Football Academy
Written by Chris Weatherspoon
Chris Weatherspoon The Athletic has appointed Chris Weatherspoon as its first dedicated football finance writer. Chris is a chartered accountant who will be using his financial acumen as The BookKeeper to explore the money behind the game. He is starting with a series this week analysing the financial health of some of the Premier League’s […]
Written by Michael Walker
Michael Walker The scene is a weekday morning, some time around 1954. It is Old Trafford, Manchester, and as locals make their way to work, perhaps on the nearby docks, even though it is early, a young blonde-haired boy is belting a ball against the stadium’s red brick walls. He does so repetitively, left foot, […]
Written by Philip Buckingham
Philip Buckingham At 10am on Tuesday morning, in an architects’ office in London, Manchester United peeled back the curtain and invited the world to look upon their future. The decision has finally been reached to build a new 100,000 capacity stadium, replacing their 115-year Old Trafford home at costs forecast to reach £2billion ($2.59bn). Part […]
Written by Jordan Campbell
Jordan Campbell The number of players and managers pleading for football’s gruelling fixture schedule to be eased seems to grow every week. But how, beyond the lack of rest, do all these matches affect the ability of elite teams to train and build up their insurance against injury? Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who is currently […]
Written by Oliver Kay
Oliver Kay On the Old Trafford forecourt, crowds emerge from the Manchester United megastore weighed down by bags of merchandise, while other fans look for the perfect spot for a photograph. You can tell the first-time visitors a mile off — all smiles and wide-eyed amazement — but among other United supporters there is a […]
Written by The Athletic UK Staff
The Athletic UK Staff The ‘smash and grab’ win. It is one of soccer’s most exhilarating — and agonising — results, a point underlined by Liverpool’s improbable 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League last night. But what precisely is a ‘smash and grab’ and which ones rank as their most memorable? Here, […]
Written by Art de Roché, Jacob Tanswell and more
Art de Roché, Jacob Tanswell and more Premier League clubs will already be planning who they want to bring in this summer when the transfer market reopens, but making sure they hold on to key players is also a major part of successful squad building. As Liverpool have found out with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah […]
Written by Oliver Kay
Oliver Kay This is football heritage. A four-word sentence that became a meme after Jose Mourinho said it seven times in a single press conference. This was the opposite of “I prefer not to speak”. It was March 2018 and Manchester United had been beaten at Old Trafford by Sevilla in the Champions League’s first […]
Written by Thom Harris
Thom Harris The coin toss: performative pre-match bureaucracy, or a chance to land an early psychological blow? For most football fans, the 60 seconds leading up to kick-off is a vague time of excitement and contemplation only interrupted by two things; the referee’s whistle or the dreaded, for the match-goer, sight of the goalkeeper picking […]
Written by The Athletic UK Staff
The Athletic UK Staff As the Premier League gets bigger and bigger, so – it seems – do the stadiums that play host to it. The vast majority of clubs in the top flight have either drawn up plans to expand their grounds to service the overwhelming demand or are poised to open gleaming new […]
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User Welcome once more to the Football Academy Levski - Rakovski
