“Swansea’s decision to sack boss Michael Laudrup four days before facing rivals Cardiff has ensured this weekend’s south Wales derby is shaping up to be an even bigger game than normal. Under Brendan Rodgers and then Laudrup, Swansea have had two excellent seasons in the Premier League, capped by finishing ninth and winning the Capital One Cup last year. But since winning that trophy 12 months ago, Swansea have only won eight of 35 Premier League games, and lost 18. That is relegation form.” BBC

“I was about eight or nine and living in Holland when I began reading Voetbal International. It’s a weekly magazine (I think the best-selling weekly soccer magazine on Earth) that isn’t just for fans but is really a sort of trade magazine of Dutch soccer, read by players and coaches and club chairmen too. It’s the place where Dutch soccer discusses itself — and if you know the Dutch, you’ll know there’s always lots to discuss. Thirty-five years later, VI still drops into my mailbox in Paris every Thursday. The magazine connects me with my childhood: all the silly news about who Heracles Almelo is about to sign, or the FC Groningen full-back’s account of his rise and how he owes it all to his mom.” askmen – Simon Kuper

“St.James’ Park Sunday 12th January, Newcastle United had just equalised against Manchester City in a keenly contested battle, and suddenly joy turns to uproar, the goal has been chalked off for offside. The crowd turn on the referee in disbelief. This is football, and this is football that belongs to the public. The City fans brief a sigh of relief and resume their vocal support and the Newcastle fans boo and jeer at the referee until he blows for half time. It was a decision no money could buy, it was a decision not based on financial background or profitability but perhaps a case of human error. Perhaps it was the right decision. It was a decision made in boiling pot and central to our culture, and more importantly the key to the beloved sport that is football. It gives the fans something they can all be involved in, something neither team can do about it. It is fate and it is football.” Outside of the Boot

“In this article, I want to look reasonably briefly at the writing of football, largely as a point of departure for other articles I hope to write at some point. Writing about any facet of football is essentially constructing a history of football. This has inherent problems, and it is perhaps best to look at these problems by treating the writing of football as you might treat the writing of any historical account, by looking at it through the lens of historiography. The first issue is with the primary material, football itself. No one can cover everything. There are too many games, too many levels, too many tournaments. Even in one single game, the multiplicity of events makes holistic reading impossible. Much of what happened in the past was poorly recorded, and we are left with fragments.” Put Niels In Goal

“Before delving into what the future holds for Tottenham Hotspur, one has to mention that Andre Villas-Boas had the highest win percentage since 1899 for any Spurs manager with 53.7% Whatever Tim Sherwood comes up with in his first match as interim coach for Tottenham, his tactics and the nature of the team he fields will very much be under the scrutiny of Spurs fans worldwide. Putting oneself into his shoes, one finds that the positives of the squad outnumber the negatives. Spurs have one of the more enviable squad in the Premier League in terms of depth. The squad blends solid, proven players (Moussa Dembele, Sandro, Jan Vertonghen) and unproven youngsters with great potential (Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Andros Townsend, Lewis Holtby).” Think Football

“Aaah, how much simpler life would be if all our love affairs ended ‘by mutual consent’. But they almost never do, however much we kid ourselves. ‘Whose decision was it?’ they ask. ‘It was mutual,’ we answer. Hoping they didn’t notice the furtive eyes and the quivering lip. Hoping they didn’t notice the embarrassing public rows, the transparent lack of romance and the affair she had with that hedge fund manager who was funnier and better looking than you.” BBC

“Fernando Roig: Totally. The first thing is the fans; they didn’t appreciate what it was to have a first division team in the city. Now they do. Then there’s the club. We made mistakes but we’ve been able to rectify them. We have dropped the budget to a level that is sustainable. We cleared the debts that were outstanding, effectively set the clock to zero and balanced the budget. Then there’s Marcelino, who is a very good coach who can take us forward in the next few years. Going down can never be seen as a good thing, but it has been positive in some aspects.” World Soccer

“On Monday, Andre Villas-Boas became the fifth Premier League manager to be sacked this season when he was dismissed by Tottenham. Just two days earlier, Steve Clarke was shown the door by West Brom. It represents a big leap from the last four seasons when clubs seemed to be prepared to play a slightly longer game. By the end of December 2012 only two managers had gone – Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers and Roberto Di Matteo at Chelsea. The year before, Steve Bruce’s departure from Sunderland was the only casualty at Christmas.” BBC

“It seems like footballers have taken these words to heart. What we watch these days expecting volumes of excitement and sentiment from the Beautiful Game is accompanied by plenty of acts which are deemed unsportsmanlike, shallow, tarnishing and disgraceful by many. To be fair, it’s what humans have done for thousands of years: proceed in the path that is most profitable to us. Interpreting this in football terms, what we have are plenty of performances that are concentrated purely on gaining an unfair advantage, all of which, mind you, have been worked around and worked through the laws of the game.” Outside of the Boot