Storm Ciara seemed to arrive just in time for West Ham. Such has been the poverty of their recent form, that a postponed game should have brought relief. Particularly so with a trip to Manchester on the schedule and a match against a City side smarting from that absurd loss to Tottenham.Unfortunately, there was no respite. Since the ignominy of surrendering that 3-1 lead to Brighton, West Ham have suffered a series of self-inflicted wounds.First, through an apology which they extracted from Sky Sports for comments made on Sunday Supplement, which may have forced the broadcaster to back-pedal, but created a spectacle which hardly flattered the club.Then, a week on, they suffered at the hands of a Daily Mail columnist,...
The 1990s was a special time for the Premier League.Though the arrival of Sky Sports saw additional cashflow and a continental vigour injected into the English game, it still retained some of the old alongside the new.For the best part of a decade, fans watched as the dying embers of the old Division One rough-and-tumble made way for something worldlier and more watchable.The result was a series of teams that offered up heady mixes of the two. Teams that were loved by neutrals and live long in the memory despite, by and large, failing to lift much silverware.West Ham, 1997/98Prior to Paolo Di Canio’s arrival the eclectic and highly combustible pairing of Eyal Berkovic and John Hartson brought the good...
Awards season is upon us -but we’re not talking about the Grammy’s or the Oscars.The Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year - or the PFA Player of the Year - is now in its 36th year. Its roll call includes the likes of Eden Hazard, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo andAndy Gray - but who’s likely to join the illustrious list in the 2020 edition?Jordan Henderson, LiverpoolIn 2014, Luis Suarez swept the awards board, lifting the PFA gong, the Football Writers’ AssociationFootballer of the Year award, the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year and the Football Supporters’ FederationPlayer of the Year, as Liverpool infamously capitulated in the dying embers of the season to finish second behind Manchester City.History...
Erling Haaland’s having an alright season, isn’t he?After impressing in the Champions League for RB Salzburg, the blonde bombshell’s sent shockwaves around the world since signing for Borussia Dortmund. In just 136 Bundesliga minutes, he’s managed to rack up seven goals already - that’s one every 19 minutes of football.Frankly, 19 minutes a goal is astonishing. You can’t even get through an episode of Friends without Haaland scoring. If he continues at this rate, he’ll score 180 goals next season.So that prompted us at FFT to ponder - who has the best minutes to goals ratio in Europe’s top five leagues right now? We chose those who have netted over ten goals - sorry, Erling - just so that anyone...
Subscribe to the podcast onSpotify here,on Acast hereoron iTunes hereJose Mourinho divides opinion. He’s won European titles, multiple Premier Leagues, Primeira Ligas, Scudetto, and a La Liga in an honours list that boasts 19 major trophies in as many years in management.But his self-confidence, temperament, and philosophy have brought detractors. It’s nearly a decade since he won the Champions League and five years since he won the league, bringing questions over whether the 57-year-old is now a manager past his prime.He is one of only five managers to have won the European Cup with two different teams, and could yet do something unprecedented and win it with a third.Despite coaching last season’s Champions League runners-up, a victory with Tottenham would...