EPL Talk » Telegraph

Chelsea’s Joe Cole Changes His Name To Jole Cole

The Gaffer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:52:03 +0000

The Daily Telegraph must have been so mesmerized by Joe Cole’s performance on Sunday that it forgot what the Chelsea winger’s name was.See the screenshot above from the online version of the newspaper tonight, and don’t be surprised if the headline is fixed by the time you read the article.

Questions Please for Tim Vickery, Jim White and David Conn Interviews

The Gaffer — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:04:30 +0000

The EPL Talk Podcast returns this weekend with an exclusive interview with an executive from Setanta Sports to discuss soccer coverage in North America and how soon we can see the network on cable as well as the programming changes we can look forward to next season. That episode will be available via iTunes by Sunday night, so be sure to subscribe to the iTunes feed to receive the episode as soon as it’s released.Over the next few weeks, the EPL Talk Podcast will also feature interviews with three well-known soccer personalities:

Tim Vickery (BBC) – The pundit appears on the BBC World Football Phone-In Show where he shares his incredible knowledge about the game (especially South American football). He also writes for Sports Illustrated, BBC Sport and SBS.
Jim White (The Daily Telegraph) — The Man United supporter is a popular columnist for The Telegraph. His articles cover a range of topics, and often writes about referees. He’s also the author of a book entitled “You’ll Win Nothing With Kids: Fathers, Sons and Football,” which explores the emotions White felt coaching his son’s junior soccer team.
David Conn (The Guardian) — The former sports writer of the year is a popular investigative and feature reporter, and also the author of the book entitled “The Beautiful Game? Searching The Soul of Football” (which focuses on the influence of money on modern day football).

Here’s where I need your help. You have the opportunity to ask any questions you’d like to any or all of the above guests. Simply post your question by clicking the comment link below and I’ll pick out the best questions to ask on-air. If I ask your question, I’ll mention your name on-air to the guest. All I ask is that you submit your question(s) before midnight Monday, April 21st, 2008.One last note: I just stumbled across a review of the EPL Talk Podcast from a blog named Bedroom Bandits. While the review sums up the podcast pretty well, I disagree with some of his comments but take a look at the review yourself.Thanks in advance for your questions for Vickery, White and Conn.

Daily Dose of Premier League News

The Gaffer — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:13:37 +0000

In a tribute to The Offside’s Daily Dose, here are several Premier League-related articles EPL Talk came across that we thought you may found interesting. Some of them are a little dated but still relevant. Enjoy.

A day in the life of football commentator Martin Tyler (Sky Sports).
Premier League fans in England paid an average of $2,662 last season to support their club (The Sun).
Liverpool’s failure to win the Premier League is due to their badge (True Colours).
No HD for Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta Sports viewers anytime soon (New York Times).
Manchester City to play friendly in Hong Kong in May (Soccerlens).
Outlook for Premier League TV bidding wars looks dim (The Telegraph).
Guide to watching Premier League matches illegally via P2P (CrunchGear).
Aston Villa does a Barcelona by putting a charity on the front of their shirts instead of a sponsor (Football Shirts).
New Jersey club forms partnership with Reading (Atlantic City Press).

Top 10 Online British Daily Newspapers for Soccer News

The Gaffer — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 08:48:03 +0000

For me, the best thing to happen to exiled followers of English soccer in the past 10 years has been the Internet. The highlight of which is the ginormous number of articles that the traditional British newspapers publish daily on the topic of the Premier League.

Whether you’re looking for breaking news stories, gossip, humor, rants or strategic analysis, the papers have it and more.

To make your journey easier through the sea of newspapers, here are the best ones according to EPL Talk:

THE GUARDIAN
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog
Online newsletter: The Fiver
Football podcast: Football Weekly
Notable writers: David Lacey, Russell Brand, Kevin McCarra, David Conn.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: 17.5

Pros: Their ability to communicate in a voice that is aimed more at the masses separates The Guardian from their competitors. The infamous Fiver newsletter is a must-read, although it doesn’t seem as funny as it once did. And their podcast, meanwhile, is one of the most irreverent ones out there. Two other great features to their football site: Digger and The Knowledge. Lastly, their secret weapon is comprised of two words: Barry Glendenning.

Cons: Despite their success with the blogs, podcast and newsletter — as well as breaking stories — the one thing they’re missing is a greater output of articles to rival The Telegraph. The design of their site could do with an overhaul also.

THE TELEGRAPH
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: European Football
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Henry Winter, Clive Tyldesley, Alan Hansen, Jim White.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: 32.6

Pros: Quantity and quality of articles are impressive as well as their stable of recognized writers such as Henry Winter. Also to their credit, investigative reporter David Bond has uncovered some gems in the past.

Cons: Despite their foray in the past into podcasting with a fantasy football podcast, it’s criminal that The Telegraph doesn’t have one to compete against their rivals.

THE TIMES
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: The Game
Online newsletter: Ahead of The Game
Football podcast: The Game
Notable writers: Martin Samuel, Gabriele Marcotti, Brian Glanville, Hugh McIlvanney, Matt Dickinson.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: The Times strikes a fine balance between a quality podcast and an abundance of intelligently-written articles about the beautiful game.

Cons: For a newspaper with so much quality content, I still can’t believe they haven’t created a RSS feed just for football articles instead of just sport. While the design of the football section of their website is smooth, it’s not consistent with the look-and-feel of the other football sections such as the blog.

THE INDEPENDENT
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: James Lawton, Neil Warnock.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: 14.6

Pros: Neil Warnock’s unique weekly column entitled “What I Learned This Week” is a joy, giving great insight into what it’s like being a manager and how to combine that with family life.

Cons: The design of the site looks like it’s something from the pre-Internet, which is all the more surprising when you consider that their newspaper is one of the nicest designed ones out there, especially their eye-opening front covers.

DAILY MAIL
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Patrick Collins, Ian Ridley.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: Surprisingly large quantity of football-related articles. I still have a soft spot for this newspaper after their involvement with the Soccernet website before it fell into the hands of ESPN.

Cons: For one of the leading British newspapers, the football section of their website looks clunky as if it hasn’t been redesigned in five years.

THE DAILY MIRROR
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: Oliver Holt column
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Oliver Holt, Stan Collymore, Mark Lawrenson.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: Sometimes the best things going for newspapers are their esteemed football columnists, if they have them. In The Mirror’s case, they have their man in Oliver Holt who writes in a very direct and appealing manner.

Cons: The design of the football section is pretty awful, making it appear to the reader that the headlines and blurbs are thrown up on the page with as little effort as possible.

THE SUN
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Neil Custis.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: If you enjoy football transfer gossip, this is the place to be.

Cons: The design of the football section is too busy and a new look is desperately needed. There’s also a surprising lack of top name writers at the paper.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Simon Kuper.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: Simon Kuper, author of “Football Against The Enemy,” is one of the brightest chaps writing about the beautiful game.

Cons: Other than Kuper, the newspaper’s sports selection is pretty light — understandably so since it’s a daily financial newspaper known worldwide for its pink salmon paper color.

THE STAR
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: None.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: Wake me up when you find something.

Cons: The articles are light on substance and more focused on transfer speculation. The site would have been in tenth place if it wasn’t for the poor design of the Daily Express website.

10.

THE DAILY EXPRESS
Football section
Football RSS feed
Blog: None
Online newsletter: None
Football podcast: None
Notable writers: Mick Dennis.
Average football articles per day during past 30 days: Unknown

Pros: Mick Dennis is an accomplished writer who can often be heard on BBC Sportsweek.

Cons: The design of the site tries to hard to be a Telegraph wanna-be. Plus the site doesn’t work very well. For example, when I click on a banner for articles by their veteran writer Mick Dennis the website returns the message “no results were found.”

Spurs is This Season’s Most Entertaining Club

The Gaffer — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:10:00 +0000

Last season, there were plenty of clubs to make fun of and get angry about. West Ham United, for example, were the bane of so many jokes and insults. Sheffield United were targets too.

But this season, we have a different circus. Come one, come all to the most humorous show on earth named Tottenham Hotspur. At every turn, there’s plenty of thrills, laughs, twists and turns and the faint aroma of animal dung.

Seriously, the headlines from White Hart Lane this season make for good reading. Just today, The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Spurs are targeting Mark Hughes as a replacement for Martin Jol. In typical fashion from British journalists, the news is attributed to no one, so it puts the story into question, but the interesting thing is that Spurs plays at home this Sunday against who? High-flying Blackburn Rovers of course.

The Guardian is reporting, meanwhile, that Dimitar Berbatov is stalling over signing a new contract. Can you blame him? This is a player that could be playing for any of the biggest teams in England if not Europe. His performance against Liverpool in the recent 2-2 draw shows how deadly the striker can be (even in heading balls on to Robbie Keane to score). Why Berbatov started on the bench for Spurs against Newcastle, I have no idea. What was Martin Jol thinking? If you’re going to given Darren Bent more playing time, let him earn it by putting in a good performance in the Carling Cup against Blackpool in the next fortnight.

Spurs, the team, has been so inconsistent this season. They looked brilliant in the big matches against Man United and Liverpool, but failed to win in both matches. They looked flaccid this week against Newcastle and hardly troubled Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given at all.

In that performance, Tottenham looked flat, like a team that wants to finish in the bottom half of the league this year.

Sure Martin Jol has helped Spurs get higher in the table in previous seasons than other Spurs managers have done so, but is that good enough? Is that what Spurs want to achieve? I don’t think so. Based on the players on the pitch, this should be a team that could win silverware this season albeit a Carling Cup or FA Cup trophy, but those achievements at this stage would be an excellent step-up for Tottenham. But under Martin Jol, I don’t see that happening.

If you, like me, have been entertained by Spurs’s antics on and off the field this season (the Juande Ramos hatchet job seemed like a scene out of The Benny Hill Show), be sure to listen to The Spurs Show podcast by Phil Cornwell via iTunes. I’m not a Spurs fan, but I find myself listening and laughing out loud to the funniest football podcast on the Internet. After all, they do have a lot of material to work with this season thanks to their club.