mentioned that prior to the defeat by Bilic’s chequered men, I was met by ...Read More
Euro 2008 – The way forward
Tomorrow the semis of the best international tournament since Mexico 1986 starts.
EURO2008 has been a tremendous success. The entertainment has been excellent. Brilliant goals, new stars has appeared, and late, late drama. The Euros has had it all.
(more...)...Read More
PSG (Paris stroke Goodison)
It's been two months since I last wrote you a letter. At the start of the season, I promised you drama of Hitchcockian proportion, and to an extent that prophecy has come true during that time.
I have just returned from a visit to Paris, the city of light, where...Read More
Conquering Spaniels
Spaniels possess a great share of intelligence, affection, and obedience, which qualities, combined with much beauty, make them highly prized as companions. The name comes from the word for Spanish (Español). (more...)...Read More
English clubs on top of the world!
In May, the most prestigious European Cup will get an English winner. For the 11th time. You mark my words…
Has English club football ever been better? Perhaps in the late seventies and early eighties, but probably not. Four English teams out of the eight quarter fi...Read More
Back from the Brink – Stoke City
These are testing times in football as we approach the business end of the season. With nervy title races, gritty relegation scraps, tempestuous fights for promotion and the Champions League yet to be decided; we face an exciting finale to what has already been a memor...Read More
Brian Clough: “The Objectional Braggart” From Nottingham Forest
In his autobiography, ‘Walking on Water’, Brian Clough recalls his feelings on the day he was interviewed for the vacant England manager’s job: “When I sit at home, busy doing nothing at all, and think back again to that day I bowled into Lancaster Gate as if I...Read More
A lesson learnt (For me and for Stoke City hopefully!)
It was the moment we had all been waiting for. And much more besides. Stoke City took on Preston at Deepdale on Tuesday night, in what was the 101st meeting between two of England’s most prestigious clubs. It was league leaders against a club fighting for survival, o...Read More
Exciting Times (for Stoke, Sunderland & Ireland)
These are intriguing times in football. Already in 2008; there has been the return of ‘King Kev’ - to the delight of the masses on Tyneside (and rightfully predicted by your humble narrator), an Italian taking charge of England, & another much older & wiser (...Read More
Who says Romance is Dead?
It was Valentine’s Day last Thursday, and love was certainly in the air.
The previous night, Everton surpassed everyone’s expectations once again with a record sixth straight win, albeit in the UEFA Cup but we are doing well. Hopefully this week’s home leg wil...Read More
The public gets what the public wants
Sometimes, it is only when you move away that you find out most about the place you left behind. After years of scrutinizing, it is this very wonderful paradox which has allowed me to become closer to understanding the nature of English football & the fundamental reas...Read More
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