BOOK REVIEW By Daniel Storey 16 November 2015 I Believe In Miracles, Daniel Taylor’s account of Nottingham Forest’s European Cup-winning team, could not differ more greatly from the stereotype of non-fiction books accompanying films. So often they act as an extended advert for the cinematic production, DVD sales where profits are typically made. They adhere […]

* JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official […]

By Andy Cole 22 May 2010 . Cardiff have reached today’s £90m play-off final for one particular reason: they’ve scored more goals this season than in recent years, and a lot of those goals have come at important times and been crucial in sealing wins by a one-goal margin, or nicking a point in a […]

By Brian Sears  1 April 2016 Leicester’s next assignment en route to a possible extraordinary coronation as champions of England is at home to Southampton on Sunday. It often seems as if flagging up a particular stat jinxes it*, but the Foxes have played 39 different opponents during their Premier League years and they have won more points […]

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* Pep Guardiola was a serial winner as the coach of Barcelona, making him the most sought-after manager in global football when he took he took a sabbatical from his career at the end of the 2011-12 season. Chelsea were desperate to lure him to Stamford Bridge. Both Manchester clubs and others were reported to […]

By Brian Sears 26 December 2012 Manchester United have played 394 Premier League games at Old Trafford in 21 seasons, winning 296, losing 32 and drawing 66. Sixteen different teams have beaten them in those 32 home defeats in the PL era but the visitors on Boxing Day, Newcastle, are not among those 16. Newcastle have […]

* In the first instalment of a new weekly Monday column, Tell Me Why, the Independent’s brilliant man in the north-west, Ian Herbert, asks why Manchester United needed to unveil a statue of their remarkable manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, even before Fergie has left the building. What does it tell us about Sir Alex, and […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 5 September 2012 While the Premier League continues to be the most cosmopolitan football league in the world with players from dozens of countries, the most popular names across the whole of English football continue to have a familiar sound. The word cloud graphic below […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 13 March 2012 During this equivalent week 16 years ago – or Monday, 11 March 1996, to be precise – I went to my dad’s funeral in the afternoon and then did something we’d done together so many times: I watched Southampton. It was an FA Cup quarter-final at […]