Football Poets

From the cradle of the Beautiful Game
The teeming passion of the Maracana
Swapping the brilliance of the yellow shirt
For the badge of Garforth Town
The man of principles plays before 3000 disciples
Not that much […]

Farewell John
You’ll Never Walk Alone
Shake hands in heaven with
Shankly, Joe and Bob
And then hug Sid Vicious eh….
You’re all somethin’ else.

(Why is it Heaven has all the greats, and we get left with Margaret Thatcher?)

Could

Have Been A Contender

Could Have Been Could

If Only.

Another “Master” from the Dutch School of Fine Art
The “Lawman’s” European Crown now yours
And the kids they copy your style
Becoming you over playgrounds, parks
And bedroom pitches
RVN on painted walls
T […]

The “Great Dane”
He knew every blade of grass
At the Theatre of Dreams
Except for the back of his net
He very rarely went in there.

The beauty of the yellow shirt
The history and the tales told
Of how football found its spirit once more
In the dusty shadows
Of Rio De Janeiro
The football gold mine
Not yet exhausted
Not yet given up with its […]

Streetwise urban hero
Anthem for the postterrace youth
A blur of boots, goals
And arrogance
Performance poetry
Never said it better.

Little Diamond
Such dazzling skills
Worthy of Monet
The limbs of a genius
Drawn down from a moon
Envious and longing
For the return.

Mighty Magyar
Ragged heels and studded dreams
Genius found a home
In the burning boots
Of a football refugee
Blazed a path of such glory
That the number 10 shirt
Of Honved Budapest retired
To its well earned […]

Those magic boots
Hanging next to Van Gogh’s brushes
Einstein’s equations
And Shankly’s red trackie.

Sunday park leaguers
Premier dreamers
With Beckham’s hairstyles
But not his goals
The dead eye on managers
Whose hearts win matches
But whose tactics won’t
Patience for sale for the price of 3 points
And […]

No more tears and lager tales
Jut one belly full of memories
Broken legs and exquisite passes
Lobs and free kicks
Nutmegged demons (tho they still came back)
Precious few medals
But those goals immortal
Yes like […]

The dazzling boots of Maradona
The twists and turns of Cruyff
The cool of Kaiser Beckenbauher
We couldn’t get enough
The goals of our King Kenny
The smiles of Emlyn Hughes
Football has a 1000 poems
So many more to […]

They were Roger Hunt and Charlie George
Georgie Best and Denis Law
Bobby Charlton Johnny Haynes
But I was always
Bobby Moore

They copied Norman Hunter Billy Bremner
Just Fontaine and Pele scored
Rivelino Puskas […]

Refs are from Venus
Managers from Mars!

It isn’t me who makes the rules
It’s just a job you win I lose
No one ever seems to see
The man inside the referee!

I’m on my own you’re in a team
Your name is sung and mine is screamed
No one ever wants to be […]

Dear Lord
As the transfer season opens
Please send to me
A striker who can shoot and score
With both of his feet
Defenders whose tackles
Are as clean as they`re quick
A left back a right back
Both built like […]

Swinging my legs off the moon
As the world`s most expensive striker flew by
The manager soon followed
“Where has he gone ?”
“We need him back”
“He`s over the moon”
Said I!

You didn’t play football
On the grass of Strawberry Fields
You didn’t wear a red or blue scarf
You didn’t strain your neck trying to watch
The game from the Kop at Anfield or
The street end at Goodison
You were […]

There is no football in Liverpool today
There is no Red no Blue
No teams line up at Anfield
No music blares out
Across the airways at Goodison
The laughter has smothered itself
The familiar lilt of an accent so […]