Just read the following in David Goldblatt’s monumental “The Ball is Round” (it’s almost a thousand pages long, which is why I’ve referred to it as work in progress over so many months):

Touch is everything, from the spine tingling, hair raising reflex that football brings to the back of the neck, to the soft precision pressure that brings a high swirling ball to a stop.  Johan Cruyff would judge the quality of a shot or a pass by its timbre.  His team mate Gerrie Muhren hated high winds because ‘You have to hear the ball during a game.  You can hear from the sound it makes on the boot where the ball is going, how hard, how fast.  If there is a big wind you are angry with the ball.  You kick the ball but it doesn’t listen to you.’  It is amazing that they could hear so much, high winds or not, for football’s crowds have not merely cheered and booed and sung, chanted and roared.  As Arthur Hopcraft put it: ‘The sound of a big football crowd baying its delight and its outrage has no counterpart.  It is the continuous flow of football that excites this sustained crescendo.’  That flow is based on motion, on the continuous making and breaking of patterns and spaces that so dazzled the man from The Times* under floodlights; no still photograph, no graphic, no painting can do justice to this.

*he’d mentioned a Times correspondent at the start of the chapter

Bit of a ‘wow’ moment for me, that.  Isn’t this what football’s all about?  I remember last year Jamie saying how he’d heard the ball hitting the net at Eastlands when Diomansy Kamara scored.   It must have been an astonishing moment.   The flow, motion, making and breaking of patterns: this is what draws us isn’t it?  The almost infinite variety, knowing that of all the hundreds of possessions, only one or two will count, but being transfixed nevertheless.   True, I’m guilty of selective memory here - it wasn’t long ago that Fulham forwards were there to try to control bouncing balls or to head on high punts - but the stuff we’re seeing now is bloody entertaining isn’t it?

Aesthetically pleasing too.   Players like Simon Davies aren’t just good players, they’re good to watch.  There’s a natural athleticism, a fluidity of movement that makes their work interesting.  Dempsey is the same, and Murphy’s economy of movement in his new role is fascinating to study.  Bullard and Johnson are less fluid, more busy in their running style perhaps, but they’re good to watch too, magnetic sometimes.  Zoltan Gera makes me laugh:  a friend of mine suggested that Gera runs like a marionette, and I can see that.  But he has his moments too, those surging tackles or those surprise soaring headers.   All good stuff.   Easy to like this team Roy’s assembled isn’t it?

England:  sadly Jimmy wasn’t required by England tonight, but hopefully he had a nice trip.  Watching Carrick and Barry out there may have been instructive.    They looked pretty good whenever I was watching.

      

Alrighty, we conceded another goal on Saturday, so let’s have a look and see what we think of it:

Conclusion:  probably Spurs got through us a bit too easily there, but they played their hand to perfection as the move developed.   Looking again, the key seems to be Jenas beating Bullard and attacking a space that Murphy had just vacated to cover infield (before he realised Jenas was beating Bullard) and that was not watched by Paul Konchesky (who had been attacking).

This meant that Jenas could keep running until he half-encountered Brede Hangeland.  Drawing Hangeland was one thing, but Aaron Hughes had (rightly) followed Roman Pavlyuchenko so John Paintsil was left on his own in the middle, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.   He really did have to close down Bentley, it was just a question of whether he might have somehow been able to do this while also keeping an eye on Fraizier Campbell.  If he erred in his positioning it wasn’t by much (that’s how I see it anyway), it’s just that by now the defence was so broken we didn’t have much chance of salvation if Spurs played the attack well, which Bentley and Campbell certainly did.

So no real finger pointing this time, although in retrospect Bullard might have been a bit cleverer in stopping Jenas, by fair means or foul.   After that the only thing that might’ve saved us would’ve been Dempsey or Murphy getting back, but as you can see they were both 10 yards behind the attack.  Ho hum.

Interested to hear others’  views here, it looks like a couple of mistakes growing into something bigger through circumstances and good attacking play to me.

      

Dear American readers

I need to borrow $5.94!

If anyone out there can think of a way to retrieve this ‘album’ then send it to me electronically then I’ll happily send you PayPal for the full amount (more maybe: you could make 6c or more on the deal).   As it stands the LimeWire store is US only, so it’s not possible for us Yurpeans to buy owt from there.  And it’s the only place the songs are available.  Sooooo…..

If this is illegal then I apologise and retract my request.

Enormous thanks to anyone who might be able to help!

Rich

      

Here.

We get down on him when he doesn’t play well, but we all know that an in-form Jimmy Bullard is a huge asset to the Fulham team.   It’s sometimes hard to keep track of how good a player like him is:  first he’s clearly underrated, then his game slips subtly and at once formerly underrated player becomes overrated by fans but is still underrated by the media, then he gets called up for the England squad and he’s overrated by the media and the fans, then he plays quite well again and maybe becomes underrated again.

Anyway.  Well done that man.  I didn’t even mention him in Saturday’s report, but he had a good game didn’t he?  Some cracking shots, did everything we could’ve asked him to, with and without the ball.

      

You won’t see this again. Danny “centre-back” Murphy.

Is John Paintsil moonwalking here?

What’s happening here?  On the left it looks like the ball’s flying, on the right several players have fallen over one another.  All in all it may be my most action packed photograph ever.

Ah, beautiful.

      

I’ve suggested before that I don’t think there’s much different about the way we play home and away.  I suspect we play for a win at home, and while we probably do away too, there’s half an eye on a draw too.  Put another way, if we’re drawing at home we would usually try to turn it into a win;  if we’re drawing away we’d usually be happy to protect that point.

As far as the team is set up, I have long been fascinated by one of the Telegraph’s stats:  where on the pitch we win the ball, on average.   Think of it this way:  if we are camped in the opponents’ half we’ll generally win the ball higher up the pitch; if we defend deep or play a counter-attacking game we’ll generally win the ball on the edge of our own box.

The decision of where to defend is partly made in advance and partly a reaction to circumstance.  The conventional wisdom is that the higher up the pitch you defend the better, because winning the ball nearer the opponent’s goal gives you less far to travel with it, and you’re further away from your own goal too, so less at risk.   Against that, if you defend too high up you leave massive gaps behind you, which can be very dangerous if the opponents either have pace up front, or are given time in midfield.  We saw Bolton try to push up against Liverpool at the weekend, but they didn’t close down Liverpool’s midfielders, who picked them off with throughballs all game.   Generally you adopt a compromise, a position that theoretically gives you the best of both worlds.

All of which is leading up to a quick analysis of where we’ve been defending this season.

It’s not the be all and end all, but we can see a degree of consistency here.  We - on average - win the ball 25 metres from our own goal, and opponents win the ball 28 metres from their goal.   In other words, we’ve been very slightly on the back foot this year.   Generally speaking this is a good indicator of territorial advantage:  you can see that Arsenal really pegged us back (as did Portsmouth, which surprised me a little) and that the highest line we’ve played this year was against Bolton.

Again, there’s noise here:  it’s an average of where the ball is won, which can be distorted by all sorts of things, but the further up the pitch you win the ball the higher the number, so it does work as a proxy for how deep you played in a game.  And guess what?  We’re the same both home and away.  We lose the ball a bit further away from the opponents’ goal away from home, which is presumably a slight lessening in attacking intent, but the overall pattern is remarkably consistent game by game.

No great revelation here, but something to ponder.

      

Song possibilities?

Anyway.   He had a stormer yesterday, missing one good chance but doing everything else just about perfectly.  That chance though… was it as easy as it looked?

You can see the highlights here, but here’s a grab run of my own making:

Zamora is running left to right.  The ball is going left to right.  For Zamora to head the ball back towards goal he has to head on the right hand side:

Which is easier said than done when you’re running from the left and the ball’s progressing that way too.  He’d almost have had to have got underneath it and head it back the opposite way he’d come from.

Yeah he should have scored, but when you look at the physics of it (physics?!), well maybe it’s understandable that he couldn’t redirect it.   I suspect this is one of those rare chances that was a fair bit harder to put away than it looked.    Think of it in terms of a snooker shot:  to get it fine enough he’d never have got the power he needed; he really needed to be running at it from a better angle.

Anyway, just a thought.

      

There was a time in the 1990s when Michael Jordan seemed to be able to control basketball games through sheer force of will.  When trouble loomed Jordan would demand the ball and take care of business.  Everyone knew it was going to happen, nobody could stop it.  The entire game revolved around his actions, his successes, his brilliance.  It was wonderful.

Brede Hangeland is a different kind of athlete, but he has an awesome *something* that can make us gasp.  I was reminded of Michael Jordan as time ran out today.  Spurs had four forwards on the pitch and were throwing the kitchen sink at us.  A long ball into the dark night sky, then, almost in slow motion, the scene sets itself:  Hangeland, ten yards away from a Spurs player, breaks towards the ball.  He’s going to win this header.  He knows it, we know it, the Spurs player knows it.  It’s just going to happen.  Sure enough he runs, soars, then thumps his header far away into touch.  Another attack repelled.  Another moment towards glory.

Aaron Lennon is a tricky bugger.  Having flown past John Paintsil he tore into the penalty area at high speed.  Hangeland had to react, had no margin for error, and had to judge a fast moving situation in a fraction of a second.  Lennon whizzed towards goal, Hangeland threw himself at Lennon’s feet, the ball crashed out for a corner.  What a tackle!  What a player!

He was at it all game.  High balls were returned to the midfield with emphatic headers.  Through balls were retrieved by long limbs.  Attacks through the middle of our defence were discouraged by his very presence.  What a game he had out there.

You need performances like this if you’re going to beat the league’s in-form team.  You need a bit of luck, but that alone won’t do it.  You need a plan, and you need to be good.  We had all that today and deserved our win.

Early pressure was exciting, but nothing came of it.  Johnson squirmed behind the Spurs defence, left and right, but his final ball was not met by a white shirt.  Dempsey, starting at last, tested Gomes with a long range scorcher, a shot that required a fine save to keep it out.  Dempsey’s day would keep getting better.  Gomes’ would soon be ruined.

Simon Davies - liberated on the left - cut inside and whipped a low ball into the box.  Johnson stretched but could not make contact, but somehow Gomes’ hands did not react to the ball’s bounce, and the cross hit him on the chest and spun into the net.  There will be no softer goals at the Cottage this year, but this piece of luck gave us the belief we needed to beat this Spurs side, and for that reason was a vital, vital moment.

Spurs poured forward but lacked penetration, and Fulham continued to play lucid, cerebral football. Half-time brought a roar of appreciation from the excited crowd.   At the break Harry Redknapp added Roman Pavlyuchenko and Aaron Lennon to the Spurs lineup, signalling serious attacking intent; we were going to need a second goal.

Andy Johnson got it.  A Konchesky corner - Bullard had been relieved of his duties - found Simon Davies on the far post, Davies’ first header was blocked but the ball bounced back to him so he won it again, the ball bobbled in the six yard box and Johnson pounced and smashed a left-footed shot through the close range crowd and gloriously into the net.  2-0!  2-0!   Unbelievable.

Spurs carried on attacking, but Fulham had more chances.  Dempsey was marauding all over the right-half of the pitch, rampaging even.  His touch was as sure as we’ve seen from him, his passing crisp and accurate, his drive… if Hangeland was the team’s backbone and Murphy its guiding hand, then Dempsey and Zamora (who directed play from the front with skill and energy) were the heartbeat today.  This wasn’t just effort, it was pure class.   The pair of them proved points emphatically.  Long may it continue.

Jermaine Jenas shrugged off Jimmy Bullard and made a late goal for Frazier Campbell, but we knew that was coming: the big thing was stopping a second.  This we did, through a collective effort that was a tribute to every player and to the manager.  You don’t defend like that without some serious coaching.  You don’t beat the league’s in-form team without some serious coaching.  Superb stuff.  Absolutely superb.

      

And so is Roy.  Here he is talking to Sarah Brookes on video.

All the transition stuff we’d talked about:

“Forwards working back so when we win the ball back they’re not up front as targets.”

Interesting…

Bit of talk about about possible changes, no definitive answer, but we really will need to work hard in midfield today.  It’ll be interesting to not just see who’s playing, but where they play and how they play.

All good here. Working super hard at new job, saw Steve Coogan last night, followed by thoroughly unecessary late night curry.   Now tired and bemused: why do we struggle to get out of bed all week, then at the weekend morning arrives and we’re wide awake?   Is this getting older?

Oh, in this month’s World Soccer Gianfranco Zola refers to Italian football: “teams still try to win three points without risking too much”… which seems like Fulham somewhat.  Anyway, good game in prospect today, looking forward to it.

      

Something to ponder for the weekend:

Looking at this I’m fairly sure we’re going to see a change this weekend, if not in personnel then at least in philosophy:  there’s no way Jimmy Bullard’s going to play that far forward for one thing.

On the top you see Danny Murphy, our admirable shielding midfielder.  Below you see what Spurs did away to Man City.  That’s Modric, Jenas and Zokora all in advanced positions and all very close together.   True, they were playing ten men, but still it’s a threat, especially with David Bentley lurking on the right and Darren Bent in extraordinary form.  We’re going to have to cover this somehow.  I’m not that worried about Bent - he’s a streaky player and Ian Pearce handled him very well a couple of years ago - but the Modric/Bentley/Jenas thing (supported by Huddlestone and Zokora) is going to be hard to play against.

      

Danny Murphy has 53 tackles this year.  Only four players have more.  I still can’t get my head around Steed Malbranque being on the list…

Tacklers Team Tackles Success rate Muamba Bolton 56 82% Malbranque Sunderland 54 76% Butt Newcastle 54 63% Murphy Fulham 53 81% Zuiverloon West Brom 53 77%       

Player of the month award to Mr Hangeland.

Aaron Hughes came second.   Much as I’d have liked Hughes to win it (he deserves the recognition), this is probably fair.  Hangeland has been fantastic, almost too fantastic really.   If he keeps on like this we’ll struggle to hold onto him.    But still, excellent for the two of them to get a 1-2 there.

I guess Schwarzer blotted his copybook against West Ham, otherwise he’s been good too.

      

At soccer365.com.  Fairly dry stuff, but nice answers nevertheless.  Thanks to the mighty Bruce for the link.

      

Last season Erik Nevland started a couple of games in early February.  He got a minute or so in March, then, in the last month of the season was reintroduced to good effect.    At the time I thought this was quite clever from Roy Hodgson:  Nevland was allowed to find form in the reserves and was given games when his form merited it; he was put in a position to succeed.   He scored two important goals and generally looked lively.

This year Nevland got a couple of injury time games, then had a long break, then has been used more regularly (but still hasn’t had many minutes until this Sunday, when he got on with 74 minutes played).   I’m not going to get into the merits of Erik Nevland - we probably still haven’t seen enough either way to know (although Roy presumably has) - merely to suggest that Hodgson’s handling of Nevland has generally produced fair results from the player.

You might say the same about Clint Dempsey this year.    If my memory of The Hound of the Baskervilles is correct, the hound in question was made vicious by starvation.  When it ventured out it was sufficiently hungry and deranged to attack people.   It was a survival instinct.    Are we seeing this same thing from Clint Dempsey?   Has Roy judged Dempsey’s mood and engaged in an extraordinary game of brinkmanship, pushing his player to the point where he is playing angry, with something to prove?   Probably not, but I haven’t seen a Fulham player so “up” for a game as Dempsey has been in his brief appearances this season.   There was a controlled fury about his performance on Sunday, a definite desire to make the most of his time on the pitch.   Long may it continue.

On the other hand, some players benefit from stability.  I would assume that replacing Bobby Zamora will not be particularly helpful at this point.  It’s all well and good pointing to his goals tally (and yes, it’s beginning to be an issue), but I see a lot to like in Zamora’s play.  He looks like a confidence player short of confidence, which doesn’t mean that he won’t be useful to the team.   His link up play is generally fine (his chest control is impressive) and he holds the ball up well, makes decent runs, and is better in the air than he’s currently being given credit for.  All that’s missing at the moment is an end product, be it crossing or finishing.  But as we’ve seen already (think Celtic or Bolton), the talent’s there.

We have to be careful here.  I was misled by Hameur Bouazza, who could do astonishing things with a football, but only once every 20 or so games.  Those moments were special, but didn’t come nearly as often as they needed to.  I’m wary of this with Zamora, but I don’t think I need worry:  Zamora’s overall game is important to the team, goals or no.   He and Johnson seem well suited to playing together as well.  I am, as ever, optimistic.

Speaking of Johnson, I confess to having been a bit premature in criticising him.   Yesterday’s goal was taken with authority, and his work for the penalty was quite impressive, Dempsey’s pass initially wrong-footing Johnson and Cacapa.  That Johnson managed to get back into the danger area with the ball was a remarkable feat of nimbleness, and I can’t think of too many players who’d have turned a probing pass into a deadly throughball like that.   He has a great attitude out there too.  With Schwarzer, Hughes, Hangeland, Murphy and Johnson we have an intelligent and right-headed spine to the team now.

There’s no need to say anything more about the defence - I’ve done that often enough already - but I wonder how much of an impact Mark Schwarzer is having on the players in front of him.    I find that goalkeepers are a bit like managers:  you get the elite group, the good group, and everyone else is pretty much a muchness.  If Schwarzer’s not in the elite class he’s certainly well in the good group, and that’s vital for a team like us.

Finally, Danny Murphy.  A few of us on this site (me and commenters) have been big Murphy fans for a while.  It’s been brilliant to see just how well he’s played this season.   He’s making that nuisance role his own, and of course is a gifted passer to boot.   That’s almost a prototype for the role.   Claude Makalele never had to kick people, and watching Murphy float around sniffing out danger reminds me a bit of the way Makalele did his business.  Nothing spectacular, but it’s all about reading the game, getting to where the opposition least wants you, slowing them down, nipping the ball out of harm’s way and starting a counter-attack.    As a spectator it’s hard not to watch the ball at all times, but I really do recommend spending a bit of time letting your eyes follow Murphy around the pitch, particularly when we don’t have the ball.  That slow, slow, quick, quick, slow thing that’s presumably from a dance of some description really applies here.  Great stuff.

      

Even factoring in the result, we have two good, eloquent interviews from Fulham FC and one repetitive, finger pointing rant from Newcastle.

Roy

Murphy

Joe Kinnear

      

A three part act.

Act one:  Fulham in charge.

The Whites start brightly, pass the ball quickly and firmly and are a consistent threat.  A goal seems likely and duly arrives.  The Newcastle defence gets in a muddle, Cacapa’s stooping headed clearance hits Coloccini’s backside and bounces happily into the path of Johnson, who rams a left footed strike through Given’s legs.  Strange that for all our attractive approach play the goal is a result of a bizarre defensive mishap.  No matter, Johnson deserves his goal after a very lively start to the game.

Act two:  Newcastle take over.

Fulham stop playing and Newcastle take complete control.  Either side of half-time Newcastle show themselves to be a decent looking side, with Nicky Butt particularly menacing working around the edge of the Fulham penalty area.  At the beginning of the second half Schwarzer is worryingly busy.  Newcastle equalise, Shola Ameobi reacting in a goalmouth scramble, thrashing the ball over Schwarzer.   Offside perhaps, but a thoroughly deserved equaliser.   Newcastle don’t leave it there, pouring forwards and looking like running away with all three points.

Act three:  All up for grabs.

Hodgson reacts by bringing on Clint Dempsey for Zoltan Gera.  The latter has had a mixed game, some good headers in the Newcastle box, but not featuring enough in the team’s approach play.  Simon Davies moves to the left, Dempsey takes over on the right.  All of a sudden the game swings back Fulham’s way as Dempsey drifts infield, stabs a through ball into the path of Johnson who, quick as a flash escapes two markers then gets himself tripped.   Murphy - after a horrible delay as Newcastle’s players are evacuated from fringes of the penalty area - plants his kick just beyond Shay Given’s dive.  Euphoria!  How we needed that goal.

The game flies back and forth now, Newcastle bring on Michael Owen and the canny striker finds himself onside eight yards from goal with no Fulham player anywhere near him.  Amazingly his volley is woefully directed, a huge escape.  Newcastle are driven on by Joey Barton but leave gaps behind them, and both teams now exchange madcap attacks.  The rain pelts down, the passing gets ragged, the defensive line gets deeper and deeper.  Newcastle throw the kitchen sink at Fulham now, but Paintsil and Hangeland and Hughes and Konchesky are fighting like demons back there, blocking, harrassing, and performing heroics to protect their lead.   Danny Murphy - who had another excellent game - is replaced by Chris Baird, who proceeds to have another handy cameo in interrupting several Newcastle moves.

The fourth official signals four minutes of added time and the crowd gasps.  The Fulham counter attacks waste valuable moments, but Newcastle launch more desperate attacks but are repelled over and over again.  As time runs out they have a free-kick 25 yards out, but Schwarzer hangs on to Barton’s drive and we relax a little.  Soon it is over.  Exhausting stuff, a terrific display of guts and technique and a well earned win.  Bring on Spurs.

Four heroes:

An attacking corner.  Zoltan Gera is really good in these situations, but his overall game seems to be lapsing somewhat.

      

Roy’s video preview.  Usual sense.  Doesn’t seem to be considering any changes:  “I don’t see any burning need to make changes, but I reserve the right to”.

Nice comment on Aaron Hughes (who is about to chalk up his 300th league game):  “Fantastic man, fantastic player.  Underrated… train as a professional, live as a professional, play as a professional…. these are the guys who really merit respect”

Newcastle should be a tricky game.  They’re a team on the up:

Density maps.  You can see from their last two wins that there’s a lot of bunching in the middle of the park.  The width seems to come from Habib Beye and Jose Enrique the fullbacks, which will be particularly evident if we don’t have anyone going forward in wide positions.

Note Duff (#11) playing quite far infield.   He could be dangerous, and it’ll need some combination of Paintsil, Hughes and Murphy to close him down quickly.   Should be another tight one, although Newcastle have conceded a few goals this year so I’m optimistic.

Hat tip to Bruce:

Clint Dempsey rules out loan move:

“It is what it is.  But I’m not going to go on loan. I have to try to make the most of the time that I play.   I’m just trying to prove to him that I deserve to be out there. After this season I have a year left.  Whether a team comes in and wants to get me out, we’ll see.”

      

Who’s creating chances?  Colin knows.  Possibly.  Not sure that it tells us too much yet, but something to keep an eye on.  As with most of these statistical looks, it’s another small insight into a big game, but the more we know the more we know, right?

      

Big day today.  Barack and I both started new jobs, although he has until January befoe he officially begins his.

I wasn’t so fortunate, and started my new gig this morning.  So far so good.  I wore a suit jacket that didn’t match my suit trousers, but they were the same colour (near enough) and I don’t suppose anyone noticed.  I blame the… stupidity of me.   Never mind.   But serious work starts here.

Some important shouts:

Our old mate Brian has started a site about Minnesota Soccer.  I’m supremely envious of what Brian’s doing, getting in on the ground and chronicling everything as the sport develops in the region.   He has some impressive contacts and access already, and while a lot of the detail is not remotely relevant to folks in the UK (Brian covers everything!), you can’t help but admire his passion for the game.  He was there when the game was big in the 70s and he’s there on the spot as it grows again.  Top work.

Also notable, Matt and Adam at Crockatt & Powell are in Vogue magazine again.    Read those words… I mean…. Vogue?    Life never ceases to surprise does it?   The lads were listed as the best bookshop in the country by the Independent, now they’re in Vogue.   I shall leave it there, but seriously impressive.  If you didn’t know already, they have a shop in Lower Marsh near Waterloo, and a shop on the Fulham Road.  Go there.

Otherwise, nowt much to declare.  My sister’s coming to the Newcastle game on Sunday, so that’s good news.  Last time she watched Fulham Claus Jensen scored and we beat Everton, so that’s a fair omen from where I’m sitting.

Finally, I should pass on that about ten people a day are reaching this site having googled “Merry Christmas”.  How about that, eh?  I must have some kind of ties to Lapland or something.

That’s all for now…

      

I remember reading a David James Guardian column about football boots.  He talked about how in the current game players end up with all kinds of spurious boots technologies, none of which may make the slightest bit of difference.  He concluded by saying that according to most pro’s, the Adidas Copa Mondial boots are the best available, and cost about £70.  So why do manufacturers keep bringing out new technologies at higher and higher prices?

Money, of course.  You can pay well over a hundred quid for a pair of boots, and most of them seem to be made of weird plastic materials now.  This strikes me as being a bit strange, but then I don’t really understand these things.  I prefer the old school black boot.

So does Jimmy Bullard.   Here he is wearing some old school adidas boots during an England training session.  Pretty good, eh?

Despite being a terrible footballer, I am attracted to very good things, and have just received a pair of Copa Mondials in the post.  They’re softer than any football boots I’ve used before, and have a certain flexibility to them that would make better players than me drool.  Cliche perhaps, but wearing these boots is a bit like wearing slippers.  Seriously good.  They have a wonderful retro look, they’re great to play in, and, as David James says, they’re great value.  Now all that’s missing is the talent to make best use of them.  Oh well…

Some photos!

Aren’t they nice?

Made in Germany!

Rubber sole

You can get these from SoccerPro for $89, which is about £50 over here.  That’s serious value.  SoccerPro also sells a complete range of balls (I got a Diadora one), indoor football boots, kits, goal posts, everything really, all at good prices.  Have a look!