Heart of Football

Category: Featured

  • Debate: January Transfer Window

    Debate: January Transfer Window

    Since the January transfer window came in for the 2001/02 season, which January transfer stands out for you as the best? Richard Pike: Both Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidić proved to be excellent winter transfer window additions for Manchester United. However, the January transfer that stands out most for me is Luis Suárez’s move from…

  • Matchdays: Montreal Loves Soccer

    Matchdays: Montreal Loves Soccer

    The Bucket List. It is an interesting concept. You flick through the pages of your imagination, you list all the things you want to see, the places you want to go, the experiences you want to witness, and you put all these musings down on paper as a way of making them less of a…

  • Debate – The modern game

    Debate – The modern game

    1. Fan Cams have exploded into the mainstream conscience in recent years; are they a parasite exploiting the clickbait culture, or a genuine voice of the fans? Richard Pike: Whilst some fans on the programmes do make some decent observations and I understand why they exist, Im not a huge fan of the Fan TV…

  • Debate – VAR

    Debate – VAR

    1. Did football need to move with the times and improve decision making by using technology in the first place?  Simon Toye: I think VAR was always going to be the next logical (debatable) step. In some form or other it has a position in other sports – rugby, tennis etc. So it was always…

  • The tragedy of Luciano Re Cecconi

    The tragedy of Luciano Re Cecconi

    Picture the scene. It’s a rainy Lancashire afternoon at Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School. The main building is reminiscent of HMP Wandsworth and is located at the top of a small mill town in Rossendale, known for literally nothing and, excitingly, having nothing to do. In fact, Sky recently chose it as the ideal place…

  • Interview – Tuesday Night Football Eastbourne

    Interview – Tuesday Night Football Eastbourne

    When all’s said and done, football is just a game. Two teams kicking a ball about is as rudimentary a past-time as it gets, however loudly the Champions League anthem may blare out. However much one tries to distill it to its simplest form though, there are powerful effects of playing the game that stretch…

  • CM/FM Legends: Bjørn Heidenstrøm

    CM/FM Legends: Bjørn Heidenstrøm

    During the late 1990s, in what some would call the golden age of Championship Manager, there were some players of such unerring quality that transcended all levels of the game. Lower-league bargains that could seamlessly step into top-flight squads were worth their weight in gold. None offered more value for money than Bjørn Heidenstrøm. Able…

  • Interview – Steven Scragg, author of Frozen in Time: The Wonderful Randomness of the Cup Winners’ Cup

    Interview – Steven Scragg, author of Frozen in Time: The Wonderful Randomness of the Cup Winners’ Cup

    There was a time when Aberdeen could stand toe to toe with Real Madrid and come out on top, when Dinamo Tblisi held a famous reputation, and when Magdeburg beat AC Milan in a final. Now it sounds fanciful at best, but the Cup Winners’ Cup was a magical, mystical world that threw up some…

  • CM/FM Legends: Mika Ääritalo

    CM/FM Legends: Mika Ääritalo

    £200k. That’s it. Two hundred thousand of your finest English pounds, and it got you an absolute wizard of the left wing. Whether you wanted a player to drag you from the lower leagues up to Champions League glory, or someone to supplement 20+ goals and assists per season from the flanks in a world…

  • CM/FM Legends: Kerlon

    CM/FM Legends: Kerlon

    If the ball isn’t on the floor, they can’t tackle you. Sound logic really, don’t know why more players didn’t try it. Kerlon tried it, spectacularly, multiple times, and the ‘Seal Dribble’ became his signature move. He got an elbow from Dyego Rocha Coelho for his efforts on one of the occasions as defenders struggled…