Building from the back

Defensive football doesn’t have to mean boring and negative

Posted in conjunction with Football Fans Today – Written by the fans for the fans

http://footballfanstoday.co.uk

Cult Hero: Mile Jedinak

“Less haste more speed”

Wandsworth Athletic - Winter Review

A largely forgettable campaign for the South-West Londoners

Andy Townsend – a postmodern commentator

The ITV man is so bad, that he’s become good again…

The artist vs. The grafter: Darren Ambrose - cult hero

The philosophical debate at the heart of Crystal Palace’s love for Darren Ambrose

Will Andre Villas-Boas go the way of Mick McCarthy?

Chelsea are on a poor run of form, and with visits to the training ground become increasingly frequent, the shadow of Roman Abramovich is starting to loom large over Andre Villas-Boas. Please allow a frustrated Chelsea fan to rant about where things might be going wrong at Stamford Bridge.

The January Sales: Part Four

It is transfer deadline day and the final part of CollinsBeans trawl through who needs what and what each club will probably end up with in the Premier League. Read on to distract you from Jim White’s head exploding over on Sky Sports News...

The January Sales: Part Three

With the final deadline a mere day or so away, CollinsBeans brings you the third part of its series looking into which clubs are likely to spend big and which might be scrabbling down the back of the sofa in the manager’s office to scrape together some pennies to sign Marcus Bent

The January Sales: Part Two

From Manchester City with their bottomless pockets to Everton with their penniless chairman, it’s part two of CollinsBeans look at just who wants Eden Hazard and Roberto Soldado and who’s more likely to end up with Emile Heskey

The January Sales : Part One

With the days and hours ticking rapidly down until the end of the transfer window (and the meltdown of Sky Sports News) CollinsBeans has taken a good hard look at each of the Premier League clubs and tried to assess just what each of them needs to do to thrive and/or survive this season. Part one features two Champions League contenders, two relegation candidates and even more excitingly; Aston Villa

Arrogant ‘Arry

Recent success seems to have encouraged the Tottenham boss to make some interesting comments

Looking back...Looking forward...

With 2011 rapidly drawing to a close and with us at the point in the season (i.e. Christmas) when in popular parlance the title and relegation can be decided by looking at whomever has possession of top spot and who find themselves ensconsed in the relegation zone we can perhaps start to draw some sort of conclusions to where the main prizes will be handed out come May.

So with that in mind, I thought it would be interesting, albeit peeking through my fingers, to look back at the predictions that were made at the beginning of the season on this blog and see just how right (or indeed wrong) I’ve been so far. I also thought it was worth looking at what we know now and deciding whether to stick or twist with my opinions and perhaps make some new predictions

Wandsworth Athletic - The Autumn Statement

An update on what's been happening in South-West London

Famous 5ive: Random observations form Match day 5 of the Champions League

The erm...‘hectic schedule’ that is my social calendar eased up somewhat this week allowing me to sit down and take in a big load of hardcore Champions League action. After spending far too long in the company of Andy Townsend for my own liking here are some of my thoughts on an absorbing few days of football

Who’s on the plane? : Part One

With England now heading to Euro 2012 as world beaters, CollinsBeans starts to look at who will squeeze themselves into one of the coveted seats on the plane. Part One starts with that most endangered of species, the England Goalkeeper

“Well he’s good going forward...”

Madcap score lines have brought the poor standard of defending in the Premier League sharply into focus. Perhaps the fact that the ‘modern attacking fullback’ apparently no longer has the skills to defend is a major part of the problem

Entertainment or three points?

Goals are everywhere as the standard of defending in the Premier League reaches a new low. What’s happened to the 1-0 win…

Wandsworth Athletic pump it up in Europe

Read on for a full report of Wandsworth Atheltic’s European debut in Valencia

The Big Debate: North London Edition

Following both North London sides 1-0 victories in Europe this season, CollinsBeans writers’ debate which of the two look better placed to make the challenge for Champions League qualification this year

Cult Hero - Kevin Francis

An overdue return for our Cult Heroes section is marked by a man blessed with great height, superb desire and one fine spell at Edgeley Park