The Blizzard

"There was a time when loudmouth megalomaniacs of questionable political beliefs were football managers and quietly eloquent, slightly bland men who avoided giving offence were politicians. With Gareth Southgate, at the time of writing, seemingly about to be appointed England manager and Donald Trump president-elect of the USA, it's hard not to think that at some point we got that a the wrong way round."Episode Sixty One of the Blizzard podcast features Jonathan Wilson’s editorial from the soon to be released Issue Twenty Three (available to subscribers from 5th December and on general pay-what-you-like download sale from 12th December). In it, he discusses the poppy farrago, the subverting of the usual world order and the death of the liberal consensus. We also take this opportunity to remind you that in order to support the podcast you can recommend us to a friend, leave us a rating on iTunes, or perhaps add us to your letter to Santa. Gift subscriptions and individual print editions make wonderful Christmas presents, so get hinting to your loved ones that you’d like a particular kind of white Christmas this year… 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.

“Out of seeming nothing;

Out of shadow and gloom;

Out of a hollowed vacuum

Came something to keep us in tune.

Something to interest and please us;

Something we call our own;

Something we almost worship;

Loving beyond control.

Boys by practice and training;

Diligently keeping fit;

Men by planning and scheming

Built it bit by bit.

Loyally working together;

Faithful to their scheme;

Out of little or nothing

Came the champion Celtic team.”In Episode Sixty of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit ‘Before the Shopping Centre’ by Conor Heffernan from Issue Seventeen, first published in June 2015. Founded in 1891, at a time of political upheaval in both the North and South of Ireland, Belfast Celtic, the ‘Grand Old Team’, were far more than a football club for the people of the Falls Road. Ultimately, though, the sectarianism that they tried to combat by bringing together both Protestants and Catholics was their ultimate undoing. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Seventeen, 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.

“In the place of the regular pressure to perform is the more diffuse but arguably more terrifying prospect of having to come on, at a moment’s notice, with the certain knowledge that your teammates, your manager and your fans are all thinking, “Oh, no.”"In Episode Fifty Nine of the Blizzard Podcast we look back on 'The Waiting Game' by Andi Thomas from Issue Eleven, first published back in December 2013. Goalkeepers have always been taken to be a funny breed, yet the dedicated back-up (your Mike Pollitts, your Pegguy Arphexads, your Stuart Taylors) are something else entirely. What motivates a footballer to spend so much of their footballing career not actually being a footballer?If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Eleven, 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.

“It was a relief to see the team sheet and to find out that Beardsley was not there,” said Lenny Lawrence, the Charlton manager, “Instead they started with somebody we didn’t know. The relief turned very quickly into sheer horror. They set Ronnie on us and he tormented us that day.”In Episode Fifty Eight of the Blizzard Podcast we revisit 'Accidental Hero' by Shaul Adar from Issue Eighteen, first published back in September 2015. In it, he looks at one of the unsung heroes from Liverpool's last title winning side of 1989-90: supersub Ronnie Rosenthal. Signed on loan until the end of the season to provide a spark to a Liverpool side who were flagging under the weight of the number of games they were playing, as well as the psychological trauma of dealing with the Hillsborough tragedy, the Israeli provided a much needed injection of pace and aggression up front, and contributed with some key goals and assists to help Liverpool lift their 18th and most recent league title.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Eighteen, 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.

"In the past, the football of results tended to refer to a physical or cynical style but the recent success of Spain awoke a new realisation: technically excellent football could be dull. In decades to come, as the specifics of their triumphs fade into the yellowed pages of history, how will Spain’s era of tiki-taka dominance be remembered?"In Episode Fifty Seven we bring you 'Hearts and Minds' by Greg Johnson, first published in Issue Thirteen ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Drawing parallels between Spain's somewhat sterile dominance of major tournaments around the turn of the first decade of the 21st century with Lennox Lewis's spell at the top of heavyweight boxing's tree, he asks whether Vicente del Bosque's all-conquering side, like Lewis, the last undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, run the risk of going down in history as unloved champions. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Thirteen, 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.

"Hysen, Careca, Southall, Van Basten, Lentini... Even football’s most diligent historians might find it difficult to fathom how these 13 seconds of action were possible. How were these players on the same pitch at the same time? "This was no charity match, nor a friendly played for dubious benefits in a country with a questionable human rights record."In Episode Fifty Six we revisit 'Serie A v The Football League' by Tom Collomosse, originally published in Issue Twenty in March 2016. He looks back to the days when leagues would field genuinely competitive sides against each other in representative fixtures, and asks whether the process ought not be reinstated to settle the tedious 'Premier League v La Liga' arguments. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Twenty, 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.

"São Tomé eventually lost their Fifa vote and were dropped from the rankings... signs of international activity remain an apparition as Brazilian journalist Rafael Maranhão found on visiting São Tomé. Few journalists make the lengthy trip. Surprised at this interloper, the new FSF board told Maranhão that a friendly with Equatorial Guinea was scheduled for July 2011. That was a surprise to the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation, who knew nothing about a fixture that never took place."In Episode Fifty Five we look back to the halycon days of Fifa corruption in the early part of the decade, with Steve Menary's 'What's a Vote Worth?' from Issue Three, first published in December 2011. While Mohammed bin Hamman was eventually banned from Fifa for attempting to bribe the Caribbean Football Union with $40,000 for his vote to oust Sepp Blatter, the article focuses on the minor nations who have benefitted from Fifa's Goal and Financial Assistance Programmes. Even at the bottom of the rankings, these funds are the source of much debate, with many nations simply pocketing the cheques and doing the bare minimum in terms of competition to retain their place within Fifa. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue 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.

"Had Scotland contrived to bring home the World Cup, then perhaps the nationalist cause would have gathered even greater momentum. As it was, enthusiasm melted away like snow in the summer sunshine. When the government held a referendum on Scottish devolution the following March, only one in three people voted for it."In Episode Fifty Four we look back at "My Name is Ally MacLeod and I am a Winner" by Dominic Sandbrook, first published in Issue Five in June 2012. It looks back on the summer of 1978, the feverish anticipation of the Scottish squad as genuine contenders at the Argentina World Cup, and the ensuing debacle on the pitch, through the hubris of the Caledonian Clough, Ally MacLeod. Did the result help derail the course of Scottish nationalism? Could a different result on the pitch have changed the course of the referendum the following year?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.

"Towards the end of the game I began to wonder how many of the devoted fans we had met would be able to name the Earthquake’s starting XI. At times the Ultras reminded me of Orsino from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, more in love with the idea of being in love than with the object of his desire."In Episode Fifty Three we look at "Do You Know The Way?" by Sam Wetherell, published in the newly-released Issue Twenty Two in September 2016.In the article he witnesses first hand the behaviours of arguably the most passionate set of MLS fans in North American - the San Jose Ultras - while also musing on the differences in supporter culture between the US and UK/Europe, and the growth of ultra culture in American soccer.If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.Issue Twenty 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.

The second half of the Blizzard's live Q&A event held at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Football Writing Festival on Thursday 1st September. Featuring a panel of Jonathan Wilson, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Philippe Auclair, hosted by Rory Smith.The panel took questions from the audience and Twitter on a range of subjects across two halves of chat including thoughts on the transfer window, doping in football, the homogeneity of goalnets and massive journalistic clangers that they'd dropped. Apologies for the poor sound quality - we were unable to take a direct feed from the microphones and so had to bodge a compromise, and would rather bring you some audio than none at all. Part two is better - honest. Don’t forget that Issue Twenty Two of the Blizzard is available now to subscribers, and will be released on a general pay-what-you-like download basis on 12th September. If you have any feedback comments or suggestions email [email protected] or find us on Twitter @blzzrd.All issues of The Blizzard are available on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk. Digital downloads cost as little as 1p each (RRP £3), while print versions are available from £6 + postage (RRP £12). You can also find us on the Kindle and Google Play stores.