Football journalism

What is everyone's view on the awkward shoehorning of Joe Hart into BGITW theories? It's fucking stupid, right? Is it because Cashley is winding down and twp just won't stand up to Danny Alves and we need at least 1 player to be the best in the world? It's not like Buffon and Casillas are even close to retiring and both won the league last season/CAPTAINED THEIR COUNTRIES TO THE FINALS OF THE EUROS.

his distribution is shit, and he seems to specialize in doing four or five good saves and then conceding a relatively easy goal

best in the world

u know who would be a good person to ask abt this

bozza

http://cache.images.globalsportsmedia.com/news/soccer/2007/10/20/newswide11915732200.jpg

More of a psycho than a badboy really.

BGITW has always been an Englishman, ever since I first became aware of football. It's just one of those truths that is self-evident and always has been. Banks begat Shilton, who begat Clemence, who begat Shilton again, who begat Seaman, who eventually begat Joe Hart. The David James era was helluva awkward, because for the first time in forever there was a prolonged spell where you couldn't pretend England's no.1 was the top top man.

Not that I was around in the Banks era you understand, I'm just going by the received wisdom in my childhood footy encyclopaedias. Sometimes the BGITW can be non-English, but only if he's an honorary Englishman like Jennings or Schmeichel.

Lev Yashin is the only exception.

Being a kid in the 90s I was naturally more in love with strikers and wingers to know the answer of this so-

Was it a legit case of Schmeichel and Seaman as world's #1 and #2? You don't really hear about other guys, maybe Oliver Kahn?

Chilavert!

Not really

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardien_europ%C3%A9en_de_l%27ann%C3%A9e

Ravelli, Pagliuca, Barthez, van der Sar, Walter Zenga ... I dunno tbh, goalkeepers then rarely moved countries or even clubs, so it's down to World Cups really. I don't know if it was a vintage era or not.

it shows how badly represented goalkeepers get in history that i only know 2 of those, because they played for utd (well i knew vds before) and zenga sounds vaguely familiar.

You don't know Pagliuca? James Richardson died in vain

A guy in my class went to the hairdresser circa 1990 and asked for a Walter Zenga cut, and got all incredulous when the barber hadn't heard of him.

Haha. Gianluca Pagliuca, Sampdoria legend.

the zenga cut still holds up today, imo.

paddy kenny had part of his ear bit off in a 'nightclub incident' iirc but he seems just generally hapless in all respects

he fucking wishes it was (a) merely an ear and (b) a mere 'nightclub incident'

pagliuca was amazing!

underrated 90s goalies,vitor baia,goycochea,goram

two of these things are not like the others

Seaman was way too prone to stupidly high-profile fuckups to ever have been a serious BGITW contender.

he fucking wishes it was (a) merely an ear and (b) a mere 'nightclub incident'

― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Sunday, October 14, 2012 12:23 AM (14 hours ago)

not sure what u refer to here

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/71478/Stars-pal-bites-off-eyebrow.html

twice cuckolded and partially eaten but on the other he will of looked at the positives

marchegiani

illgner, kopke, taffarel (<-- last one actually a bit naff)

barhez / llama always shakey

Paddy Kenny was fucking immense in QPR's promotion season two years ago. Just saying.

And I don't mean fat.

that's four hours now the guardian has had "Colliccini is fab and Dzeko is no sub" on the front page

What else is new?

Ah, there you go: 'Chelsea's John Terry to wear anti-racism armband'. I like that they specified the type.

"fucking black armband"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/oct/23/roy-keane-book-extract

found this pretty poor.

As a player, he was of his time by not being of his time: he captured the pre-millennium angst of the outsider who cannot understand the world of which he is part. In doing so he brought to mind a number of pop-culture characters of a similar disposition. Two in particular: Tyler Durden in Fight Club and Tony Soprano in The Sopranos. Like Keane, both raged, raged against the dying of society's light. There are other similarities. The intense adoration Keane receives evokes that of Tyler Durden, while his obtuse charisma, anti-heroism and scattergun frustration is shared by Tony Soprano. Keane, like Soprano, was raging for a better world and a better him. He has always been an incredibly complex man, a compelling fusion of instinctive intelligence and pathological desire.

back in your box.

Amused that they highlight the fact that Rafa gives them a quote for the front cover, and that the quote is "These are the writers as you don't normally see them: when they are fans with pens."

Not too sure that this is the ringing endorsement they think it is.

yeah exactly... fans with pens is as worrying a concept as monkeys with knives.

rob smyth can be pretty bad

definitely.

dunno if it's based on his stuff, but i've always felt there's a tendency on the guardian's football site to try and mention the wire at any given opportunity.

Like Colonel Kurtz, Ronnie Johnsen embodied the defeated machismo at the heart of the Western imperial project.

"pre-millenium angst", like what the fuck does this even mean? usually used to describe radiohead's music.

people felt a unique blend of unhappiness in erstwhile-present-day-year, 1999. the former current year has long been held up as a time of great and distinct feelings of things being rather rubbish.

Klebseron's arrival emboldened Trafford-watchers who had long been used to arrivals from Scandinavia and Holland but never from that far afield. It was said that as he exited the taxi to be greeted by Paul Scholes, he had never seen a person so pale before. Like Doug Liman's thrilling 1999 cult film 'Go', mutltiple narratives were coinciding here, different ideas about what it meant to be a Manchester United player.

aw, i was hoping that was real

Are you aware of the Sachin Nakrani affair, btw?

no, sadly

what's that?

a link to a summary:
http://therepublikofmancunia.com/guardian-journo-will-regret-starting-battle-with-united-fans/