WORDS: ROBERT DILLON
Former Dundee United, Aberdeen and Inverness Caledonian Thistle star Stuart Duff made history by becoming the first Scotsman to play in Kazakhstan. He tells us all about life with Kairat Almaty…
The best way to follow our growing site is via Twitter: @theinsidelefty
Featured Posts:
“My wife says I only come to life when I talk football.”
—
Ron Greenwood
Interviews
Sid Lowe: SOS Real Oviedo
INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS
You may have seen #SOSRealOviedo trending on Twitter recently and wondered what it was all about. We spoke to the man behind the hashtag, Sid Lowe, about the fight to save one of Spain’s grand old clubs by selling cheap shares to thousands of concerned football fans around the world…
Simon Dawkins: A Loan Less Ordinary
WORDS: LUKE JAMES
Simon Dawkins has worked hard to get where he is in the game. Unsuccessful trials and injury problems had the winger worried a few years back, but after earning a new contract at his parent club, Tottenham, the North Londoner is enjoying a loan spell with a difference across the pond in the MLS…
Terry McDermott On The Brilliance Of Shay Given
WORDS: JOHN HYNES
The recent international break was lacking something for many Irishmen as the Green Army came to terms with the retirement of Shay Given from international football. Terry McDermott believes the Ireland camp will miss the legendary stopper’s human qualities as much as his supreme goalkeeping ability…
Fans In Fiction: Mark Billingham
INTERVIEW: GARRY HAYES
When bestselling crime writer Mark Billingham was adding meat to the bones of the London-based detective at the centre of his hugely successful Detective Thorne novels, it wasn’t Baker Street that sprung to mind, but White Hart Lane. He tells TheInsideLeft how his leading man came to be a Tottenham fan and why the dark milieu of crime fiction goes hand-in-hand with supporting Wolves…
Tom Curtis: An Englishman In Antigua
INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS
Antigua and Barbuda have already progressed further than ever before in World Cup qualifying and, this week, face back-to-back fixtures against Guatemala to try and place themselves in a strong position in their group. We spoke to Tom Curtis, the English coach at the helm of the Benna Boys…
Craig Easton: Player Writer
INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS
It has been a busy summer for Craig Easton. The 33-year-old Scot has signed for League Two Torquay United after six months without a club and he has also graduated with a first-class honours degree. He took time out from an intensive pre-season schedule to speak to TheInsideLeft about the joys of sports writing and the increasing number of professional footballers enrolling on journalism courses…
John Harkes: My Top MLS Rookies Of 2012
INTERVIEW: GARRY HAYES
As a pioneer in the movement of American soccer players to Europe during the Nineties, John Harkes enjoyed a fine career in England, winning the League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday in 1991. He also played for Derby County, West Ham United, DC United, Nottingham Forest and New England Revolution, before retiring at Columbus Crew in 2002. Now one of the leading voices on US soccer, he gives TheInsideLeft the low down on his top six rookies from the 2012 MLS season so far. Spoiled for choice, it didn’t take us long to break the numerical restrictions of the My Five series, but we hope you’ll forgive us as we find out why Harkes believes these Stateside prospects have what it takes to shine…
Revisited: Lazio vs Ipswich Town (1973)
WORDS: DOMINIC BLISS
We look back at one of the most highly charged games in European football history with one man from each side of a locked dressing room door, comparing notes with the former Ipswich winger Bryan Hamilton and the late Lazio legend Giorgio Chinaglia on a night of madness at the Stadio Olimpico…
Then And Now: Dragan Stojkovic (2nd Leg)
WORDS: DOMINIC BLISS
After four years of continuous injury struggles, one of the greatest players of a generation considered hanging his boots up. But, following an unexpectedly successful operation, Dragan Stojkovic rediscovered his magic touch in Nagoya, where he has become a hero to the local fans
