Following Wesley Sneijder’s move to Turkey, The False Nine’s Simon Smith looks at the multidimensional position of the ‘number 10’…
As Wesley Sneijder completes his move to Galatasaray, Internazionale – and perhaps world football in general – need to take stock and ask why a player once revered as a magician of his generation has been allowed to leave for a paltry fee rumoured to be as little as £8 million. Continue reading
After the notable incident involving Kevin Prince-Boateng in Italy last week False Nine editor, Andrew Belt, finds Sepp Blatter guilty of saying one thing and doing another in the fight against racism…
“There should be very strong, harsh punishment when it comes to discrimination and racism.”
The False Nine’s Kyle Hulme casts his verdict on how the big hitters in Serie A have got on so far, as well as offering them his own current and predicted grade…
Juventus
Going into the new season, fans of the Bianconeri were hoping for more of the same. Fortunately, Juventus have delivered so far this season. Continue reading
It’s undoubtedly been a fantastic year for sport and not least football. We asked our writers and friends ten questions that we hoped would sum up 2012 and offer a wide range of memories on the year past. Happy New Year!
The Valley – home of Charlton Athletic since 1919, despite a short hiatus between 1985-92
Making his False Nine debut, Fergus McWalters looks at the culture of ground-sharing and its implications across the football landscape…
Last weekend, my club Charlton Athletic celebrated the 20th anniversary of ending its exile from The Valley. Charlton played against Brighton and Hove Albion in a thrilling game that ended 2-2. Other than a mutual rivalry with Crystal Palace, Charlton and Brighton both share another thing in common; in their recent history, they had to leave their respective home grounds and share with other clubs. I am too young to remember Charlton’s exile, but the fact that it’s such an important part of the club’s history meant that I’ve learned all about it ever since I started watching Charlton all the way back in 1996. Continue reading
False Nine editor Hugo Greenhalgh considers the career of one of his favourite players, Mathieu Flamini, and what the long-term implications of his departure meant for Arsenal…
How does one measure such an abject fall from grace?
In 2008, Mathieu Flamini was arguably one of the best central midfielders in the Premiership and a key member of an Arsenal side that should have won the title that season. Two years previously, he had demonstrated his versatility by filling in at left-back in a Champions League campaign that took Arsenal to the final. Yet just this summer, Flamini became a free agent and was forced to take a significant wage cut to re-join AC Milan. His is a cautionary tale that the grass isn’t always greener. Continue reading
False Nine editors James Dutton and Hugo Greenhalgh ponder why it took so long for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to get the praise he deserves…
The English population awoke on Thursday morning to find the back-pages of their daily newspapers adorned with glowing praise for the architect of their national team’s defeat the previous evening. It says all you need to know about some sections of the English media that it took four goals in a friendly against a decidedly average England side for them to be convinced of the worth of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Continue reading