Football Poets

my first Final our first telly
’58 and a black and white set
Munich sorrow awash that day
with sadness in our heads
that was the year I cried for another team
and swapped my blue and white rattle
for a red and […]

met him on a train down in London town*
we’d both been to the very same ground
always comes out with the best quotes around
does our Ian

sat behind him once down at Plymouth Argyle*
he was a Pilgrim icon for a […]

one Christmas in the trenches
they stood in mud and sand
their loved ones and their football
a distant far off land –
the snow lay thick as thick could be
a bitter chill did spread
behind the sand bags and the […]

Another Christmas in Afghanistan
Another Christmas in Iraq
Another Christmas wondering
will your son come back?
will your daughter make it home
will you catch her smile
they’ve been there in sand and war
fighting […]

listen up dream on
don’t hold your breath
Simon Cowell’s thumbs up
could be kiss of death
look beyond the spectacles
and rose tinted view
We’ll be shunned and I’ll be stunned
if England’s bid comes through […]

shoe boxes shoved away underneath your bed
stuff you couldn’t part with stuff inside your head
rosettes ciggie cards and old away kits
ticket stubs and football boots falling half to bits
chucked into the cupboard […]

….(We hear The Sound of The Failed Bid Drum)

what is it with our papparazzi*
is there nothing that they’ll not stoop to?
if it’s truth or it’s lies they will surely deny us
the World Cup for me and for […]

ironic and sad
that here in the wake of Kick It Out Week
you know that time
when we get to see our managers interviewed
for a day with their little Kick It Out badges on
that we still now have with Paul Ince’s […]

they have no pitch to call their own
united here they stand
for something lost so long ago
by eve’ry honest fan
Old Trafford and Plough Lane once home
but nothing keeps them down
they play a few miles down the […]

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there was a young* octopus named Paul

he was psychic but that wasn’t all

he became so predictable

flicking his tentacle

now he’s an (ex-) legend in German football

~~~~~~~~~~(*)~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our players
who art in silly-money heaven
Narrow be their game
thy payback will one day come
when they’re all paid as one
at small clubs as it is at big clubs
give us a break from greedy agents
and manipulative […]

to anyone present still ‘old school’
his name brought a smile to us all
call him ‘wide boy’ ‘romancer’ or ‘one of the lads’
he brought something we miss to football

and the flags at Man City they fly at half […]

S enseless scrappy scoreless sameness
A bject awful average aimless
M aladjusted meek marooned
E very effort ends en-tombed

O ver-blown overacting
L imp lethargic listless lacking
D ire displays draw desperate […]

things we’d change if only we could
stuff we’d do for the better and the good
of the game
things we’d alter with the wave of a hand
things that the big boys refuse to understand
or take blame

I could write lists […]

I just endure the razzmatazz
that every big game always has
the pre-match need to hype it all
before they’ve even kicked a ball
the intro music that they play
in case the fans don’t cheer today
but when it starts […]

are we in some new moon
are we peaking too soon
can these forwards just never keep still?
from Fulham to Arsenal
from the Bridge to Newcastle
is six-nil the new one-nil?

and where are the tedious boring old […]

there was a time when a young man dreamed
and longed for that one recognition
they would drop all for the honour and pride
without fear or the least superstition
but now it’s the norm to be blasé
there are […]

never thought i’d missed it all quite so much
sometimes we struggled just to keep in touch
if I get desp’rate it’s* here within my clutch
but not now

my Vuvuzela* never made a game
one World Cup féte isn’t quite […]

“In my country we go to prison first and then become President.”
Nelson Mandela

the tournament trials they are over
as we try to get back to our lives
but we pray there’s a legacy out there somehow
and the […]

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on this long journey

we all need a coach that drives

men to play with pride