by Rory Smith | Mar 28, 2014 | Footie
The following was originally written as a blog for The Times. Well, no, that’s not true. It was actually the middle section of a blog about something else written for The Times, and then brutally and ruthlessly cut down by heartless sub-editors. I felt it warranted a...
by Rory Smith | Aug 22, 2012 | Footie
MARK Lawrenson is SAD. Not elaborate train set in the cellar, meals for one, live with your mother until she dies and then refuse to move her body from the chair she loved so much, Alan Partridge sad. He’s not saaaaad. He’s SAD. Not grieving for a lost relative,...
by Rory Smith | Aug 6, 2012 | Footie
Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, heartbroken and drained, somehow muster the strength to clamber from their lightweight double scull adrift on the still, dark pool at Eton Dorney and into the BBC’s interview area. John Inverdale, sparkling, feminine eyes set in his...
by Rory Smith | Dec 22, 2011 | Featured Writing, Footie
Author’s note: This is not about Luis Suarez, or Liverpool, or the Football Association, or the rights and wrongs of the case which led to the striker being suspended for eight games and fined £40,000. Enough has been written on that subject by my peers and superiors...
by Rory Smith | Aug 10, 2011 | Footie
ENGLAND is schizophrenic. There is one country on television, an End-of-Days-land, where swarms of black-hooded youths saunter from shop to shop, unchallenged, unabashed, looting, smashing, their destruction wanton and their authority absolute. This is England, broken...
by Rory Smith | Aug 8, 2011 | Footie
THERE is a mantra which swirls around English football these days, one of those phrases that has been repeated often enough to make itself a truth. It pays no heed to evidence, requires no proof. It simply is. It has always been. It goes like this: you can only win...
