Crazy Diamond

I'm trying to brush up on my football knowledge as I'm about to finally be paid for writing and talking about the game. It occurs to me I can't really write anything too in-depth until I know for certain what I'm talking about, so I'm trying to expand my football knowledge by doing some reading. Today I bought 'Inverting the Pyramid' by Jonathan Wilson, a book about the history of tactics around the world and 'Brilliant Orange' by David Winner, a book all about the Dutch football philosophy. So does anyone have any recommendations for books that I can use to further my understanding of everything football? I don't care if it's something as abstract as the Soviet league or a complete history of football in Montserrat, as long as its good and I can learn from it I'm interested. Also while I'm at it, any documentaries or television serials I ought to have a look at? There's a good film called 'The Referees' coming out soon, so anything to watch and learn from would be good. Oh and any decent blogs that people swear by? Thanks.

Portsmouth fans really must be some of the thickest in the country. Seriously. There's one guy on Twitter saying how he can't wait to draw Aldershot in the Carling Cup so they can hand out a thrashing to Kevin Dillon. Kevin Dillon left the club months ago. Plus, Aldershot would probably beat them anyway. Dear me...

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life, however... I've always been baffled as to why Brighton fans hate us so much. They seem to respond saying we're not rivals and they don't care about us, yet this season just gone goes totally against that. So imagine my surprise when I see this as someone's Twitter picture. Mind you, this guy's biography says he also supports West Ham. So he's not exactly all that smart. Still it must have been a nice day out for him...

A Skate just remarked on Twitter how he hopes they get AFC Wimbledon in the Carling Cup and thrash them, as he's sick of their media love in. Sorry but given that Wimbledon fans had their club taken away from them and did all they could to keep it, yet Portsmouth cheated the taxpayer, put a lot of people out of business and still have a club and a place in the Football League, is that not a bit of a stupid thing to say? Stupid bastards.

Nice research. It's been far too long in other words!

It's a tough call though. I would be happy with a top half finish and maybe a sneaky challenge for the play-offs but I'd agree I'm not expecting a top six finish. As for spending this summer, I can't see us spending a huge amount. I just hope we don't bring in a load of loan players, in the long term it does more damage than good. As soon as they go back to their parent club it's a void that needs filling, though granted you get a Lansbury every now and then.

If we're discussing the table, can we discuss the fixtures? How long has it been since we last won on the opening day of the season? Must be about 15 years now or something ridiculous. I remember reading it was a lengthy time in a programme a few seasons ago.

Ha ha. If I could play like Keith I'd be very happy.

Oops. Hit reply twice.

I love the bloke in the crowd on the replay. The life is just sucked out of him when he sees its gone in.

I actually saw that the League Two table had changed this morning but its since gone back to the 2010-11 season. Wimbledon were top! I imagine it'll be sometime this week, if not Friday.

I'm thankful anyway - anyone willing to give us £1m for a pile of crap like McGoldrick is fine by me.

I won't miss Wycombe and Rochdale in a hurry.

Well even in the midst of their financial woes, in 2009 when Hart was in charge they signed a load of crap on stupid wages (Danny Webber etc). Hart apparently profited personally from a lot of those signings. Then again it seems he is a man in football only for the money. Just look at what he's done after the Skates. QPR for a month, earning a nice wage I imagine, Palace for a month or so, Swindon for nearly two months and now back doing what he started out doing in coaching, head of youth development or whatever at Charlton.

Money is most likely the motivation at the moment, you're quite right. But soccer took off over there because of two Brits who just wanted to see if they could get it to work. One of the guys, Clive Toye, was a journalist with the Express and he managed to bring Pele to the (original) Cosmos and nearly got George Best. There's an interview with him here, it's a good read http://lesrosbifs.net/category/nasl-season/ I spoke to Manny Andruszewski back in March, he's a top bloke, Lawrie told him there was no other English club interested in him and he decided Tampa Bay was a good idea. I've written an article about him that'll feature on that site soon.

I'm just waiting for the obligatory 'Can someone fill me in? I don't have time to read back' post.

Looking back on the 0 - 0 draw with Wolves on the opening day of the 2005/06 season, I wonder what ever made me think we could get promotion straight back up to the Prem that season. I don't know if anyone will agree... But what a terrible squad we were left with. I don't think we were much better a year later under Burley, but it was an improvement of sorts. Then again, some terrible teams have been promoted before. That Derby team were a bunch of also-rans and were figured out very quickly. Sheffield United were mainly a bunch of dressed up thugs, somehow managing to blow a ten point lead over the relegation zone teams in 06/07 to go down. Add to that Stoke, how they got promoted and finished 12th is to my mind almost baffling given they had players like John Halls, who today signed for Wycombe Wanderers.

It really says something about the quality of 'journalism' at the Mirror that they reported it was a done deal a week or so ago. Added to that, they had it in for us because apparently we were paying £15,000 a week for the privilege.

It's been mentioned that McClaren had no say in transfers at Wolfsburg, but the fact is he'll have little or no say in transfers at Forest! As I mentioned on another thread, there's this 'transfer acquisition' panel headed by David Pleat, and Billy Davies was forever moaning about it. He couldn't get enough players in, then it wasn't who he wanted. Continental systems like the Forest set up, as far as I can see, are in place to give a club an identity. Over here we float from manager to manager and it's damaging to the club in the long term when people are moving in different directions. Look at us for example. Strachan had his own idea, Sturrock had another, Wigley didn't have a clue, Redknapp had an entirely different plan. Going from philosophy to philosophy so quickly achieves very little - in our case it led to relegation, and then again after Burley, Pearson then Poortvliet and Wotte. Need another example? Newcastle. They sacked Bobby Robson, brought in Souness, two managers with very different ideas about football. Then Souness goes, like with Wigley they promote from within, Roeder steps up. He goes, Allardyce comes in, with his 'unique' set of ideas. Again, he goes, then its Keegan. Then its Kinnear, then it's Shearer, relegation. A continental style system ensures that a style is maintained. The Director of Football or whatever has the ideas for a certain philosophy or identity and the manager subsequently works towards that. If that manager goes, a new one comes in, conforms and there's continuity. It's not worked over here all that much, Spurs tried and failed with Juande Ramos and Damien Commolli. I don't think it's really a case of McClaren's quality. At Forest it's about what else is going on there.

The handful of Notts Forest fans I've spoken to all want O'Neill. Former player, and a good one at that, who is looking for a job. Though it's just as absurd as him managing us in League One - there's a seven man 'transfer consultation' panel headed by David Pleat, and he'd have very little say on who arrives and who departs. Shame.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Arsenal-transfer-news-Alex-Oxlade-Chamberlain-Southampton-starlet-will-sign-July-1st-despite-Manchester-United-Liverpool-interest-article746002.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Apparently it's done. "Arsene Wenger has struck back in the battle for Britain’s best youngsters by landing £12million Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The highly-rated Southampton winger, who doesn't turn 18 until August, has jetted off on holiday in the knowledge that he will be confirmed as an Arsenal player on July 1"

The father of a friend of mine down here in Bournemouth works for Brentford. His words on the subject: "He'll have us in the Prem in two years. The Blue Square Premier that is".

Exactly my thoughts. Oh sorry, 'This'.

I said on another thread that we're scouting in Hong Kong. The Academy Administrator Derek Old has been in touch with a promising kid who is at Chelsea's academy over there. Apparently the only issue is with his studies as he's only 15. Just thought I'd mention it!

I've just read that a scout of ours has had contact with a kid called Ian Goh, a 'semi-pro footballer at ChelseaFC Soccer School (HK) / Hong Kong Football Club U-15'. He tweeted an hour ago "Got in touch with some of the USA scouts likes of New York Red Bull,Seattle Sounders and LAGalaxy!!! Hopefully able to join 1 :)", before adding... "Also scouts from Europe!! Southampton FC, FC Mainz, Bordeux, FC Kaiserslautern!!!". Just thought I'd mention it! If true, good to see this worldwide recruitment lark is in action.