EPL Talk » swansea city

Liverpool Legend Jan Molby Coming To New York City

The Gaffer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:45:18 +0000

Jan Molby is a player that I have a lot of time for. The Danish footballer was a maestro in midfield. While he’s best remembered as being a pivotal player for Liverpool during his time there between 1984 and 1996, he has a special place in my heart for being a pioneer with the club I support, Swansea City, where he introduced a beautiful style of play as player manager which laid the groundwork for Roberto Martinez’s arrival, much later, in 2007.

Judging by Molby’s artistry on the pitch with Liverpool and Swansea, it’s no surprise then that Molby’s early part of his career included two years playing with Ajax where he won the Dutch Championship in 1983 and played in the Ajax youth academy alongside Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Jesper Olsen. For those of you who had a chance to watch him play, either in person or on television, there was something magical about the way he played and how adept he was at passing the ball. To see just one example of his skill, watch the video above.

Fortunately for us, Molby will be visiting the United States next month where he’ll be making an appearance in New York City on December 19, 2009 at the 11th Street Bar. Molby will be available to sign autographs and memorabilia, as well as to pose for photographs. If you’re interested in attending or want to learn more details, visit the Liverpool FC New York Supporters Club website. Tickets to the Jan Molby appearance are $20 and tickets are limited, so sign up today if you want to meet the legend.

How Did You Fall In Love With Your Football Team?

The Gaffer — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:00:13 +0000

No offense to the celebrities that we’ve interviewed over the past few years for EPL Talk, but sometimes the best stories are from the actual fans themselves, like yourself.

If you’re a regular reader to EPL Talk, you’ve read hundreds if not thousands of words from the fingertips of myself and the team of bloggers on this site. But now it’s your turn. Please take a couple of minutes and share with me and the other readers how you started supporting your favorite team.

It doesn’t have to be a Premier League side. For example, after you’ve added your story by clicking the ‘Comments’ link below, you can read about how I became a Swansea City supporter and my memories of the first match I ever attended in 1979, as well as a few stories from fellow EPL Talk readers.

Just click the ‘Comments’ button below and stsrt writing. And thanks in advance for sharing your personal story of how you became a supporter of your favorite team. I look forward to reading your contributions.

Expert Football Coverage From Around The Leagues

The Gaffer — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:32:04 +0000

While you’re enjoying EPL Talk, don’t forget to check out the sister sites in our network for a taste of German, Italian, Spanish, European and American soccer.

Bundesliga Talk has the statistics comparing Schalke to Atletico Madrid for the most enticing Champions League third round qualifying match. Another new article written by Bundeliga Talk correspondent Mark Moll is a piece on the new manager at Hamburger SV, Martin Jol, who lost 2-1 yesterday against Real Madrid in the 2008 Emirates Cup in London.

Prolific writer Lonnie Smetana at Champions League Talk has been busy previewing the most exciting matches in the Champions League third qualifying round stage, the latest transfer market activity in Europe and a roundup of the results from the third round of the Intertoto Cup.

If you’re a fan of Major League Soccer, Kartik Krishnaiyer writes on a near daily basis at Major League Soccer Talk about topics such as Cory Gibbs who may be heading to LA Galaxy, the list of MLS players playing in the Olympics, how the Mexican players are notorious sore losers when they get defeated by US club sides and/or the national team, and a very interesting article entitled, Does SuperLiga Have A Future?

Over at Serie A Talk, Kevin Walker has an interesting article about the Italian connection at Bordeaux, as well as rumors about Tiago leaving Juventus.

Yours truly has written an article about the Spanish influence at Swansea City under the website Championship Talk. Shakira Graham meanwhile writes about one of the best supported clubs in England, Derby County.

If you’re a fan of the world’s game, be sure to check out the sister sites on a regular basis.

Are Football Match Programmes Slowly Becoming Extinct?

The Gaffer — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:29:48 +0000

Growing up in Wales, many of my cold, wet winter nights were spent cowering under a lightbulb studying every word and every page of football programmes. I had my Swansea City programmes that I brought home from matches, but I was deeply indebted to Steve Earl Football Programmes for helping to grow my collection. Goodness knows how much money I spent with them in the late 70s and early 80s.

When I moved to Florida in 1984, I was immediately thrown into a world where soccer was virtually extinct. The Fort Lauderdale Strikers had just folded. There was nothing on TV. As a high school freshman, all I had was the varsity team I played on as well as a local travel team where I achieved one of the few highlights of my pretty short soccer career. My coach’s name was Steve Ralbovsky, recipient of the 1975 Hermann Trophy (soccer’s equivalent of the Heisman trophy) and had 15 U.S. caps to his name. My claim to fame was being the only kid on the team to tackle our coach and keep the ball away.

To help cure my homesickness, I began collecting football programmes again. This time, I spent what little pocket money I received by converting them into international money orders and sending them to the Swansea City Club Shop. There Myra would send me a batch of programmes every few weeks to my home, where I would again scour through every page as I read about Swansea slipping further and further down the Football League until their near extinction.

So when I went to Switzerland a couple of weeks ago to watch Italy against Holland at Euro 2008, I was excited at the prospect of buying a football programme. To be bewilderment, there were none available for sale at the game. No one was walking around outside or inside the ground selling them. When I arrived in Zurich the day before the game, I remember seeing the official programme for the entire tournament for sale at a newsagent, but I passed up the opportunity thinking it’d be easier to get one at the match. I’m kicking myself now that I didn’t buy it at the time.

But with the popularity of websites, blogs, message forums and the advances in being able to surf online on mobile phones, is there a place for football programmes in today’s society and are they slowly becoming extinct? Maybe it’s me, but I don’t hear or read discussions about football programmes anymore. Even when attending Premier League matches, I don’t see many supporters purchasing them. And in the United States, they seem to be even less popular than in Europe.

I fear for the future of football programmes. The cost of printing and paper is exorbitant. Plus there’s the issue of being timely. With the Internet, articles can be written in minutes after news breaks. Football programmes have to be written days or weeks in advance, so the content is usually more dry such as programme notes from a manager or a player profile or an article about the history of the club.

But there is a certain appeal about football programmes, something a lot more tangible than visiting a website. Years from now, football programmes are a wonderful souvenir that bring back so many memories. Sometimes it’s just the smell of a programme that triggers vivid images of being at a game. That’s something that websites can’t do.

Let’s hope that football programmes stick around for Steve Earl’s sake.