My good friend and podcast colleague Gav Stone runs the wonderful website “Les Rosbifs” tracking the movements and achievements off all the English players that ply their trade outside of the English border. For the last month voting has been going on to give the public a chance to decide who deserves a place in the Les Rosbif Hall of Fame.

Less from me and more from Gav:

It seems only right to celebrate the achievements of the best of England’s footballing exports to the rest of the world. We have had a few since the modern game was developed in the country. From the pioneers, teachers and early workers who left English shores to spread their enjoyment of the game in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the more recent successes…the list is endless.

This is where Les Rosbifs Hall of Fame has developed from. The ‘Most Influential’ lists have been popular articles, but just who have been the  great, most successful, most influential players, coaches and administrators in world football, out of all of those who have worked overseas?

You have had the opportunity to nominate who you feel are the Englishmen worthy of a place in the Hall of Fame. Now is your chance to vote for them. All of the nominations below qualify for entry to the Hall of Fame. What you must do now is vote for those you feel deserve their place. You can vote for 1, 2…however many you see as worthy!

 

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The Third Round of the FA Cup was drawn on Sunday, and before 2nd round ties can be concluded the excitement has already begun to build around West Yorkshire as Leeds will travel south to take on Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. Matthew McKeith explains the history between the two clubs and reasons for the fans to be optimistic.

Leeds United have once again been drawn a mouth watering FA Cup 3rd round tie, away against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. The Elland Road side famously beat Arsenal 1-0 in the Centenary FA Cup Final back in 1972 with Leeds legend Alan Clarke heading home a 53 minute winner. 100,000 fans packed into Wembley to witness Leeds win their only FA Cup to date.

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Disappointed that it’s took me a week to write this, but hey better late than never, as Alex Ferguson once said. Last Saturday saw my first visit to the Galpharm Stadium to watch the mighty Huddersfield Town. I had already booked plans to attend the match against MK Dons on the Tuesday but the lovely Grant at STV managed to arrange a ticket. So I was off to see Town versus Exeter City. Two games in four days bliss.

In my six year stay in Leeds I have yet to hoist the colours of my chosen team, spent some time with Sheffield United, the fiancés team, then everyone says “Leeds United” yes the ground is walking distance away, but I just can’t support them, not sure why just something inside me screams NO!

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The countdown has begun! Only five days now till El Clasico hits our TV screens.

I’m as excited as Robbie Savage when his monthly subscription to HAIR MONTHLY pops through the door. I don’t plan on writing any kind of lengthy build up, your not going to find any sort of tactical preview, anything that I write would not do the game justice. Can you tell I’m excited.

I had toyed with the idea of writing some sort of homage to Lionel Messi such is his greatness, like his old teammate Ronaldinho, Messi’s love of the game and cheeky smile as he dances past each defender is a joy to behold.

Hours could pass, many cups of tea could be drunk and I would write 1,000 words depicting the greatness of the man, the goals, the skills and so on and so on, it still wouldn’t come across how I wanted, so what better way to show my love for little Leo, and to get everyone as excited as I am for this Monday’s game, sit back, relax and watch a master at work.

I hope that has got you suitably in the mood for Monday’s game, maybe I should post a Ronaldo video beforehand, so I don’t look biased towards Barca.

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Rangers' forward Steven Naismith vies with Manchester United's Ryan Giggs -Champions League action in pictures

A disappointing night at Ibrox tonight, both teams not learning from the mistakes of the first game. For me Sir Alex got his team selection wrong, no width where it mattered, Rangers didn’t attack enough when in possession. Everything that went wrong can be found in my STV article that depicted the first game http://bit.ly/huQyL6

It took Manchester United 176 minutes to break down the Rangers defence and Walter can take credit from that, but he needs to find a way of playing with this tight defensive system and letting the players break forward when they have the ball. Scottish teams aren’t good enough to play tiki-taka passing up the field and play round the opponents.

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*All stats are correct as of Friday 19th November

Many questions were raised when Jay Bothroyd received a call up to England’s National team for the friendly against France. Isn’t there someone else playing in the Premier League that would be more worthy of a call-up? Is a player playing in the second tier good enough for an International team as highly ranked as England?

There are many blogs that have gone into the positives and negatives of Bothroyd’s call up, that is not the question I wanted to look at. Fabio Capello has himself questioned the number of English players playing at the highest level, limiting the pool of players he can pick his squad from. Does Capello have a point? If not who are the strikers playing in the Premier League that Capello could call on and are other countries suffering the same fate?

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Well at looks like someone, being of sound body and mind has decided to nominated the gibfootballshow podcast for an award.

The good people at PickLive.com run an awards ceremony for football bloggers, one of the categories is for Best Podcast, and somehow I have managed to squeeze my way in amongst some of the best podcasts around. The Guardian’s Football Weekly, The Football Ramble (Hoooooo!!!), Back Page Football, and twofootedtackle.com, all of them worthy winners, I am extremly happy just to be included with such respected pod’s.

And of course well done to everyone else who was nominated for an award, so many well deserved nominations, loads of good people missed out to, so honoured to be involved.

I have to thank the rest of my team – Chris, Charlie, Brent, Ethan, Gav newly acquired Brazilian correspondent Jack and of course everyone that’s bothered to listen and ReTweet the link on twitter. I feel a certain pressure now to up the game and maintain a standard, when really it’s four guys sat on skype complaining about football.

I will do my best to make it down to the awards ceremony, being in that there London it’s a bit of a trek, but I’d love to rub shoulders with the awesome bloggers that will be there. On the night there is a “People’s Choice” award, which we could technically win, but we would need your help.

NOPAs

 

If you can’t think of anyone else more deserving of the award, please feel free to use our pod as your voting choice. We would really appreciate it, and thank you for your support.

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I am joined by Chris Mayer, Ethan Dean-Richards and a special guest appearance by Jack Lang from Snap Kaka Pop. We dicuss the state of the England National Team, International Friendlies, National Football Centre. Chris updates us on the hot prospects in Belgium. Roberto Mancini and Jack gives us an in depth look at all things Brazilian football. Jam packed!!!

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A round-up of all weeks action in France, including Lille's destruction of Caen, Brest's draw against Sochaux and Lyon's win against Nice.

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Now I know a fixture between Wigan and West Brom doesn’t send a tingle down the spine of most neutrals out there but there were a few reasons I decided to take a trip to the DW. Ethan one of the guys from the podcast is a West Brom fan, so it was a chance to meet him while seeing a game, but the main reason to go was my love of Peter Odemwingie.

It has been mentioned a few times my affection towards the Nigerian forward and the chance to see him in person couldn’t be missed, it would also provide a slight chance of maybe getting my Lille jersey signed.

The journey was quite pain free, a bus to Manchester then train to Wigan Wallgate. The DW Stadium is a good 20-25 minute walk from the station, down past the canal towards the retail park in which it sits. Walking down it was clear that West Brom had brought a big away support, I walked past more Baggies fans than Wigan fans, and obviously the trip up the M6 had gotten them in good spirits.

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