Heart of Football

18/07/2024

He talked the talk, and my goodness was that talk needed as he took over a side which had failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia. Unfortunately for Coach Berhalter and the millions of American soccer fans, actions speak louder than words.

The USMNT is in a bad place; a humiliating Copa America performance just two years out from a huge home World Cup, and now once again searching for a new manager.

17/07/2024

You have to admire the sheer audacity of the football fan. Every summer, like clockwork, they dust off their battered dreams, squint into the blinding light of a new season, and declare with unwavering certainty, “This is our year!”

Football is a prism that warps even the most logical of minds, especially in the warm, hazy days of summer. It’s the hope that kills you, they say…

11/06/2024

*NEW*

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland: Braveheart of Football🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

As hard as rock, but capable of melting an English heart towards Scotland; a personal ode to the romance of Colin Hendry's blonde hair...

🖊️| Simon Toye

Is it ever acceptable for an Englishman to support Scotland? When club loyalties merge into international football, it just might be.

10/06/2024

**EXCLUSIVE (kind of)**

🇺🇸🇬🇪Georgia in the Euros: A Tremendous Mistake?🇬🇪🇺🇸

President Donald J. Trump* here folks to tell you all about the most tremendous team at - !

🖊️| *really it's , but don't say anything...

Georgia is just the greatest soccer team, let me tell you, the greatest. In fact, they’re going to win Euro 2024!

07/06/2024

*NEW*

🇮🇪🐸🇳🇱Striking the Angle | Turncoat Wankers, A Boiled Frog and the State of being Whelmed

What a treat for you... A blend of philosophy, rage, patriotism and poetry that can only exist in the mind of our favourite grumpy Irishman.

What do Declan Rice, an unwitting amphibian and Arne Slot all have in common? Well, nothing directly, except irking our resident grumpy Irishman…

17/05/2024

The rotund shady is back. Big bad Malky Mackay is back in football. Homophobes, racists and sexists rejoice. It’s coming up for the ten-year anniversary of the former Celtic and Norwich City defender finding his career thrown into disarray as text messages sent during his spell as Cardiff City manager were leaked to the public.

A decade on from Malky Mackay’s racist WhatsApp message scandal, and he still walks into top football jobs. He says he’s a changed man – but is he?

16/05/2024

This weekend we say goodbye to Jurgen Norbert Klopp, but has he really been a success? At first utterance the answer by anyone with even a basic knowledge of sport is an absolute yes. But for the team he built and for the team Liverpool once were, is one league title and one European title enough to deem the man an unmitigated success? Let’s see.

As English football hears the last booming chuckles of Jurgen Klopp, what will his legacy be? What is success? Bryan Moore delves deep into what makes Liverpool’s iconic figure so unforgettab…

11/01/2024

I've always been curious about Côte d’Ivoire and their string of talent, but how will they cope with the pressure of hosting TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations ? With one of Africa's finest academies they should be strong favourites, but it rarely seems to be as simple as that.

Have a look at my latest piece on Heart of Football at the link below, and let me know your thoughts.

The pressure is on Côte d’Ivoire to deliver as hosts of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2023 – what kind of success will they achieve?

03/06/2023

There is a world outside of football. There are footballs outside of football. It was while watching the final of a different kind of football that a thought crept inside your weary narrator’s mind. When is a league not a league and can football learn a few things from other sports?

There is a world outside of football. There are footballs outside of football. It was while watching the final of a different kind of football that a thought crept inside your weary narrator’s mind…

31/05/2023

It’s like rain on your wedding day, a free ride when you’ve already paid. It is of course the weird and ironic relationship football has with the world of betting. A relationship that is not only ironic but extremely unfortunate. Who would have thought...

It’s like rain on your wedding day, a free ride when you’ve already paid. It is of course the weird and ironic relationship football has with the world of betting. A relationship that i…

08/04/2023

We gotta go back Marty!
With the news of Frank Lampard returning to and the rumour mill always running for dramatic returns, we look at some past examples, good and bad, and ask is it worth it?

Show me a tribe of supporters calling for the manager’s head and I’ll show you the same tribe wishing they could turn the clock back and reappoint the coach they hounded out. Although, they’ll swea…

05/04/2023

How was the Man Utd vs Brentford game just now?
If you weren't there you probably have no idea.
Unless you managed to stream it illegally...if you did, you did it for one of two reasons.

Read on...

We live in a time where all the information about everything that has ever happened is available at a second’s notice from your pocket…there are two types of people who stream sports il…

10/02/2023

Why, when we football fans in the UK are so enamoured by music-football crossover, were we so affronted last year when it was announced that the Champion’s League Final would feature a pre-game performance by popular music singer Camila Cabello?

Music and football, the two are so intrinsically linked…Life is short, let’s make it a bit more fun!

01/02/2023

Shove a healthy dollop of pure, unadulterated, shameless glitz and glamour in the staunchest traditionalist’s face, and their objections magically melt away – and the TV executives know this.

After the record-breaking madness of Transfer Deadline Day, what role does the carnival of carnage serve in football’s spiralling financial landscape? As Andrew Flint argues, perhaps it is me…

11/01/2023

One of the biggest losers, media-wise, is Gareth Bale. I’m aware that this has been a very England-heavy article so far, but that is because the English media are so impactful. I’m sure BBC Wales are much kinder to Gareth, but sadly they don’t get as much coverage as the Sun, the Daily Mail, Sky Sports News and so forth.

Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Scholes, Beckham, Terry, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole… For a period in the mid 2000s it felt like the English media were incapable of seeing a good English player without anoint…

31/12/2022

Before the dust had even settled on arguably the greatest World Cup final of all time, the GOAT debate was everywhere once again. For years there has been a sort of tug of war between the Ronaldo rabble and the Messi mob. People endlessly compare the two in all factors available – goals, trophies, awards…

“Behold the king, The King of Kings…there is only one.” That man was Edson Arantes do Nascimento…PELE!!

12/11/2022

*NEW*

🇺🇾The Hand of the Devil - The Ghana Uruguay grudge match🇬🇭

With the FIFA World Cup just a week away, we look at what promises to be a spicy encounter between Ghana and Uruguay... Luis Suarez will be key.

🖊️| Jack Wills

Uruguay will face Ghana in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup in only the second-ever meeting in their history – but it is already becoming a modern classic rivalry. Jack Wills looks back 12 years t…

12/08/2022

Blackburn Rovers have recently garnered local recognition for opening Ewood Park to its resident Muslim community. Already in situ within the concourse of the stadium is a multi-faith prayer room where Muslim fans are encouraged to perform their prayers. But in 2022, the club took this to the next level. For the first time ever, Ewood Park’s gates were opened for Eid

Virtually every club in the region claims to be “The Pride of Lancashire”…for me, Blackburn Rovers are the pride of Lancashire.

06/08/2022

*NEW*

Round Table: 2022/23 Season Predictions - , FA Cup, Champions League

0⃣ writers see an English side winning
2⃣say Anthony Martial will score goals
3⃣ say Frank Lampard winning the sack race...

🖊️|

https://heartof.football/2022/08/06/round-table-2022-23-season-predictions-premier-league-fa-cup-champions-league/

05/08/2022

Not long to go now till it all begins again. Fantasy Football that is. Why not join the HOF league and pit your wits against team HOF.

https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/lg2h75

Official Fantasy Premier League 2022/23. Free to play fantasy football game, set up your fantasy football team at the Official Premier League site.

26/07/2022

"I truly hope that under the stewardship of Jack Ross, that Ross Graham can go on to reach the same levels he performed to last year and, ideally, go even further."

While he may not be a Beckenbauer or Maldini, Dundee United’s Ross Graham has taken an unconventional route to becoming a superb young talent – we spoke to the people following him most…

23/07/2022

Bryan is back, and he is once again exasperated at the warped world of modern football with clickbait, photoshop madness and flop-shaming in the firing line.