Football
Once you get over its political correctness, Netflix’s Godless is a cracker
Boy came to me the other night in a state of dismay. ‘Dad, I just turned on Match of the…
As West Ham go for dull David Moyes, football badly needs more Pep talks
So West Ham took the least surprising option and sent for David Moyes. Same old same old. I have a…
Death hovers over the scrum
Rugby’s autumn internationals are almost upon us and dark thoughts hover over lovers of the sport. One day soon a…
The art of the football shirt
Part canvas, part sandwich board, club kits don’t always work – but their designs can be addictive
Why the England team is so unexciting
During a riveting session at the Cheltenham Literary Festival with sporting brainboxes Mike Brearley and Matthew Syed, discussion touched on…
Why English footballers are so useless
It is late in the evening. You’re in a bar. You’ve had quite a bit to drink but you are…
What has the Premier League ever done for us?
Football’s back, I’m afraid, and, in the imperishable words of David Mitchell, every kick in every game matters to someone,…
Football wants the ‘somewheres’ to get lost
Some years ago, when Millwall played West Ham United, the Millwall fans sang the following song (to the tune of…
AFL and the biased politics of sport
Politics thrives and prospers on power. Power seeps through winning over the masses. Where are the masses in Australia? Watching…
The many, many resting places of St Thomas à Becket
A man in full A relic said to contain a fragment of St Thomas à Becket’s elbow arrived from Hungary for…
Why Juan Villoro is the best football writer you've never heard of
Football, unlike cricket, has for the most part been ill served by its writers. For every Brian Glanville and Ian…
Cricket needs a top-to-bottom overhaul: here’s how I’d do it
No place for the faint of heart, Headingley, and certainly not for some sketchy Sri Lankan batsmen at the back…
The Royal Ballet is literally losing the plot
If a football manager produces a string of losses, the writing is on the wall and out he goes. He’s…
Revealed: the true and unrepeatable secret of Leicester City’s success
A few years ago a motivational speaker brought out a smart little book called Legacy: What The All Blacks Can…
Sport is a fairytale factory – as Leicester City remind us
Leicester City’s triumphs demonstrate once again sport’s capacity to replay archetypal stories
My life in West Ham matches
What consolation in life can Arthur and I find after that defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the…
Stop chasing the PM’s taxes: focus on the bad stuff that really matters
There were moments last week when I was ready to give up journalism and retrain in a less unsavoury profession…
Spectator letters: What might have been for young Boris and Dave
What might have been Sir: Harry Mount points out that Boris Johnson is two years older than David Cameron (Diary,…
The angry young bowler who could take the West Indies back to the top
In the north of Antigua, just by the medical school, is a neat little cricket ground. It was a bit…
John Terry’s ‘farewell’ is a load of hypocritical old tosh
Just when you were thinking that the Premier League had become a much nicer place without José Mourinho in it,…
This could be the year that sport starts to die
If sport loses the public’s faith – and it’s starting to – then all its power and glory will fade
There are three sides to success at Oxford United
In the middle of Oxford is a socking great cinema: once the Ritz, it’s now an Odeon multiplex. Back in…
2016 will be a vintage year for tech billionaires and jihadis
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
Musical maestros and football managers have more in common than you think
You don’t have to be a follower of Liverpool Football Club, or football at all, to spot the difference. Two…
The Davis Cup will be one final flourish for Andy’s Barmy Army
There’s nothing quite like a sporting celebration, but the lash-up after Britain’s (almost) inevitable victory in the Davis Cup tennis…
