By now, most of us will surely be accustomed to the doom and gloom headlines regarding the recession. Of course, football (north of the border in any case) hasn’t exactly been immune to the ravages of these challenging economic times. Indeed, fans of the beautiful game could perhaps be forgiven for assuming that the back pages of late have more closely resembled the Financial Times reports than sports news.
We all know the feeling, we turn up to watch our team, full of expectation. We look with excitement at the starting line-up, only to find that one key player, who we just knew would be the one to make the difference here, has been named amongst the substitutes. Maybe you just had a feeling about him today, maybe you had a fiver on him to score first.
A lot of attention has come the way of Luis Suárez since his move to the Premier League in January 2011, some good, some bad. Regardless of what your feelings are for the Liverpool Striker one thing is clear, he makes headlines and sells papers.
German football has always been strong, a fact duly epitomised by the stellar performances of the national team in the major championships down the years. But it appears that the domestic game is thriving more than ever before, with the Bundesliga going from strength to strength.
Ah, the Capital One Cup. Or Carling Cup, or Worthington Cup, or Coca Cola Cup, or whatever you want to call it. The League Cup, the FA Cup's often derided little brother. Seemingly always dismissed by the game’s elite as an unwelcome distraction. Small fry, in comparison to the League and European exploits of our biggest clubs.