Brian Glanville

If you've heard of that name already then you don't really need to read this column. If you haven't heard of that name and you are a soccer then you do need to read this column. Brian Glanville is the greatest sports journalist in the English-Speaking world. I have never read a better writer on any sport then Brian's writing on soccer. He is witty, funny, harsh, tough, nasty, overly-critical at times, and simply brilliant. He doesn't get the cutting edge story on the latest transfer or manager to be fired. He just simply lets the events in the world of soccer unfold and then writes an article that cuts through all of the nonsense and gets right to the heart of the matter. It seems like he has been writing forever, and he still writes a weekly column for World Soccer on their website, which can be accessed through clicking on one of the links that I've provided.

A lot of Brian's columns relate to events in the English game, but he does write a lot about other topics in soccer, particularly the Italian game. Some people may think that he is out of touch with the modern game or with the current state of affairs in the game, but that's not the case. Brian just knows good soccer and knows when he doesn't see good soccer being played. He also knows when the powers that be in the game are making mistakes, which as we all know they often do, usually in the sake of profit.

Brian Glanville is a writer that can analyze a situation with just a few words, knows talented players when he sees them, and knows when something is also wrong in the game. There simply is no other person covering a sport that provides the level of analysis that he does and whatever he writes has become a must read for all soccer fans. You will learn more about the game of soccer by reading his columns then by reading whole magazines or even books. He coined the phrase "the Greed is Good League" about the English Premier League, and also refers to the FIFA President as "Sepp (50 ideas a day, 51 bad) Blatter". Here is a quote from his most recent column on World Soccer's website "David Beckham, like the poor, is always with us." referring to Beckham's selection by Fabio Capello in the latest England squad.

Anyway, all I can really do is to urge you to read Brian's columns and books wherever you can find them.