Thanks!

More than anything, it's that I've always been incredibly passionate about all things football, basically. I'd already developed a reputation as a right statto while I was still at primary school, and it became a deeply unhealthy obsession designed to help me cope with various other personal problems in my teens (some people choose drugs, I chose Wealdstone).

Now, it's no longer unbalanced, but football's still and always will be my biggest passion in life: which is why I want to develop a career watching and writing about it. I wrote a piece on Newcastle a few weeks back which I was somewhat apprehensive about, as there's always a danger of not being party to some key point or other which you could only know if you followed that particular club. But Magpies fans loved it: I was pretty taken aback by the response it got, to be honest.

So to answer your point above: it IS slightly worrying as well as commendable that I know (or at least, hope I know) as much as I might seem to. For example, I was watching the India-Kenya cricket world cup semi with a mate in a pub a few years back, and a rather inebriated chap wandered in and got chatting with me about football. He was simultaneously alarmed and impressed when I was able to answer within a few seconds when was the last time the FA Cup Final hadn't featured at least one club from either London or the North-West: and I guess many people, not least yourself, probably have a similar reaction to what I write, really.

Posted By: thebigfeller, Dec 3, 21:52:40