Thursday 19 April 2012

Nostalgic football geekery: it's The Football Attic's League Of Blogs wallchart!


Home kit, impeccably drawn in Photoshop by me. I'm very talented...

I was a little late in hearing about one of my favourite football blogging ideas of the season – so apologies if this is old news to some of you – but I absolutely love this homage to Subbuteo from The Football Attic.

Their new 'League of Blogs' wallchart features kits lovingly designed by some of the geekiest most dedicated football bloggers in cyberspace. Click here [LINK] to visit the League of Blogs. You'll need to:
  • click the image to enlarge it, and then...
  • ...click View Image to see it in its full size

I'm chuffed to say that I am now among their number, as my two kits were added yesterday. My kits are at No67 and No68. But as a special treat (since you neither asked nor particularly care), I've put the original versions of both my kits here for you to ignore... laugh at... enjoy.

My home kit pinches from the colours of the two teams I support, Bournemouth and Wimbledon. A grotesque combination, perhaps, but memorable nonetheless.

The away kit, sure to be a hit with colourblind fans, features some little half moons at the base of the shorts, which is my tribute to one of the coolest kits of my childhood – this one, worn by Gazza for Spurs in the early 1990s. 

Naturally, both my kits are sponsored by the classic 1990s Amiga football game Sensible World of Soccer, since we're so categorically going down Retro Street in this exercise. And my kit manufacturer of choice is Spall, maker of some legendary kits and some rather fetching, less-famous ones too, not to mention half the kits on show at Hackney Marshes most Sundays.

As for the rest of the designs on the poster, I think my personal favourite has to be the enjoyably quirky effort from Marceltipool (No43 on the chart), who have opted for a nutty all-white number with red-hooped socks and a solitary green-hooped sleeve. I'm a sucker for an asymmetrical kit.

Applause in the general direction of The Football Attic for their efforts in putting this together. I highly recommend you follow them on Twitter here @FootballAttic, where they'll give you plenty more memorable nuggets of retro football heaven.

Away kit, complete with non-matching 'half moons' on the shorts. Hooray!

Thursday 12 April 2012

An interesting infographic (if that's not an oxymoron) about Euro 2012

Euro 2012: it's going to be way
better than the rather creepy
logo would have you believe.
A chap I don't know called 'Jonas' from a gambling affiliate site emailed me about this Euro 2012 infographic that he and his affiliate buddies have made (see below).

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I roll my eyes when I get something like this, but at least Jonas's email was courteous and didn't start with some ludicrous opening gambit like "Hey, how are you today? Hope you're having a great day!" In fact, he only used one cliché in his entire email, which was mildly refreshing.

So since his email was alright, I gave it the time of day and actually read it [spammers note, I will still delete most of your nonsense without reading it, so don't get your hopes up].

It turns out that his infographic is reasonably interesting for those of us planning to have a few bets during this summer's tournament.

Obviously, like all infographics these days, it's hoping to sell or get you to do something. In this case, it's hoping to drive traffic to Jonas's website. But that's obviously optional. If you want to just look at the infographic, indulge in its pretty patterns and statistics, and then click it away - as indeed I did - then fill your boots.

I can't vouch for the quality of Jonas's website because I haven't had more than a cursory glance at it. It's an affiliate site, so you know what you're going to get. Lots of links to deposit with bookmakers, and if you deposit then the affiliate website gets a cut. That's how these things work. If you're lucky then you get some decent content too, but I'm unable to comment on the quality of the content on Jonas's site because I haven't read it. Notice I'm not giving it a name-check, lest I get emails from people saying "I think you have a vested interest in that site!" I don't. I'm not really a fan of affiliate websites because for every good one there are several dozen crap ones.

But taking the infographic on its merits as a standalone thing, it's pretty good as a punter's tool ahead of the tournament. You're safe to click it to enlarge it to full size, though I should note that the text link below it is theirs not mine, and takes you to their site.

   Euro 2012 Infographic
  
Provided courtesy of the Euro Betting Weblog

An assessment of AFC Wimbledon's first season back in the Football League


It's been a topsy-turvy season for AFC Wimbledon so far. As a season ticket holder standing behind the dugouts, I've seen first-hand the stresses and strains that the coaching staff and players have been through. It was never supposed to be this hard.

One of my favourite football websites, the dedicated Football League site Two Unfortunates, asked me if I'd write them a piece looking at how Wimbledon have fared in League Two this season - and what they perhaps need to do differently if they're to fare better next term.

http://thetwounfortunates.com/pausing-for-thought-at-wimbledon/

As someone who only got into watching Wimbledon towards the end of their non-league journey, I am hopefully well-placed to assess the 2011/12 campaign through relatively unbiased eyes. 

Please click the link above to read my piece for The Two Unfortunates. If you have any comments, I'd be grateful if you could leave them at the bottom of the article rather than under this little plug. Cheers.