How Was It For You?

Hello and welcome back to Outside The Box. 

As the 2010s are drawing to a close and decade reviews seem to be the in thing at the moment, here at OTB we decided to a similar thing and take a look back down the years. 

To assist me on this nostalgia trip, I got in touch with some writers, bloggers and creators to take a look at how the 2010s treated their respective clubs. 

Dave Black: Newcastle United 

Newcastle started the 2010s in the Championship and will finish it as a midtable Premier League club so from the outside looking in the decade would be considered a success. Unfortunately, Newcastle have continued to tread water as a football club during the 2010s. A second season in the Championship was to follow in 2016-17 and despite escaping at the first time of asking again, the club has let a world class manager slip through their fingers in Rafa Benitez. All of this after the surprising removal of Chris Hughton in 2010, the individual brilliance that bailed Alan Pardew out for years and the ineptitude of Carver and McClaren. A fifth place finish did at least mean an overdue European adventure in 2012-13 but given it almost ended in another relegation, it put the owner off ever trying to achieve success again. That extends to the cups where Newcastle haven't advanced past the fourth round during the decade whilst a couple of EFL Cup quarter finals are as good as it has been.

For my favourite player of the decade I chose Hatem Ben Arfa. There are certain players where every time they get the ball, you want to get off your seat. During the 2011-12 season, easily one of the most bonkers following this ludicrous club, Ben Arfa scored two goal of the season contenders, slaloming from half way past numerous defenders to score goals you normally see on the playground. At times he was a one man show and unfortunately, he eventually fell out with Pardew (and subsequently Steve Bruce at Hull). Poor man management or an unmanageable player?

Despite an honourable mention for the 2019 win over Manchester City. I've opted for a much blander on paper 3-0 win over Barnsley as my favourite game. It was the final day of the Championship season and Newcastle needed to better Brighton's result to take the title. The win was in the bag for us but in the last minute Jack Grealish equalised for Aston Villa against Brighton and I'll never forget the news rippling around the ground and the notification lighting up my phone. Sure, it was only the second tier but the celebrations, the trophy presentation and winning the league in that manner. I don't think I'd swap it, it might be as good as it ever gets!

I've already touched on Ben Arfa's two wondergoals and I think we all have a special place in our memories for Shola Ameobi's karate kick in the 5-1 win over Sunderland. However, my choice is Papiss Cisse's 'banana shot' at Stamford Bridge, a place we never do well but this shot from a ridiculous angle that rendered Steve Claridge in the 5Live studio speechless, a double bonus. It sealed a 2-0 win that kept our hopes of a Champions League place alive and just allowed us all to believe that anything at all is possible on a football field.

Dave Black runs a brilliant site dedicated to Championship Manager 97/98 and has also written two books dedicated to the series. You can interact with him on Twitter @cm9798 and follow the blog at cm9798.co.uk. Dave's two books are also available for purchase from amazon by following this link.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-According-Championship-Manager-97/dp/1519609523/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=championship+manager&qid=1577623883&sr=8-7

Colin Webster: Inverness Caledonian Thistle 

My team is Inverness Caldeonian Thistle and they have had an incredible decade! Formed after the merger or rival clubs Inverness Caledonian and Inverness Thistle, the club is only 25 years old. They spent the first ten years working their way up to the top league in Scotland, a period that included the famous 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' headline after they defeated Celtic in the cup.

This decade, however, began with the club having just been relegated to Division One. Led by Terry Butcher, they won promotion that year and set about re-establishing themselves in the top flight. Butcher had his head turned by a bigger club, Hibernian, so John Hughes took over and he took Inverness to their first major cup final. In one of the world's worst games of football, Inverness lost the final to Aberdeen on penalties. However, we went back to Hampden in 2015 and lifted the Scottish Cup, a glorious moment! In that same season, Inverness finished third place in the top league which is an incredible achievement. They did it by playing some terrific football too. As tends to be the case when a small team rises to the top, the club's best players were picked off and the team suffered as a result. We now find ourselves in the second tier once again where we're making a decent fist of a promotion run.

My favourite goal and game of the decade came in the dying moments of the League Cup semi-final. We were reduced to nine men after two red cards and chasing an equaliser against Hearts. Right at the death Nick Ross snatched it. Despite the lack of numbers, we dominated extra time and eventually won the game on penalties. What a day!

Colin designed and created 'Counter Attack: The Football Strategy Game'. To purchase your own copy of the game from counterattackgame.com and keep in touch with the game's future developments on Twitter @ctrattackgame. 

Chris Lee: Brighton And Hove Albion 

The 2010s was a pivotal decade for Brighton, probably the most important in the club's 118-year history. The decade started with the club at the tail-end of it's nomadic period. Brighton had moved out of the old Goldstone Ground in 1997 but then spent fourteen years in the wilderness, playing at Gillingham's Priestfield (a 150 mile round trip) and the Withdean Stadium, an athletics ground.

The Seagulls started the 2010-11 season at the Withdean under Gus Poyet and won the League One title that season while the new Falmer Stadium (now known as the AMEX Community Stadium) was in the final months of it's construction. The move to the AMEX in May 2011 has given the club a positive and stable platform from which to grow, and it has done.

After coming up short several times in the Championship play-offs, Brighton finally came up to the Premier League under Chris Hughton and are now an established lower mid-table club. It's a world away from where the club started the decade.

The AMEX is also used for women's internationals, conferences and was the scene of Japan's incredible upset of South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Chris is editor of Outside Write. A blog and podcast series dedicated to football culture and travel. The blog can be accessed at outsidewrite.co.uk and you can follow the blog on Twitter @outsidewrite. The podcast is available on all good podcast platforms. 

Lucy Jade: Bradford City 

There have been plenty of ups and downs for Bradford throughout the decade. We have beaten the likes of Aston Villa, Arsenal and even Chelsea when we came from 2-0 down to win 4-2. We have had trips to Wembley, beating Northampton to win promotion and losing the Capital One Cup Final as well as a play-off defeat to Millwall.

We have gone from fighting for promotion to new owners, ultimately worsening the club which led to relegation with possibly the worst team I have ever witnessed. We finish the decade looking promising in League Two and will hopefully start the new decade with promotion back to League One.

Lucy's blog site EdgeOfTheArea is dedicated to all things football across both the men's and women's game. You can follow her on Twitter @edgeofthearea and the site is accessible at edgeofthearea.co.uk. 

Richard Foster: Crystal Palace

Palace's decade could not have started at a much lower point. The club had been heading into serious financial waters for a while under chairman Simon Jordan and reality bit on January 27th 2010 as the team boarded a flight to play Newcastle away. By the time they had landed they had been transformed from play-off contenders to being thrust into a relegation dogfight thanks to a ten point deduction for entering administration (for the second time in the space of a dozen years). The team plummeted from 10th to 20th at a stroke of HMRC's red pen.

The problems had only just begun as the most valuable player, Victor Moses, was sold to Wigan as part of a fire sale to raise some much-needed cash. Manager Neil Warnock left in March, leaving the club rudderless. Paul Hart took over as caretaker manager and the season reached a nail-biting conclusion as they faced Hart's former club Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough needing at least a draw to survive, if The Owls won they would survive and send The Eagles down. A battling 2-2 draw saved the club's skin but there was one more battle to fight, which threatened the very future of the club.

A winding-up petition had reached the eleventh hour and Palace's potential new owners were locked in talks with Lloyd's with fans staging a noisy protest outside the bank's offices. Apparently, a senior banker entered the meeting to declare 'I have got hundreds of football fans outside making an almighty racket outside my head office, let's get this deal done.' And the deal was done, Palace were saved by a consortium including Steve Parish, who remains chairman to this day.

Back on a relatively even keel, the club could look forward and a skinny teenager offered a sign of things to come. The academy graduate started in the opening game of the following season, scored his first goal for the club in a 3-2 victory over Leicester City and over the coming ten years became the talisman for the club's rise from the doldrums to it's longest spell in the top flight. There is no real competition as to who is the club's player of the decade despite a brief and unhappy move to Manchester United, Wiflried Zaha has made the most Premier League appearances (182 up to Boxing Day 2019) as well as scoring the most Premier League goals (35).

Zaha can also lay claim to scoring a couple of the best and certainly two of the most important goals this decade when he notched a brace in the second leg of the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final against Brighton at the AMEX. Those goals propelled The Eagles into the final which they won courtesy of a Kevin Phillips penalty, won almost inevitably by Zaha. The Eagles are now in their seventh consecutive Premier League season and while there have been more spectacular goals such as Andros Townsend's screamer against Manchester City last season or even Jordan Ayew's impudent chip following his mazy dribble just a few days ago, none of these would have been possible without that crucial victory on the South Coast.

Although there have been some memorable games, including that 2-2 draw at Hillsborough, the 'Crystanbul' game when recovering from 3-0 down to title-chasing Liverpool in 2014 and the 3-2 win at The Etihad last year, the Brighton game also gets my vote as game of the decade for being the launch pad into the club's most successful era, inspired by the player of the decade.

Richard Foster's new book 'Premier League Nuggets' features a raft of facts and figures which can assist you in becoming a font of top-flight knowledge. To purchase your own copy of the book head over to http://bit.ly/2XsBdb4 or https://amzn.to/2OrD7ow. You can also follow Richard on Twitter @rcfoster. 

I suppose I ought to contribute with a personal spin on the 2010s for my club. As I have previously stated on here and on Twitter, I'm one of those awful people who supports two clubs and given Manchester United's plight is headline news on a daily basis. Here is how the 2010s treated Grimsby Town. 

The decade began with Town's inevitable slide into non-league for the first time in 100 years with the 2009-10 season ending with us bottoming out after a 3-0 defeat at Burton Albion that saw fans take their frustrations out on stewards and police in ugly post-match scenes. Two mid-table finishes in the National League followed before some astute signings by Rob Scott and Paul Hurst (later, Hurst was made sole manager) saw us emerge as one of the heavyweights outside 'the 92'. 2012-13 saw us return to our spiritual home of Wembley (we've played there seven times since 1998) but lose the FA Trophy Final to Wrexham on penalties. To further compound our misery, Newport defeated us over two legs to deny us of a play-off final appearance.

Consecutive play-off defeats followed, including a heart-breaking shoot-out defeat to Bristol Rovers in 2015 before the townsfolk rallied and raised over £110,000 to assist with Hurst's playing budget. The plan paid off and we made our triumphant return to the Football League in May 2016 when we beat Forest Green 3-1 in the play-off final, Nathan Arnold's goal sparked joyous and emotional scenes in the Wembley sun. Our first season back in League Two ended with a respectable mid-table finish despite an inconsistent and disjointed campaign as we went through three managers over the course of it. Paul Hurst left for Shrewsbury which led to Marcus Bignot taking the job. The ex-Solihull manager lasted until the spring when Russell Slade returned for a second spell in charge.

The 2017-18 season saw us stare down the barrel of the relegation gun for the second time in less than ten years until the appointment of Michael Jolley to replace Slade kept our heads above water. Despite optimism and Jolley's attempt to become a face for the local community, less than eighteen months after his appointment, he was unemployed. The club's relationship with the local media (tempestuous at best, downright toxic at worst) and a now-infamous expletive filled confrontation with BBC Radio Humberside is believed to have precipitated Jolley's departure.

For my Grimsby player of the 2010s, it's hard to look beyond Craig 'Ginger Pirlo' Disley. A central midfield captain marvel who played 279 times for the club, scoring 40 goals along the way and sometimes dragging us through games almost single-handed. He was with us during our lowest ebb of non-league (getting twatted 5-0 away at newly-promoted Braintree) and rightfully saw us to the highest of highs as he led his team-mates to the royal box after the Wembley play-off win in 2016.

In terms of the game and goal of the decade, both of these occurred on the same day. May 15th 2016. Grimsby Town 3-1 Forest Green Rovers, Vanarama National League Promotion Final. Omar Bogle's quick-fire double late in the second half set us on our way before Keanu Marsh-Brown's howitzer tried to spoil the party. Thankfully it didn't and when Nathan Arnold picked up the loose ball after Pat Hoban's shot had been blocked and took it beyond his namesake Steve Arnold in the opposing goal to seal the win, it was sealed. Grimsby Town were back where they belonged. 

That brings to an end our nostalgic look back at how the 2010s treated a variety of clubs. I hope you have enjoyed our trip back through time and please feel free to get in touch and share your memories of following your club through the 2010s. Get in touch with us on Twitter (@FootballOTB) or on Facebook. 

We'll be back soon with some more football chat but until then, take care. 

Stickin' It To 'Em

What's going on everyone, welcome to Outside The Box, a new blog page dedicated to football and the culture that surrounds it. 

In one of the most high profile transfer deals in recent years. It was announced that Panini had regained the licence for top division football stickers in England for the first time in over 25 years and for the first time, the Premier League. Being a bona fide sticker nut, I decided to reclaim my childhood and sample the new album. Read on to see what I thought. 


Ok, just in case my wife is reading I'll be blunt. I'm still massively into collecting football stickers, whenever a major tournament comes round I'm always straight down to the paper shop or supermarket to grab the starter pack and as many packets of stickers I can get my hands on (I haven't quite gone the whole hog and bought an entire display box....yet).

While I can't wait to get stuck in (pun completely intentional) to tournament albums, over recent years I've been reticent to take the plunge and collect the Premier League album, mainly because of reports that the quality had diminished since the heyday of the 1990s when Merlin held the licence.

The first thing that grabs you in the above image is the vibrancy of the colours on the cover, collectors of a certain age will be drawn towards the retro themed logo that adorns the headline with esteemed names such as Harry Kane, Virgil Van Dijk and Dan James giving it an up to date twist.

One of the main reasons I purchase a sticker album is the ability to have an adequate statistics book to hand, the new album ticks this box as it is packed full of important and interesting facts. Panini must know there are more stat addicts like me in the universe as the album contains a handy guide to the facts that each sticker contains.

Before we get into the meat of the album and each team's individual section (which boasts two generous two page spreads for each team), we're greeted to stickers of some of each team's key players posing in stances reminiscent of the line-ups on Sky Sports and the team badges. I liked this section even if I did find the stickers a little fiddly to fix into place, mainly due to the fact they needed to be lined up with the joining pieces already printed in the album. That and the fact I am ever so slightly visually impaired.

And so to the stickers themselves and each team's sections. The stickers are printed on high quality glossy adhesive paper and made of tough stuff, seemingly strong against potential rips and tears (a major criticism of latter Merlin/Topps stickers). The first two pages for each club features spaces for 22 players (other squad players are depicted overleaf) while the following two pages consist of foil stickers for the respective team's key player and captain as well as the stadium and (feeding another of my addictions) the home kit. The ever popular foil badge sticker sits in the top left hand corner of the squad page.

To say Panini haven't had the Premier League licence, it is easy to see that they have transferred plenty of the successful aspects from their albums on the continent to these shores with tremendous effect. Everything from the bright colourway of the album to the high quality of the stickers and the depth Panini have gone to in order to cover each team leads me to believe that the Premier League stickers are in good hands and I look forward to a fantastic future collecting Panini Premier League stickers.

I even managed to get the Premier League trophy in one of the packets contained in the starter pack. That means I have one more Premier League than Liverpool....for now.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Panini Football 2020 album. Are you collecting them? Or are you a sticker nut too. Why not share your memories of collecting and your collections online. You can get in touch with us on Twitter @FootballOTB or via Facebook by searching for FootballOTBOfficial. 

We'll be back the week after next with a piece about football in a certain European country. 

Until then, have a very Merry Christmas and take care. 

Welcome To Outside The Box

Hello. If you're reading this then congratulations!! You've found Outside The Box. A new football site dedicated to long form articles about the game and the culture that surrounds it in the modern era.

Here are a few things I'll be covering as OTB moves forward.

Under The Radar: Have you ever wondered what it must be like in a country where football isn't the national game? Or perhaps you want to know how football clubs fare in the press and media in some of the world's biggest cities. Hopefully I'll be speaking to football fans from places as far afield as Australia and Canada as well countries closer to home such as Ireland and Wales.

Groundhopping Adventures: Over time, I'll be visiting several different grounds across the north of England (and hopefully beyond) seeing the places and meeting the faces that make football clubs tick across all levels of the pyramid.

Seen On Screen: When Saturday Comes, Renford Rejects, All In The Game and even The Hurricanes. Join me as I take a nostalgic look back at fictional depictions of football from film and TV from down the years.

There is always room for suggestions so if there is anything in specific you'd like to see on the site or indeed anything you would like to contribute then please feel free to get in touch. You can either reach out to me personally on Twitter (you can find me @BarkerDan10) or via the Outside The Box account (@FootballOTB).

About The Author 

I suppose since you're here, I ought to introduce myself. My name is Dan Barker Gray and I have been writing about football for a couple of years now. I'm an unashamed football addict (and have been for as long as I care to remember, which as my next big birthday is my 30th is a bloody long time!!) and an even more unashamed two-team wanker, dividing my support between Manchester United and my local club Grimsby Town. I also produce an online magazine dedicated to 1990s football called 'A Whole New Ball Game' and have also written about cricket and rugby league over time too. I hope you'll enjoy reading Outside The Box as much as I hope to enjoy writing it. Please feel free to get in touch through the above channels but keep it clean. I respect constructive criticism but I won't have any qualms about hitting the block button if you're a dick.

I'll be back soon with our first article, I'll keep the subject matter under wraps for now.

Until then, take care.