Final Whistle

Hi, I'm Archie Thornton. I thought it was about time I put a bit into this section! A lot of people ask me which team I support. Funnily enough, I can't call myself a fan of any one team as I spent every Saturday from as far back as I can remember playing football not watching it - I do follow a few teams, though, usually because I know people who play for them. For example, I tend to look up the results for Sunderland, Newcastle, Hull City, Tottenham Hotspur, Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea first. Just because I haven't mentioned a team doesn't mean I dislike them either...

Xabi Alonso yesterday became the next in a long list of summer 2009 transfers made by Real Madrid in their effort to prevent Barcelona repeating their excellent treble of last season.
The £30million paid to Liverpool for Alonso takes the club’s summer spending beyond the sensible £200million mark for one summer – after having signed Kaka [...]

Despite what the news might try to tell us, Twitter is not a good source of valid stories, whether about North Korea, or more important matters, such as football.
However, that was the place where, earlier this week, we started to hear rumours about Michael Owen heading to Manchester United.
Owen had failed to return to Newcastle [...]

And so it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo will finally get his wish: by June 30th 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo will be a Real man. Real Madrid, that is, as Alex Ferguson has agreed to transfer Manchester United’s top scorer to the club for a credit crunching £80 million.
As transfer fees go, this is a whopper, which [...]

And so we got the final everyone, it seems, wanted: Barcelona, champions of Spain, versus Manchester United, the English Champs (and Club World Champions): for tonight is the final of the biggest football tournament in the world, the UEFA Champions League Final 2009 takes place in Rome at 19:45 BST.
Millions of eyes will be tuning [...]

After 80 odd minutes of drudgery the other night (who would have thought it on Channel 5 after 9 o’clock – where were the warts and two headed babies?), Aalborg, the footballing dictionary table toppers (well, discounting 1fc Koln and others who start with a number anyway), managed to bury a shot in the [...]

All of us with football shaped eyes will be looking at only one thing, come 19:45 this evening: the Inter Milan v Man United Champion’s League Last 16 match!
While most in the media are busy talking up the character’s of Ferguson and Mourinho, those of us who love football are going weak at the knees [...]

ITV are showing the FA Cup this season, after the annual payment lottery saw the event awarded to them.
As with many sports ITV show, it is often bandied around in pubs that “all the bloody ads” can tend to ruin the enjoyment of sport, whether by filling every available gap, or in the case of [...]

Paddy Power are offering a great money back special for those of you who bet on the first last goalscorer in today’s must win Liverpool v Chelsea clash: if Steven Gerrard scores either the first or last goal, you’ll get your money back!
Click here to visit Paddy Power.
We discovered this money back special courtesy of [...]

As I stated a little controversially the other day when I questioned the hoo-hah that took place on the TV news when Steven Gerrard was arrested (he got more air time than the crisis in the Gaza Strip, which, on that day, didn’t even feature on the BBC late news), there is more to life [...]

On a Saturday evening, before the footie highlights shows start, it is often customary to do something ‘with the missus’. This week, I was roped in to watch the film “Elizabeth” which is basically a poncy costume drama, but lo and behold, who should strut in half way through the film?
None other than Mr Eric [...]