The penalty is the most studied moment in football. Goalkeepers have analysts, laptops and water bottles covered in notes telling them which way a taker likes to go. Takers …

Ninety. If you want a single number, that is the one. It is the figure that usually secures a top-two finish in the Championship, and it is the one …

Football is very good at building a reputation for a young player and even better at destroying one. A good run in the academy, a big move and a …

Interim managers are not supposed to say much. They arrive, steady the ship, keep the seat warm for the next man and leave quietly. Nobody expects them to diagnose …

Forty points. That is the number every fan has in their head, and in the Championship it is almost never enough. The second tier has 46 games, not 38, …

Every football fan knows the feeling of watching their team on a Sunday after a midweek trip abroad. The legs look heavy, the pressing starts a yard late, and …

Goalkeepers have always been judged on what they stop. Saves, clean sheets, the odd brave punch in a crowded box. What they do with the ball at their feet …

Every spring, the Championship produces the best drama in English football, and it all comes down to one question. Who gets the last ticket to the Premier League? The …

Every August, a manager or pundit says 90 points will win the league, and most of us just go along with it. I have done it myself. Then May …

Football has a lot of rituals, but few of them are as strange as the handshake between managers at full time. Two people who have spent ninety minutes trying …