Ben Pinkney looks at Chelsea's 'best ever player' Gianfranco Zola.
Despite the numerous celebrated arrivals at Stamford Bridge during the summer of 2003, namely Claude Makélélé, Hernan Crespo, Adrian Mutu, Juan Sebastián Verón and José Mourinho, it would be an individual leaving Chelsea who would be make the most impassioned move of all - Gianfranco Zola...
Simon Kuper – The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game
Just Simon Kuper's distinction and previous publications should be enough to wet your appetite for his latest piece of work - The Football Men; Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game. Winner of William Hill's Sports Book of the Year in 1994, with Football Against the Enemy, he turns his anthropologic hand to the individuals within the world of football...
Ronaldinho - Representing El Gaucho
Ronaldinho was a face that became ubiquitous with world football throughout the past decade. Though, due to problems concerning responsibility and disillusionment with the commercial side of the beautiful game, it all came crashing down. Here was a player, notice I speak retrospectively, who fell from the summit due to reasons only he can be made responsible for – his unfocussed attitude, mentality and lifestyle all ultimately contributing...
Arguably the signing of the summer somewhat slipped under the radar of Sky Sports News and the electable Jim White come deadline day – a player who can account for 34 Spanish International caps and two La Liga winners’ medal - Vicente Rodríguez Guillén had joined Championship highflyers Brighton & Hove Albion FC after more than a decade’s worth of service for CF Valencia...
In this section we’ve moved away from the strictures and facsimile of search engine optimisation surrounding football facts, you know about the fan in 1995 banned from Maine Road for bringing celebratory dead chickens into City’s at the time ground and the fact that Gary Lineker was never booked in his career, in order to bring you an array of obscure football facts from a wider range of sources including autobiographies, books, films which have stood out and we feel are more relevant to today’s world footballers...
This summer’s eventful transfer window closed on 31st August. The biggest transfer of the window was undoubtedly Cesc Fabregas’ return move to his hometown club, Barcelona. Arsenal also parted with Samir Nasri, as the Frenchman moved to the blue of Manchester City. Despite these high-profile signings, there was one transfer move that caught my eye more than others. This, of course, was Emile Sinclair’s £150k transfer from Macclesfield Town to Peterborough United...
With Charles N'Zogbia moving to Aston Villa in the summer a place was left in the Wigan Squad for a new star. Now four games into the new premiership season it seems like young forward Victor Moses has stepped up. Moses who is blessed with pace, strength and flair that most players could ever dream of appears to have been a great signing by Roberto Martinez who manged to pick up the player on the cheap, £2.5 million, from a then in Administration, Crystal Palace...
Borussia Dortmund's Mario Götze is turning heads all over Europe. Tom Beck looks why.
“It is not possible to stop Mario Götze. There is no one playing better than him. He runs through opponents as though they aren't there” – Franz Beckenbauer
Mario Götze, born in June 1992, plays primarily as an attacking midfielder, whilst also can operate on the right of midfield. A product of Dortmund’s youth academy, the playmaker made his domestic debut for BVB in November 2009, aged just 17...
Ben Pinkney evaulates Chelsea's summer activity in the transfer market.
As ever transfer window promised lots of activity at Stamford Bridge, perhaps nothing like the £50 million spent on Torres last January but arrivals in West London will please players and fans alike. The influx of youth at Chelsea over the past months will tell you as much about the current side as it does about Andre Villas-Boas’ plans for longevity in the capital...
Arsenal FC - Where is the Club Heading?
Arsenal in recent years have seemed to be going through a transition phase which was set to launch the club in to one of the elite clubs in Europe alongside Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona - six years on with a magnificent stadium, increasing profits (unlike any other champions league club) a billionaire owner, increasing global status and a solid structure to the club it seems that Arsenal FC has turned into a selling club that is run like a business and not a football club, this article aims to get a slight insight into the problems at the club...
Money In Football - Justifying Obscenity
Ben Pinkney asks can the money in football be justified.
It’s a familiar dispute; not only within the football community but especially outside, that there is too much money in football. This question is easily answered for the vast majority, I use the word vast as I couldn’t think of a more collective word that defines quite how universal this opinion is, and states that there is indeed far too much money in football. Regardless, I wanted to see whether a case could be made for football and its grotesque abuse of money through a period where the rest of the world suffered irrefutably...
Tom Beck discusses Arsenal's Japanese sensation Ryo Miyaichi.
Arsenal may be about to lose both Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri from their midfield, but the club may be about to realise that they had the talent to progress right under their nose.
The Gunners are set to throw their 18-year-old winger, Ryo Miyaichi, into first team action from the beginning of next season...
Fernando Torres - Great Expectations
Ben Pinkney looks into Fernando Torres and what opportunities the new season will bring for him.
The capture of Fernando Torres from Liverpool back in January was unquestionably a further illustration of narcissism on Roman Abramovich’s part. The Spaniard evidently was no part of the Carlo Ancelotti blueprint and left him struggling to incorporate the striker into what was already a dithering side - Chelsea’s worst run of form in the winter months in their entire history, and ‘The Blues’ least successful season since before the Abramovich era. So, the much loved Italian departed from Stamford Bridge leaving Fernando Torres remaining as the satirical figure in West London...