Le beau jeu est terminé

"The Beautiful Game is Over: The Globalisation of Football", has just been published by Professor John Samuels, Emeritus Professor of Business Finance at the University of Birmingham.

He was my tutor at the Uni, and was head of department. As I recall a top bloke.

It has a nostalgic yearning for the days when local teams were supported by local people and paints a sorry picture of meddling billionaires, and the hapless blazerati of the administrative layers of football.

It is a very readable book, obviously written by a true football lover as it is packed with statistics, anecdotes and the minutest of detail.

I could not put it down over the summer holiday and highly recommend it.

I don't have so much of a problem with money and football. I'd rather have Robinho and Scolari and Tevez and Torres and Capello here rather than elsewhere.

At the end of the day, 90 minutes of football is 90 minutes of football, and there is nothing to beat it.

Quote of the week: "The game is a lesser game without Kevin Keegan." - Roy Keane