Tag: tactics
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Un Paso Adiante
December is always a time of great festivities and reminiscence, the winter break allowed people in football to have some semblance of normality. James rewarded his side for their hard work over the past season and a half and added an extra day off either side of Christmas. He used this time himself to return…
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un’estate italiana / chapter two
This story starts at the ending; it may seem counterintuitive but that’s how it is. It’s not that uncommon, I’m sure many of you can name many stories that do. Sometimes, the odds are simply too big, the finale too grandiose, and the events too incredible, so we have to anchor them somewhere. The story…
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un’estate italiana / chapter one
“Come inside, I’ll show you something you’ve never seen before”, said the old man I was interviewing. The year is 1997 and I’m in the town of Las Acequias, just under 40 km away from the city of Rio Cuarto, in Argentina. The old man invited me to his home, asked me to sit down…
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un’estate italiana / chapter zero
Notti magicheInseguendo un goalSotto il cieloDi un’estate italiana “Magic nights, chasing a goal, under the sky of an Italian summer”. For a World Cup that was played two years before I was even born, I sure know those lyrics by heart. The thing is, there is something truly magical about Italia 90. It’s hard to…
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Spirit of ’86 – Vindication
Vindication Dreamers will often fall short. We must always shoot for the stars, but never lose track of the fact that, usually, we’ll never reach them. Michaël Asau’s tenure at Vejle ends in much the same way. All along this season, I could catch glimpses of it when we met, or during matches. A tiredness,…
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Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Later Arsenal Years
In 1989, directors Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron put together one of the most ambitious historical films in history, “La Révolution Française”. It was an enormous multi-cultural production, made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The film was split into two parts, “Les Années Lumière” (translated for the English version as…
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Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Early Arsenal Years
In pondering how to start this article, I wondered how many directors made acquaintance with their next manager whilst playing charades at a party. Can you imagine Mourinho playing Pictionary at Abramovich’s or Sacchi singing home karaoke with Berlusconi? Actually, I can picture that last one. Of course, David Dein didn’t meet Wenger at his…
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Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – The Monaco Era
When you look at Arsène Wenger’s time at AS Monaco, particularly if you’re familiar with what he’d later do at Arsenal, there’s an unmistakable feeling of having been there before. They say “history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”; at times it could be seen as melancholic humans looking back and hoping to find…
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Life and Times… Arsène Wenger – Introduction
A few months ago, (I‘ve mentioned this before) I started re-reading one of my all-time favourite books, Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid. I had revisited some of my favourite chapters before, but this was the first time I embarked on a complete re-read. Adding to it, it was my first time reading the updated edition, meaning…
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Spirit of ’86 – Foundations
Foundations If you’ve ever struggled in life (and who hasn’t), whether it was economically, mentally, spiritually or else, you know how important it is to find one’s footing. Our time on Earth can very quickly turn into what feels like a never-ending drop if we don’t. Football is no different. Teams can fall, and fall,…
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