The Blizzard

"South Bank lies three miles east of Middlesbrough. Locally they call it Slaggy Island in honour of the ring of spoil heaps that once cut it off from the outside world. It’s not as glamorous as that nickname makes it sound. South Bank was the home of the Smith’s Dock shipyard, of Bolckow Vaughan and Dorman Long steelworks, clusters of iron foundries, warrens of brickyards. Blast furnaces, smelters, rolling mills and fabrication sheds converted ore to pig iron, iron to steel. They shaped it, cut it and shipped it out. Through most of the 20th century Slaggy Islanders lived their lives under a cloud of bitter smog. You had to catch a bus to see the sun."In episode Seventy One we revisit "Slaggy Island" by Harry Pearson, first published in Issue Nineteen in December 2015. In it he waxes lyrical on the neighbourhood of South Bank in Middlesbrough, which has produced no fewer than 100 professional players from its working class ranks. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"I think I was looking for something to replace the adrenaline rush, the buzz you get, that feeling of really being alive. You get used to performing in front of thousands every week and when that’s gone then suddenly there’s a huge mental void which becomes almost impossible to fill. At least for me. I just sat at home or did what I wanted to do, go on holiday, whatever. It became a vicious circle for

me where there was more and more alcohol and I started trying this and that, and suddenly you’re in trouble."Episode Seventy of the Blizzard Podcast looks back at Lars Sivertsen's interview with Claus Lundekvam, 'The Centre-back and the Kitchen Knife' from Issue Five, first published in June 2012. In it, the former Southampton and Norway international details his struggle with drink and drugs upon his retirement from the game. Chasing the buzz of performing in front of thousands, and with ready access to booze and cocaine, his life spiralled out of control and he was on the verge of a one way trip to Rio to end his life. At his worst, he was fighting off the police and ambulance service, and hunting in his garden for imaginary paparazzi with a large kitchen knife; unscrewing the light bulbs in his house because he thought they were cameras. In a frank conversation, he goes into detail about his experiences as a Premier League player in the 90s and early part of the twenty-first century, and how he managed to regain his life after a visit to the Sporting Chance clinic. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Five, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"You are among the football hacks summoned to Downing Street by Margaret Thatcher. She has the eyes of a tawny owl and clearly terrifies her ministers, who dance attendance. She goes around the table, asking each visitor what they would do to solve football hooliganism. You might as well quote Afghani poetry, because her mind is made up before anyone opens their mouth. In her world, football fans are second-class citizens who have forfeited the right to trust and respect. They deserve to be caged, treated with contempt."In Episode Sixty Nine of the Blizzard Podcast we look back at ‘But You Can’t Change…’ by Mike Calvin, first published in Issue Eight in March 2013. In it, he writes back to his teenaged self, setting out the life that would become his. From his early roots as a ballboy at Watford to meeting the Prime Minister, and ultimately committing the cardinal football fan sin of changing his allegiances, Calvin looks at a boy’s world through a man’s eyes, and passes on some of life’s lessons. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Eight, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"Back home, the locals closed up their shops and descended upon those neighbours who were fortunate enough to own colour televisions. Local boys, accompanied by a dog with a rosette pinned to its collar, had a kickabout in a side street within a few yards of Roker Park and large groups began clustering around Vision Hire on Fawcett Street for an impromptu street party. When the game kicked off at 3.00pm, the town was deserted but for a solitary policeman trudging a lonely beat. "In Episode Sixty Eight of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit 'Meanwhile Back in Sunderland' by John Spurling, first published in Issue Nine in June 2013. In the article, he examines the Tyne Tees TV documentary shot in the city on the day of the Black Cats' Wembley triumph, which serves not only as a reminder of the club's great day out but a valuable piece of history on 70s Britain.The documentary, as mentioned in the episode, is available on YouTube - http://bit.ly/2jxpwOf.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Nine, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"JOHN TERRY (Updated, 2012 edition) Refer to his “strong personality” and “bravery”.LA MASIA The incubator of Spain’s golden age. Point out that it means “the farmhouse”.LEADS 2-0 is the most dangerous. LEFT FOOT The only human extremity capable of becoming "cultured”.LITERALLY Figuratively."Thanks to Brian Phillips and Episode Sixty Seven of the Blizzard Podcast, you too can learn to speak like a pundit. In the 'Dictionary of Received Ideas', first published in Issue Seven in December 2012, he brings to life the meaning behind the words uttered by our favourite TV and radio-based talking heads.After years of study "mostly conducted from a crouching position behind the rearmost seat of Mark Lawrenson’s Nissan Qashqai", we bring you the first definitive manual on how to think like a pundit.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Seven, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"But what if football rethought its relationship with TV? What if you could come up with a plan that would, at once, revitalise local support, help smaller clubs market themselves better, boost attendances and, yes, increase the size of the pie for everyone?In Episode Sixty Six of the Blizzard Podcast, we revisit Gabriele Marcotti's thought experiment 'Care for the Community' from Issue Six, first published in September 2013. In it, he posits that for the betterment of the game throughout the UK a radical rejig of football's relationship with TV is needed. Through regionalising broadcasts, reducing the number of Premier League games on national TV and ensuring that clubs only get to appear on TV, and thus benefit from the money that comes with, by selling out their stadiums, Gab's proposal would provide a shot in the arm for clubs throughout the country. To do it, though, we have to throw out a few ideas that the game considers 'sacrosanct', and it would take a leap of imagination (as well as some negotiation). Let's see if you agree with him. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Six, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"We tend to trace the route of a goal back to the opening of the move – or at most, the breakdown of the previous one – when in truth its foundations stretch back to kick-off and the first decisions made by every player on the pitch. The reason Götze scored that goal was no more because of Schürrle’s trickery or Götze’s skill, as it was an Argentinian player’s decision to make a back-pass rather than a clearance in the second minute."Episode Sixty Five of the Blizzard Podcast looks back at ‘Chaos Theory’ by Alex Keble, first published in Issue Nineteen in December 2015. An article which poses many questions, not least whether there’s any point in analysing football from a journalistic or coaching perspective if chaos theory truly applies to matches, it looks at the deterministic nature of the choices we make. Touching on the illusion (or otherwise) of free will, Alex asks whether any of that matters if we simply consider the artistry and beauty of the game itself. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Nineteen, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"Yet there is maybe another reason that Wenger’s own cinematic narrative increasingly resembles a hubristic Greek tragedy rather than a story of redemption. Just as Sonny Corleone’s death scene in The Godfather no longer shocks, the methods which gave Wenger such an edge in the mid-90s are no longer so unique. Every team now applies science to their preparation; many others possess youth systems as productive. And while it’s open to debate whether more teams play better football than Arsenal, the likes of Barcelona have complemented it with a new level of craft."In Episode Sixty Four of the Blizzard Podcast, we look back on Wenger, l’Auteur by Miguel Delaney, first published in Issue Two in September 2011 (as a listener’s choice - @ArsenalWay_ on Twitter, if you’re asking. And yes, we get the last episode number wrong at the beginning, too; it’s been a busy week at Blizzard HQ and we’re very tired.) In it, Miguel looks at what Arsene Wenger might learn from the Hollywood directors’ school of the 1970s – if he had any interests outside football, that is. Have Wenger’s initial successes at Highbury led to him becoming over-indulged at the Emirates in much the same was Michael Cimino and Francis Ford Coppola were by the studios in Hollywood after their early Oscar-winners? Has he failed to learn the lessons of adapting his original ‘Invincibles’ squad, rather than pursuing idealistic perfection?If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Two, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"That is what has been lost: identity. Individuality, tradition, difference: all of the things that once made football such a gloriously varied menagerie. Football is a homogenous game now. Everywhere you look, it looks the same. Gone are the days when Dinamo Tbilisi might be the best side Liverpool face on the way to a European Cup final.”In Episode Sixty Three we revisit ‘The Death of Mystery’ by Rory Smith, first published in Issue Ten back in 2013. In it, he looks at the globalisation (and homogenisation) of the game, and how the excitement from the unknown is being lost. Pockets still remain, in Africa and Mexico, but by and large the game is coming together and we’re all playing the same way. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Ten, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.

"Created in the early 1960s by the then Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams and the cartoonist Barry Fantoni and cheered on by Peter Cook (who funded the satirical magazine in its early days and wrote editorials as elusive proprietor Lord Gnome), Knee exemplified the Eye’s eccentric, idiosyncratic view of British sport. "In Episode Sixty Two we feature 'Decline and Fall' by Paul Simpson, which charts the sad demise of one of Britain's premier non-existent managers - Neasden Town/Private Eye's Ron Knee. A device with which to lampoon the ludicrous goings-on on the nation's back pages, Knee and his cast of supporting characters (Doris Bonkers, Baldy Pevsner et al) took on a life of their own as the plucky underdogs crashed from one dispiriting defeat to the next.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Twenty Three, like all issues of The Blizzard, is available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while a print versions are available from £6 + postage. You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.