Posts
A tentative
return to writing as university mentalness begins to die down; here’s why I enjoy
writing about football.
For many years now I have enjoyed and
admired the writing of established football scribes, such as Paul Hayward,
Henry Winter, Sid Lowe and Iain Macintosh. I have had mixed feelings towards a
lot of the writing in the modern – mainly mainstream - media, varying from ‘I
want to do this, to be able to write as well as this and be as informed as the
author’ to ‘I could write better than this; what on earth is he/she going on
about?’
I’ve worked for my school newspaper as a
sports reporter, sports editor and editor; with the emergence of blogs and
Twitter - allowing a different, almost ‘underground’ type of football writing –
I’m able to read an awful lot more and gain more knowledge, which only adds to
my already-burning passion to write about football.
I love writing about football, mainly
because there is so much to cover. Even just one solitary weekend in the
English Premier League can throw up stories, or bring an end to a long-running
saga. That’s one league in one country – you could go further down the leagues
in England or travel across Europe, or even the world, and find so many
interesting stories – and it’s the job of a football writer to inform those who
will listen of these tales.
Apart from actually playing the game,
what could be better than thinking, talking and writing about football day-in,
day-out? Yes, it must be stressful with all the deadlines and barriers that
journalists face – but it’s the kind of stress that must be exhilarating rather
than exhausting.
Whether it’s an opinion piece on whether
Steve Kean should be sacked or backed, a news item on Sepp Blatter’s latest
blunder or a good old fashioned rant on Robbie Savage – football writing is
just darn-right fun.
