Watching Haaland in Soccer and Lifestyle

June 28, 20261 Comment

The World Cup continues. Still during that first round of group games, I went to the local football shirt shop, Soccer and Lifestyle, to watch the second half of Norway vs Iraq. I sketched the store; the last time I had sketched inside was in the previous location was also during a World Cup, but back in 2014, twelve years ago. That is a long time ago. I drew this all while the game was going on, but coloured it in at home. There was a woman in there wearing a yellow and green Mali shirt, with ‘F Kanoute’ on the back, which I though was incredible. I really liked Freddie Kanouté, who played for Spurs for a brief period in the mid 2000s, and I told them I actually saw him play and even score, at White Hart Lane in 2004. There are a lot of good shirts in that shop. I bought my shirt for the tournament there, the Japan away kit, a couple of weeks ago. That one is white with a black collar but has really nice colourful pinstripes. They were out of the USA shirts already, they had sold out before the first USA game. There is a ‘Soccer Fest’ on G St before every US game, and a big screen is set up to watch them. We saw the second game there (I’ll post the sketches later). The USA home shirt this year is a zany affair, red and white made to look a bit like the flag waving, and be reminiscent of the amazing 1994 kit. I don’t like the 2026 one much, but if they do well, it’ll probably end up iconic. The game that I saw in the shop was a bit one-sided, with Norway being the one side, not surprising since Haaland is on the team.

So, flashback to twelve years ago, watching France vs Switzerland…

Hop you are enjoying the World Cup. It’s big and bloated and there are too many games, and I hate the ‘hydration breaks’ which are just blatantly obviously advert breaks (well done America, you broke soccer), but there have been some good moments already. Messi closed out the group stage with goal #6 for him, and DR Congo won their first World Cup game (against Uzbekistan admittedly) to qualify for the knockouts. The ‘Round of 32’ started today, and Canada beat South Africa with a late winner. There are a lot of games still to come, a lot of ‘hydration breaks’, a lot of Beckham and Messi adverts…

World Cup on the box

June 26, 2026Leave a comment

Summer is here already. As I write, we are already two weeks into the biggest World Cup ever. That is, the biggest FIFA World Cup ever, because the Davis World Cup as we know has more teams and games and a much better logo. In case you haven’t heard, it’s being held in North America, co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, who’ve all been getting on great the past couple of years. There is a lot of noise around this World Cup, even more than the last ones, and as a blatant massive cash-milking machine it’s made me feel very uneasy and I definitely didn’t want to spend thousands going to any of the games, just to watch a dead-rubber 0-0 (I’m looking at you, Paraguay v Australia in Santa Clara). Despite all that, I’ve been a sucker for the World Cup since I was ten, watching Maradona and Lineker and Platini and JOSIMAAAAAR at the 86 World Cup. I’ve watched almost all of the games so far (I had to give some of them a miss, looking at you Australia v Paraguay), and I have a lot of complaints, none more than these bloody ‘hydration breaks’, but also the head-to-head rule, the far-too-many-teams thing, and the amount of adverts with Beckham in them. I’ve enjoyed a lot of the games, I have all the flags up, I got a new shirt as per tradition (Japan Away), and even got the Panini sticker album, why not. I made a massive wallchart, one for home and one for work, and made little plastic flag ornaments to hang up and take down once teams get eliminated. Time to start doing that, because teams are dropping out now like British Prime Ministers. I have done a fair bit of sketching this time, but not drawing the players , it’s the old ‘draw the TV and some of the room’ with lots of random bits of commentary written all over the place. I wasn’t going to do that so much this year, but I can’t help myself. On the first Saturday while watching Morocco vs Brazil, a big game this early, I thought I’d get playful and use that big box of Prismacolor pencils I have had for a few years but never use. And why not draw on the back of a cereal box, like I saw so many sketchers doing in Poznan last year (those who took Peter Rush’s workshop), so I got a book of Raisin Bran Crunch and sketched the World Cup, definitely not sponsored by Kellogg’s. Yeah, bit of a slog, and having to keep changing pencil, what a time waste. Still it was a fun outcome, maybe. The game was good too, and ended in a 1-1 draw.

Before the World Cup started, we all made our predictions, our tips for the golden boot, and our dark horses. I predicted France to win it (with Spain and yes England as my 2nd and 3rd tips), and Harry Kane for the top scorer award. Morocco were my dark horses, with Norway and Japan as my other “who knows”. So far that’s been playing out, except that guy Messi is scoring for fun still despite turning 39 this week. It’s been interesting watching some of the ‘smaller’ teams, and the countries you don’t usually get to watch. Curaçao were fun, Uzbekistan a little less fun, though everybody fell in love with Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) and their keeper Vozinha when they drew with Spain, and then again with Uruguay. My African team this time though is DR Congo (and yes I do keep saying Doctor Congo), big fan of them and their superfan, Lumumba Vea. Above though I sketched New Zealand vs Iran, which was another entertaining draw. I drew that on the same cereal box, but this time in a blue Marabu Aqua Pen Grafix marker I must have gotten at one of the Symposiums. I used my usual and more trusty Staedtler aquarelle pencils for the action on TV, and the flags. which are hung around my living room.

And here is the first game by England, an adventurous effort for them, beating Croatia 4-2. Croatia are finally tired after 2018. We were all at home that afternoon, I sketched on the iPad this time, just in the second half. My old 2010 England away shirt, the only one I ever owned (and it is a bit tight on me now), is hanging up on the wall. I have a funny relationship with the England team because I both support them and don’t support them, it’s one of those things where both can be true; when I was a teenager, Ireland were my team, but I suppose England after that, and they usually ended up letting me down. I also never liked ‘that’ element of the supporters, but I know they ain’t all like that. I find that I don’t get excited for England, until the game is actually on, and then I just get my lack of excitement from the way the team plays. Maybe this time it’s different? I always want the British and Irish sides to do well, and so I’ve been well into Scotland this time around. I even bought a Wales shirt, because they went half price after they failed to qualify. I know what will happen with England, I’ll get sucked in as they go along, and Kane starts doing well, and then they get to a point where you think, maybe, maybe this time? You remember those times when you didn’t just roll your eyes about them and you start thinking, is it coming home? It is isn’t it, it’s coming home, it definitely is this time. England are the Spurs of international football, maybe for once they can just give us something. And then they lose a semi, or a quarter, and you feel grumpy and dejected for ever believing, and the years-of-hurt-o-meter keeps on ticking. At least the Women’s team win stuff. This time though, they look…good? They did in this game, a good start, let’s see how it goes, we might just be too exhausted to care by the end. It is a long, long, long World Cup…

Glory Glory in Bilbao

June 22, 2025Leave a comment

Well this happened a month ago – Tottenham Hotspur finally won a trophy after 17 years without one. That’s the stat, 17 years without a trophy, as if to say the football was good 17 years ago, good this year, and not in between, when that’s not really the case. But we won the Europa League, the third time we have won that particular trophy (the first was in 1972, the second in 1984 which I still remember). The final wasn’t pretty, and I had to be at home that day to watch it, but we beat Manchester United 1-0 and that’s that. All those years of scintillating exciting football and nearly getting there with one of the best Spurs teams I’ve ever seen, followed by a few years of that team declining and leaving and chopping and changing the managers and styles, the Contes and Mourinhos boring us to death, and then we bring in Big Ange Postecoglou, an Australian of Greek origin with big bold ideas who “always wins something in his second season” and changed the whole style to something far more attacking and fun to watch. It started well, top after his first ten games, the stadium singing Robbie Williams songs to him, saying “look Mate” a lot and looking at the floor when answering questions, that cough and those sighs, but then we kept getting so many injuries, and he would not change his cavalier style. We ended up fifth, but teams were figuring us out. So the second season, and we never got off the ground in the league, although we did beat the champions Man City away 4-0, everyone else beat us, except United who were terrible. Somehow we managed to stay alive in the Europa League – the new format helped, no heavyweight teams dropping down from the Champions League meant the most difficult team we faced was Eintracht Frankfurt. Even Manchester United making the final was a bit of a fluke, they were even more terrible than us this season (though in the end they finished a couple of spots above us, we did beat them four times over the course of the season which is amazing). So we go into the final, the teams 16th and 17th in the Premier League, the worst version of Spurs and the worst version of United I have ever seen in my lifetime, teams with records that in any other season would probably have seen them relegated, and yet one of them would get into the Champions League?! That is the prize of winning this easier Europa League, and we did it, with a goal scored by accident by Brennan Johnson, and an off the line clearance by Van De Ven that will go down in the history books and probably some of the physics books, and just for now, I don’t care about being 17th, about losing more games in one season than ever before, we won the cup. Bilbao will live on forever for us Spurs fans. It was like the end of Lord of the Rings. We had beaten Bodo in the semi before Pippin a sorry Man U in Bilbao by a nice goal and getting Merry at the Lane, Baggin’ the trophy and opening more doors as we soar on to the Champions League. The return of the Kings. My brother and nephew were watching at the Spurs stadium on the big screens set up there, and it sounds like it was a fun night. I felt relieved more than anything, after the disappointment of 2019. But a trophy is just a trophy. We came 17th in the league, we kept losing so many games – I like watching Spurs win games, and entertain as well. Big Ange who does not change his style refused to change it in the league, and we nearly got relegated, but for some reason changed it in the Europa and we won the thing. It was fun seeing the big parade, and now we can get all those people off our backs who say we never win trophies (Newcastle can do the same now too, and it’s been way longer for them). But 17th man, it ain’t good enough. So less than two weeks later, Big Ange got the sack. I’m fine with that, he would have been sacked by October anyway. He leaves as a trophy winner, no hard feelings, now we start again with our new guy, Thomas Frank. Come on you Spurs!

Newcastle finally win a trophy

April 15, 2025April 14, 2025Leave a comment

Football news now, and Newcastle United have won a trophy for the first time in my increasingly long lifetime. Yes it is hardly believable but it happened, they beat league-leaders Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, and beat them well. I had to sketch it. I am not of course a Newcastle fan, having no connection to the Northeast myself, but one of my oldest friends Simon is a long-suffering Newcastle fan, Gateshead born but grew up in north-west London so shares my accent. We just assumed they would never win a trophy, after so many near misses. Look, I’m a Spurs fan and we get stick for the whole trophy thing, but our trophy cabinet is like Real Madrid in comparison. Spurs have won trophies, just not lately. When is the supposed cut off point? Did football start in 2009? We could easily say, Chelsea hah, they don’t win anything, they have no trophies, because I’m just counting from 2022, football started in 2022 after the pandemic, but that would be ridiculous. Football isn’t all about trophies, most teams don’t win them and people still support them. I’ve had a bloody QPR fan jeer at me because Spurs ‘don’t win trophies’ but I bloody well remember beating them in a cup final. So yeah I’m pleased for Newcastle. Of course, I’d have preferred a Newcastle v Spurs final, and for Spurs to win it, but we got twatted by Liverpool in the semi-final. We are having a pretty crap season, down in 15th or maybe it’s lower now, but still in the Europa League (just about) so our Aussie manager Big Ange Instead keeps his job for now. Probably be gone by Easter. The whole trophy thing is a bit laughable. I’d love to win one, but it’s not the be all and end all. West Ham won one recently, good for them, they sacked that manager too and are still crap. We were amazing between about 2015-2020, and that team should have won the league in 2017, but it wasn’t to be, it doesn’t stop that team being the stuff of legends in my mind. That Champions League run, woof. Newcastle in the mid-90s, also the stuff of legends. Not only did they have some of the best kits, but their fantastic manager Kevin Keegan (who I actually met in Charleroi in Belgium when he was England manager) had players playing the most entertaining of football, all passing and crossing and scoring fantastic goals in baggy shirts, your Ferdinand, Ginola, Asprilla, Andy Cole in the early days with the Asics kit, then Shearer later on. No defending whatsoever, except big Charleroi-local Philippe Albert booting balls away, I loved it. (Incidentally Charleroi is another coal town that plays in black and white stripes and wins absolutely nothing). They were everyone’s second team, well except for Sunderland fans. I remember when they played Spurs and our fans were singing “you’re just a small town in Scotland!” and the Geordies replied, “you’re just a small town in Arsenal!” Fair play. So well done Newcastle, you’ve got your trophy, your first domestic one since the 50s. Now we’ve got to get one too.

a night at the spurs

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024Leave a comment

While I was back in London, I unexpectedly went to see my beloved Tottenham play in the Europa League against AS Roma (another Italian team I like, who have had a weird season so far, but recently appointed Ranieri as their third coach of the year). I’ve only been to see one previous game at the new stadium, a friendly against Inter not long after it had opened, and that was over five years ago. This was the first competitive game I’ve been able to go to in about nine years. My brother was sick and couldn’t go, though my nephew did go with his friend, I didn’t go with them as they were sitting in a different part of the ground. I went early by myself (I think I’ve never been to a home game by myself before?), eating down my turkey dinner that Mum made for Thanksgiving and getting the tube to Seven Sisters. That long long walk up from there with the many thousands of others, I have not done that in at least ten years. The Roma fans were being chaperoned up there by a lot of police, that was interesting. I made it to the ground, it is so massive, and popped into the shop to get my son a half-half scarf, he also likes Roma back from our trip there years ago, though Spurs is our football love, and our football headache. My seat was high up in the north stand, very high, but I had a great central view overlooking all the action, so I sketched in my little Moleskine before kick-off. It was so exciting. I was there among all my fellow Spurs folk, and there were a lot of families, kids, older fans, a great mix. It’s easier to get tickets to the European games, but you need to have a Membership to go to Premier League games. It has been a really long time since I went to a European game at Spurs; the Cup-Winners Cup I think, back in 1991 vs Sparkasse Stockerau, the little Austrian team? They had a player called Helmut Flicker, which I thought was hilarious. I was there thinking, if we lived in London right now I would for sure try to get a season ticket, get to see a lot more games. Well, season tickets are very expensive, so maybe not, but I love it, I loved being at the Lane, I love being at the new ground, which is in the same place. Anyway, I didn’t sketch after kick-off as I wanted to pay attention to the match, and it was an extremely entertaining game. It’s Ange Postecoglou football isn’t it, it’s crazy stuff. From where I sat I could really see our shape for the first time, much better than on the limited TV screen. We don’t like going too wide, our wing-backs/full-backs really give a lot of space to their wide attackers. Both teams played full-on, there were so many goal attempts, disallowed goals, off-the-line clearances, it was nervy, and highly entertaining. We should have capitalized on our attacks, but in the end when we were 2-1 up, everyone around kept saying the game feels like a 2-2, and when Mats Hummels (who I had no idea was playing for Roma now, after those years at Dortmund) popped up and scored an equalizer, to be honest it felt like a fair result. My jetlag was kicking in, but I had the long long walk back to Seven Sisters yet to come, among the thousands leaving the stadium. It was a great night, I’m glad I went and can’t wait to go and watch another one sometime, hopefully with my son. Come on you Spurs!

back on the couch watching the sports

July 2, 2024Leave a comment

Before we get to all the sketches from London and France, which I am still scanning, here are some from the last couple of days back here in Davis. The weather is hot, very hot, very very hot, and getting hotter. There may not be much going outside for a while, unless I start doing the early morning sketching like I do when I’m on vacation. I am still getting up early, thanks to jetlag, and I still want to just go back. But there are things to do. First though, the football. But before that, the Formula One. I was up early on Sunday to watch the Austrian Grand Prix, a ho-hum race for the first two thirds, and then a crazy exciting race for the last third (Max and Lando crashed into each other fighting for the lead, and then George Russell won it in the Mercedes; F1 is back). I sketched from the couch, my usual seat with the side-on view. Our cats are pleased we are back, I assume. I looked at the Austrian Alps in envy. I want to go everywhere, and I’d like to go back there. As I look at the long hot Davis summer stretching out ahead of me, I just want to get on another plane and explore somewhere very far away, while the world is still there to explore. Anyway, then it was time for the football. I’ve had a strange relationship with this year’s European Championships. In the past it has been one of those exciting times of year, but I’ve struggled to get as interested this time. The kits are okay, I suppose, but I haven’t wanted to get one this time. I think in the run up, I was so busy and stressed out that I didn’t think about it, and then it started while we were in London. This meant watching it at unusual times for us, that is, the afternoon and evening, as opposed to the typical very early morning that we have gotten used to (or that 3am start for the Women’s World Cup). I saw the opening game Germany vs Scotland with a friend of mine in an old Dutch pub, De Hems, in central London, Scotland got battered like a piece of cod. Some of the games have been interesting, Austria look good, Spain look frightening, but let’s face it – England have been dull as dishwater. If I had spent hundreds, thousands of quid to go and watch them chug about the field against teams they know they should beat, barely taking a shot or connecting a pass, I’d be furious. The group stage was so boring, football at its worst. But everyone’s tired! they say. So are we all, mate, so are we all. The knockout stages should be better. I’ll be back home, watching them in the mornings from the couch (or my desk if I’m at the office), and they are must-win. England v Slovakia was, predictably, turgid. Slovakia played well, England did not. I sketched during the game, above. The commentators, in the closing minutes of the game with England 1-0 down, were putting the game very firmly in the England Hall of Shame, with the leading men Kane, Bellingham and Foden having done absolutely zero. I was telling my friends back home, it’s bad news for the English game. They aren’t creative enough, they are positive enough, they’ll go on getting bad results, getting bad results, getting bad results. Everyone seemed to know the score, we’ve seen it all before. And then, in the 95th or 96th minute whatever it was, Jude Bellingham, the young Real Madrid superstar, decided to do a bicycle kick to plant the ball in the bottom corner, breaking Slovakia’s hearts, as the cliche says. Full-time, 1-1; extra-time, and Kane makes it 2-1 instantly. Suddenly the, er, narrative changes. It doesn’t wipe out the previous 96 minutes of dull porridge, but England are in the next round now, just as England topped the group, and like in 1990, nobody will care how boring they were because of a brief moment where it went right. That’s how football works I guess. As I look towards the long hot summer in Davis with nothing but work and imposing heat on the menu, I think about the trip we have planned right at the end of summer before Fall begins, and maybe that’s the Bellingham and Kane moment that will make Summer 2024 worth it. I dunno. We had a pretty nice trip just now, I’m just in the post-vacation blues. England are in the next round against the Swiss, who look really good after knocking out a dreary Italy.

I sketched a couple more games yesterday, writing down the commentary as I went. France v Belgium (ended 1-0 to France, a goal they classed as an own goal by my man Jan Vertonghen), France otherwise just don’t know how to score properly. This was followed by Portugal 0-0 with Slovenia, Cristiano Ronaldo who is playing his 112th tournament trying as hard as he might to score goals and failing, much to the eternal patience of his team-mates who would like a go please. Ronny, you don’t need to take every free kick, your record of those for Portugal is actually rubbish. Of course he had a penalty saved by Oblak, ending in tears and more looks towards the heaven (and the big screens). He hasn’t scored in eight tournament games and wants to pile on more for his own personal record, team-mates be damned. And then it ended in a draw, and a penalty shoot-out. Portugal’s goalie made three saves in a row, and Ronny scored his penalty this time, but mate, that don’t count as a goal. Portugal v France in the quarter finals, along with Germany v Spain on Friday. The Euros are back. Meanwhile, the Copa America is on, hosted by the US. I finally watched a game last night, USA vs Uruguay… and the USA lost, and are out in the group stage. Oh well. As American politics gets charging towards the ugly election in November, I remembered, oh yes, there’s a British general election on Thursday, right in the middle of the Euros. It would have been strange for England to be knocked out right before it. They fight on for another weekend. I ain’t going anywhere.

lionesses before dawn

September 17, 2023Leave a comment

We all got up at 3am, for the second time in a week, to watch England playing in the final stages of the Women’s World Cup. The midweek semi-final was a fantastic win. The final, in those wee hours of a Sunday morning, as sketched here, did not go quite as well. Spain were the better team on the day, and deserved to win 1-0. Of course we all know what happened next with that awful Spanish FA president, it’s been quite a drama. The Women’s World Cup overall was a really fun tournament, even though we could not watch too many games live (as they were in Australian and New Zealand), we watched all the highlights each day. The USA were not so good this time, but I was pretty happy with how England did overall. European Champions last year, beaten World Cup finalists this year (I guess we start counting ‘years of hurt’ again now?). Congratulations to Spain though. This was nearly a month ago now, and these days we are back in the Premier League fun times, and Spurs are doing great so far under Big Ange Postecoglou. However now I am getting right into the Rugby World Cup, of all things. I’ve never been much of a rugby fan, I used to watch it sometimes on telly when I was a kid, but never really understood it like I do with football. I still don’t, but it has been fun watching these huge guys smash into each other this past week. Sport, eh. It’s the big distraction from all the other shitty things in the world, and there are increasingly shitty things in the world, that my mental health just can’t deal with, so I go back to watching sport. I was up at 5am this morning watching the Formula 1, and what a race (Carlos Sainz won; Max Verstappen for once did not win, coming fifth). Earlier this summer we watched pretty much all the Tour de France (well, all the highlights each day, I’m not actually watching them race live). At this rate I might even start watching cricket (no, let’s not go that far). But we loved the Women’s World Cup. And I’m now a big fan of goalkeeper Mary “F***-Off!!” Earps.

he’s one of our own

August 12, 2023Leave a comment

Well, Harry’s gone. After many years of memorable moments, Harry Kane, who just turned 30, has moved on from Spurs, where he’s been since he was 11, for a new challenge in Germany at Bayern Munich. I’m sad, but that’s football, and he was one of our greatest. I would write a whole thing here about Kane and all the other Spurs greats I’ve loved over the years, how I feel about this transfer (he gave us everything, all of his 20s, we have to give him this) and about football in general (as I write, Arsenal are winning), but I’m not really in the mood, it’s too soon. I saw Harry’s goodbye video earlier, and I just watched the England Women’s Team beat Colombia, and now I’m going for a run. But Harry Kane, forever one of our own (as was Glenn Hoddle when he went to Monaco), good luck in this next adventure, and we’ll see you again some day. Come on you Spurs.

man city v madrid at the mixer

July 15, 2023July 13, 2023Leave a comment

While in London I was doing a fair bit of remote work, which was usually done in the late afternoon and into the evening (and occasionally into the wee hours after midnight, since California time is eight hour behind London time). On one day I worked throughout the afternoon and had an early evening meeting which happened to finish around the same time as the Champions League semi-final was beginning. Back in California I might have (a) cycled home to watch it over some lunch, (b) sneekily put it on my iPad and watched in the meeting, or (c) not really cared that much since it’s not Tottenham playing. On this evening I fell more into the third category, since the meeting ran into the game time and I couldn’t bring it up on my mum’s TV anyway, but I had a feeling it might be an interesting game – Real Madrid vs Manchester City – so after the Zoom meeting ended I decided to go out and watch at least the second half at a pub if I could. I wasn’t sure where; I don’t know which pubs show football any more, and I didn’t really want to go to any pubs in Burnt Oak. I jumped on the tube, thought about Hendon, I remembered watching a football match in a big pub there (wait that was in 1996), considered Golders Green, again wasn’t sure, so I just headed to Camden. I knew the Earl of Camden showed football, so I headed there. Thing is, I don’t really like that pub much, it’s always a bit uncomfortable and packed. And it was too – nowhere to sit, screens in awkward places, there was a guy in a 1998 Real Madrid away shirt which was cool but other than that, I didn’t fancy it. The first half was just ending so I thought, look for somewhere else. I didn’t expect the Good Mixer would be showing it, but I passed by on my way to the High Street and sure enough, they had it on in there, and it wasn’t full of big football lads. I like the Mixer, it was always one of my favourite places to hang out in the 90s and early 2000s, me and Terry used to go an play pool there (well, he would play pool, I would lose once and then sit there watching him beat everyone for a couple of hours). I found a seat with a good view and watched City completely demolish Madrid in a “please make them stop!” sort of way. It was a bit like watching Terry play people at pool. (I remember one night, I think it was at the King’s Head in Crouch End, this cocky guy challenged him to a game of pool, the guy had a special expensive pool cue in a hard case, he got it out and was polishing it and chalking it, and gestured to Terry as a joke if he wanted to borrow his cue; Terry declined and picked up probably the shittest pub cue from the rack, and proceeded to wipe the floor with him, the guy didn’t pot a single ball. He then beat him a few more times in clinical fashion, I just remember the guy standing there furiously chalking his cue waiting for a go.) Real Madrid were taken apart, although in this case City have the most expensive cues and the hard cases. I sketched the pub in my little Stillman and Birn Alpha mini book, just a quick one in Pigma Graphic pen and what waetrcolours I brought with me (a small set of about five colours in a tiny stormtrooper-helmet tin, fits into my pocket easily). It’s one of my favourite bar sketches though, it captures the mood well. The game ended, some people celebrated (it’s an English team getting to a major European final, albeit one funded by a rich nation state), I remembered my old friend Rob who supported Man City back in the 90s when they were pretty crap (though they had amazing Kappa kits), and how this is for those fans who put up with all that back then. I went to the little chip shop next to the tube station where I’d always get my chips on the way home, and headed back to bed.

football at my desk

May 30, 2023May 29, 2023Leave a comment

Well, the football season has ended. Ok, not all of it, there are still European finals and FA Cup finals and another round of games in some leagues where the title has already been decided, but as far as I’m concerned, as a Spurs fan, the season is over, and now we have to look to next season. What that will look like, nobody knows, since we have no new manager in sight, no certainty that our best player and all-time record scorer Harry Kane will stay, but certainty that we will not be playing European football next year. Ah well, maybe the break will be a good thing. It’s been a strange season. Spurs were stuck in fourth for most of it, while playing football that was dreary at best, less “to dare is to do” and more “don’t you dare do”. We sacked Conte eventually, replacing him with his assistant Stellini, then replacing him with Ryan Mason, it was like the Tory Party leadership. Manchester City won the league (again), overtaking Arsenal a few weeks before the end of the season, the Gunners bottling it when face with the massive state-funded behemoth in their rear view mirror. I found myself actually feeling sorry for them. At least Chelsea were utterly hilariously atrocious; we were terrible, but ended up sixteen points ahead of them. Five other London clubs finished ahead of them. Two other west London teams finished above them. Leicester got relegated, only a few years after they were the champions, going down with Leeds and Southampton. Meanwhile little Luton Town, who were relegated from the old First Division just before it became the Premier League, finally made it back up to the top table having been in the non-league divisions just a few years back. In Italy, Napoli won their first title since the Maradona years, finishing miles ahead of everyone else, while in Germany it went down to the final day, but Dortmond lost and Bayern pipped them to win an eleventh title in a row, because of course. In France, the oil-state sportswashing project called PSG won another title, keeping it interesting in Ligue 1. The middle of the season saw that same state hold a winter World Cup, which I must say I’m actually on board with the idea of every other World Cup being held just before Christmas, I enjoyed mixing the footy with the festive fun, and despite all the controversy about the hosting, the final was one of the most entertaining I’ve ever seen, with Messi finally getting his World Cup with Argentina. Time for a football break. The Women’s World Cup will be this summer though, and that should be good, but there’s just so much these days. I quit soccer coaching last year and have been watching my son’s team from the sidelines, thankful to not be thinking about practice plans and playing time as much, but still wincing whenever they play long balls. I’m still as obsessed as ever about football shirts, in fact most of the time I might prefer the shirts to the actual sport. I’m also still part of the organizing team for the local Davis World Cup youth recreational soccer tournament, my role being to take care of the website and the logos, and of course I’ve designed a million logos. This year is one of my favourites. Come August though, when the new Premier League season rolls back in, I’ll of course be as excited (or filled with dread) as ever, getting up early to watch the gsames, or catching them in my lunchtime as I did with the one I sketched above. That was a game we drew against Manchester United, who had been fellow Champions League contenders until we got blown away by Newcastle the weekend before. It was tough watching Spurs, but my allergies are so bad in Davis that it was better than being outside sneezing all lunchtime.