Author: Martyn Green

This is Paris: Preseason 2021

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Steve is looking sheepish as I make my way into training. He’s been avoiding me all week, and quickly darts up to the boardroom where I suspect he has locked the door. The youth team debacle means that there are just 23 players in the entire club, and I have almost no resources to add to them. Still, Jose Alcocer comes in to fill the vacant coaches position. He has great all round stats and can make a real difference on the training pitch. I select Charly Paquille from a list of applicants to be my Assistant. His first piece of advice is to switch Damien Durand from his favoured Inverted Winger position to an out and out winger. I may have made a mistake.

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Norway are on the Edge of History. Can they Achieve Greatness?

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As we head into the international break, Norway are optimistic. They haven’t been to a World Cup since the 1998, and haven’t had this much confidence in a side since a halcyon period in their footballing history where they performed well in 1938 and at the 1936 Olympics, where they beat hosts Germany. But they are beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe, this is their time. A win against Latvia, and a draw against the Netherlands, should see them into the playoffs for World Cup Qualifying. A slip up by Turkey will make that easier. And the playoffs are a lottery. Unlucky and they will have to get past Portugal or Spain. But if the draw goes their way they might end up with a much simpler proposition – Finland, or Ukraine, or Scotland. And with this group of players, nothing is impossible.

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CM 89/90 Challenge: December 1989

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The Festive Season is upon us in Newcastle, and after a good, if uncomfortable November we’re looking to really lay down some form in the run up to Christmas. There are six games here, plenty to affirm our title aspirations, or plenty to watch them slip away. Depending on how you look at it.

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A Casual Affair

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Corinthians were perhaps the most famous of the early amateur sides. They were founded in 1882, to provide players for the nascent England team who had developed a habit of losing to Scotland. Within four years they provided nine players to the England side, and later provided the entire selection. They beat the ‘Invincibles’ of Preston in 1889 and still hold the record for Man Utd’s worst ever defeat. Their greatest legacy comes in South America, where Corinthians of Brazil, one of the continent’s most successful sides, was set up in response to a tour by the English amateurs. In the 1930s, they combined with Casuals to become Corinthian-Casuals, who still play in the Isthmian League to this day.

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The (Original) Italian Stallions

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In 2021, Italy broke the record for the longest unbeaten run in international football. It has been an incredible period since their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, not suffering defeat between 10th October 2018, and their Nations League Final defeat to Spain on 6th October 2021, including a record-breaking run of clean sheets, and, as we are all too aware, the winning of a major trophy. A goalless draw against Switzerland seems an anticlimactic way of celebrating the achievement, but it will stand in the record books, for a while at least. What makes the achievement even more spectacular is the scrutiny, the pressure, and the expectation of the whole of Italy that this team carried with them.

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This is Paris: Introduction

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Neymar stares down at me stares down at me from the flagpole outside the Parc des Princes. Kylian Mbappe has his arms folded on one side of the Brazilian, and the perennial grin of the greatest player of all time shines out on the other. The billboard proudly claims “Ici C’est Paris” – this is Paris. I stand for there for a moment, hail a taxi, and begin the short trip up the Boulevard Perepherale. This isn’t Paris. Not really.

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FA Cup Roundup: First Qualifying Round

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It’s the third round of the FA Cup, but not called the third round, because that would be confusing, apparently. As our clubs inch their way along the Road to Wembley, The Untold Game has reporters around the country telling us what they saw. Because we can’t be everywhere ourselves, even if we’d like to be.

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