I suppose I only have myself to blame. You simply can’t dedicate your entire working life to retail and not expect to be working Saturdays. Even as a business owner, you can’t just ignore one of the busiest days of the week and leave it to your hardworking staff even if you only managed a 5 hour sleep. To be fair, my worl/life balance has improved dramatically over the last year but it still officially sucks working a Saturday when your life revolves around football.
So clearly I should be working hard earning money to pay for Mrs. Dow’s flamboyant & luxurious lifestyle however my mind will never be far away from the various football scores that affect the business of Football Nation. Several games are in the “very important” category;
Ross County v Livingston- Livi are my team and of course Football Nation kit supply the team. We are looking to beat last season’s club retail sales & success on the pitch is essential. We have just arranged an Umbro boot deal with top striker Iain Russell so I’d like to see him on the score sheet for many reasons!
In SFL Division 2 it’s Dumbarton v Cowdenbeath- Another team whom Football Nation have the pleasure of being official kit suppliers. Cowden have started the season well & another 3 pts will go a long way to cementing the Blue Brazil’s tag as one of the title favourites. Greg Stewart is another player we have boot sponsored for this season so hopefully he can bag a goal today.
Unfortunately for various reasons weather related & otherwise, many of our other senior teams that we have recently kit supplied are without games this weekend such as St Cuthbert Wanderers in the South of Scotland League, Strathspey Thistle in the Highland League and Bonnyrigg Rose in the Juniors East Superleague. So my eyes turn towards some of the Hollywood games this weekend that will affect general sales in the shop and online. Rangers v Celtic will of course be a biggy but it’s Man Utd v Chelsea that cathches the attention. A man responsible for selling more shirts than the rest of the league put together a few seasons ago, Fernando Torres is in desperate need of recapturing his form. This football retailer certainly hopes that he scores the winner against United!!
It has been 5 months since we last talked and for that I am deeply sorry. It has been so long in fact, that I even had to go through several levels of password retrieval just to become reaquainted.
You’ll be delighted to know that football is still alive and kicking in my life and I fully intend to keep you bang up to date.
So hang on to your seats as I recapture my mojo and blog on about Football Nation, Livingston FC and all the other teams & things that make my football world spin round!
I was recently castigated by Andy from the excellent gibfootballshow website for a Twitter comment that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to getting back to work after three great days off. Andy pointed out that, ” if your job is a slog there is no hope for the rest of us.” Now far be it for me to cast aspersions on Andy’s day job, I am somewhat jealous of his ability to persuade his other half that watching football all the time is essential for his plans to dominate world football blogging! So it got me thinking, what does my day really consist of and is it that little bit more intersting than anyone elses job? Here is the diary of Tuesday the 3rd of May 2011.
8.00am: Directors’ Meeting at local coffe bar Cuthberts. Time to sort out the week aheads strategy and the previous weeks performance. We’re building a new website for launch in June and there is a lot of work to cover there. New kit launches are being announced all the time and we need to keep on top of that. Should find out today when the new Barca home kit is launched. This will be 2011′s biggest kit launch.
9.00am: The part of the day I have been dreading the most as I switch on my Outlook. 178 emails for me to deal with personally. I need a better system! I’ll skim them first and delete them later! Being off for 3 days has left a huge pile of real and electronic paperwork for me to deal with.
9.10am: Approving artwork for the various clubs that we have team kit in the process for. From St Cuthberts Wanderers to The Laird & Dog Inn FC.
9.30am: We launched the new Cowdenbeath FC Home Kit at their game on Saturday in SFL Division 1. We need to review how well it went on the retail side and check that the 1st Team were happy with all of their kit and there is no need for any replacement items. On both counts it’s good news. Record club shop sales and Jimmy Nicholl & Colin Cameron are delighted with the new kit.
10.15am: A quick sales review to ascertain what’s hot and what’s not. We sell accross several online platforms as well as at our Edinburgh store. Each market has different characteristics and means we have to carefully plan what stock is brought in and when. Christmas stock is already ordered! The best selling range last week was Umbro’s New York Cosmos range which is continuing to outperform many of our other team categories.
11.05am: Deliveries from Nike & Adidas arrive. Barcelona kit is selling fast and we are getting constant new deliveries in. It’s barely on the shelves for long before it’s getting snapped up.
11.36am: I can now see my desk. It’s a black wood effect and hopefully I can keep it clear for a few days! All emails dealt with and cleared out of the inbox!
11.45am: I try and catch up on as much football news as I can. I’m clicking on Twitter links, visiting blogs and checking loads of websites. I laugh at some of the new kit rumours which I know are nonsense and get amazed at how some people manage to find out details that are true. I need to keep right on top of what’s going on as all of these things affect sales and therfore company policy. The transfer of Torres to Chelsea was one of these events that had huge reprecussions for Football Nation. Things to keep an eye out for at the moment are the likely destination of Gareth Bale and whether QPR will be denied promotion by the FA.
12.45pm: Grab lunch and eat at my desk. The phrase “lunch hour” doesn’t apply to me! We have dozens of teamwear orders in progress at the moment and each one has to receive individual attention to ensure that our customers are 100% happy.
1.06pm: Nike inform us that the new Barcelona Home Kit will be launched on May the 24th, 4 days before the final of The Champions League. This is big news as a popular kit launch will now go galactic as fans clamour for the new kit. No word yet if they will wear it in the final if they get past Madrid but it certainly makes tonights game very interesting. We’re now looking for a Barca win!
1.55pm: I’ve just realised that I’m not going to get everything done that I wanted done today. This normally happens at 3 o’clock.
2.30pm: We land a major junior team from the East Region Super League to add to our teamwear stable. Another team from Ayrshire also buy in to our fantastic new Joma range.
3.00pm:We are Livingston FC’s kit suppliers for the 2011/12 season and I am now collating and placing the orders for the new away kit which is being launched in June. They’ve chosen a fantastic new Umbro Kit that looks very good. I’m meeting club manager Gary Bollan on Friday to go through the team’s training kit requirements.
4.00pm: It’s all hands on deck as the Royal Mail arrive to collect all of our online orders which have been mounting up over the extended Bank Holiday weekend. It’s considerably more than normal due to the holidays. Everything is sent registered to ensure safe transit and it’s a relief to clear the decks!
4.30pm: We receive photos of the Livingston FC Player of The Season Awards. They were held on Saturday night and Football Nation sponsored the Goal of the Season Award. The winner was team captain Liam Fox and our Louise had a cracker of a photograph taken whilst presenting the award to Liam. Other photos of staff members in various states of sobriety are causing much amusement.
5.30pm: The shop closes after a busy day. Everything is clean & tidy but Teamwear are staying late to work on orders until about 7.30pm. We are a 10 minute walk from The Mercat Bar for the Champions League Semi Final. It’s been a long day but with beer and football to round it off, it’s not been all bad!
An article I wrote for ROAR, the award winning match day programme of Livingston FC.
I doubt there will be many fans in the stadium today that haven’t collected Panini Football Stickers at some point in their lives! Synonymous with football and childhood, the stickers have been a delight to collect and frustrating to complete collections. Many frustrating days have been spent searching for that elusive sticker whilst carrying round an ever increasing pile of “doubles”. I even know of one frustrated mother who owned a newsagents and took boxes of stickers home to steam open the packets to find that elusive Dalglish or Hoddle for her son. Despite the advent of video gaming and the internet, collecting football stickers seems to be as popular now as it has ever been.
Panini of course are the market leaders in this field and have been producing their stickers since the early 1960s. Originally you had to use glue to stick them down until the early 1970s when they became self adhesive. Stickers are now available for most major football leagues across the world and sticker collecting is now a global phenomenon.
I hope though, that you have kept all your completed albums and extra stickers? As ever, these things are worth a good deal of money. A quick flick through eBay shows that a complete set & album from the 1970 World Cup sold for almost £700. Even one packet of unopened stickers from the Mexico 86 World Cup fetched £30!!! Hard to find individual stickers can also fetch similarly crazy prices. This season’s completed albums may not fetch top dollar but may well net you a good deal of your money back in ten years time!
Of course, nothing tops the legendary collection of SPL 2002 Panini Stickers when our very own Livingston FC made their Panini debut. Now, I can’t give you a figure as to how much a full set would be worth but I do know that the Livingston stickers are very hard to find. This of course baffles me as I am sure that their must have been two Livingston stickers in every SPL packet. A deliberate Panini tactic to wind up collectors of the big teams!
Now, who wants a Massimiliano Caputo for a David Bingham??
If you need an item of Livingston FC memorabilia valued or are looking to sell something, please contact me at steven@thefootballnation.co.uk
Another article that I wrote for ROAR, Livingston FC’s award winning match day programme.
With the next round of the Champions League almost upon us, my mind drifted off to the subject of European football. Now Livingston have never graced the Champions League but it was less than 10 years ago that we qualified for the UEFA Cup thanks to our 3rd placed finish in our first ever season in the SPL.
First up in the Qualifying Round was Vaduz of Liechtenstein who were dispatched courtesy of the away goals rule following a 1-1 away game and a dismal 0-0 at Almondvale. Safe to say that the highlight of this round was the away trip to Liechtenstein which was thoroughly enjoyed by the travelling Livi hardcore! Next up was a different prospect in the form of SK Sturm Graz in the first round proper. The first leg in Graz certainly proved to be as difficult as was imagined and with 89 minutes on the clock, we were 5-0 down. Amazingly, by the final whistle, Livingston had sneaked 2 consolation goals that were in fact to prove very crucial for the next tie at home. At Almondvale, it seemed to be going downhill as early in the 2nd half we were down 3-1. Then we switched back on and with 13 minutes to go, Livi had brought the score level at 3-3! Could a shock be on the cards? Unfortunately not as although Barry Wilson won the match for us 4-3, the aggregate score was 8-6 in favour of the Austrians. It wasn’t an embarrassing score line for a wee club from West Lothian.
SK Sturm Graz v Livingston Match Ticket
As memorabilia goes, there is a multitude of European items from Livi’s adventures in the UEFA Cup out there and they are very worthwhile to collect. Programmes for the Vaduz games are easy to get hold of and won’t cost you more than £5. The home tie against Sturm Graz may cost you a little more and away leg programmes are worth a healthy £10-£15 or so. Match tickets can also be found fairly easily. There are multitudes of pin badges available costing from £2 – £15 mostly on eBay. Harder to find might be the limited edition UEFA Cup Scarves that the club had made but are lovely in a collection of memorabilia from our European foray. The nicest bit I have seen in a while though is this fantastic pennant commemorating the Sturm Graz tie. This was presented to the club by Sturm Graz and is on display at the stadium. I know many Livingston collectors who would shell out serious money for that.
According to Gerrard Houllier, Barry Bannan, the young Scotland debutant is the new Xavi or Iniesta
“Barry is an intelligent player,’ said Houllier, ‘he can read the game well and adapt well. I don’t think Xavi and Iniesta, who are outstanding players, are of huge size. ‘They are intelligent; they have the skill and the desire. Young Barry has all of that.”
Nothing like building a young star up! We’ve seen it before with players such as Eion Jess for Scotland and Franny Jeffers for England but could this be where hype stops and the talent takes over? Some worry about Bannan’s diminutive stature, he is only 5ft 5 tall, but Bannan himself points out that the aforementioned World Champion midfielders are no taller than 5ft 8! He is also a great admirer of Lionel Messi who is after all a couple of inches taller.
Bannan is 20 years old and hails from Airdrie. He was spotted by Aston Villa scouts and signed schoolboy forms with the Midlands club when he was 14. He then helped the Academy Team win the Premier Academy League Title. Success followed in the Villa reserves with another title before he made his debut for Villa proper in the EUFA Cup in 2008. Since then he has been steadily impressing at Villa and is now beginning to make his mark in the 1st team. He spent last season on loan at Blackpool and played an important part in their promotion to the Premier League scoring a memorable goal against Coventry.
An indication that Bannan himself has no intention to be just a quick flash in the pan has been his determination to play senior football at every opportunity. When it became obvious Martin O’Neill had little intention of playing him at Villa, he was only too keen to move to Blackpool on loan. Even at the start of this season when O’Neill again seemed not to favour Bannan, he was ready to go on loan again although O’Neill’s departure resulted in a further spell with Blackpool getting knocked on the head. His steady progress through the Scotland U-21s and now into the full squad bode well for his development as a player. Despite this rapid rise to fame for a wee lad from Airdrie he has managed to keep his feet on the ground. This has clearly been down in no small part to the decision of his mum, dad and sister to move the family en masse to the Midlands when Barry became homesick. How many Scottish players have we seen return North having failed to settle? Hopefully with this excellent family support, Barry will stay focused on the job in hand and not suffer the sort of headlines that Andy Carroll has generated.
Although it’s early days for this young star in the making, it’s clear that his skill and determination are already endearing him to the Villa faithful who have already started to sing his praises to the tune of Macarena;
Who needs Barry when you got Barry Bannan,
Who needs Barry when you got Barry Bannan,
Who needs Barry when you got Barry Bannan,
Heeeeeeeey Barry Bannan
As a Scotland fan though, it’s almost too much for me to bear. How many times have we hoped and expected that a new find is going to be the impetus that Scotland needs to qualify for a major competition? Even our “hero for a year” James McFadden has fallen off his pedestal. Injuries have not helped McFadden’s case but the huge amount of expectation piled upon his shoulders before every game he was selected for must also be a contributory factor in his decline from hero to the object of fans’ abuse because he isn’t lobbing goalkeepers from 45 yards in every game. Do we run the risk of burdening Bannan with the same expectations? Undoubtedly and perhaps the decision by Levein to field him against the might of the Faroese is a double edged sword. It would surely be hard for Bannan to have a stinker against the part time islanders and a good game could increase further any hype. At the same time a bad game against poor opposition could hinder his development. Either way, it will be with great interest that many football fans will tune into tonight’s game to see how our next big hope fares.
If football is my prime passion then music runs a very close second. One of my guilty pleasures is firing up the iPhone with a bit of vintage Skids. You can’t beat a wee bit of “Into The Valley”
or perhaps a blast of “Masquerade”. But I digress, this is a football blog so back on subject kind of as I found myself flicking through a copy of World Soccer. Imagine my surprise when my love of football and music car crashed into each other.
Step forward Brasilian footballer with unrealised potential, Jobson. A player of great talent but beset by problems of drug taking and petty crime. Once thought to be on the cusp of the well trodden path from Brasil to Europe and his riches and only now, several years later actually living up to his potential. Currently plying his trade with Botofogo, Jobson has seemingly got his career back on track after testing positively for coccaine on more than one occasion. So what is so interesting about a sob story concerning another “might make it” Brasilian footballer? Well it’s the name isn’t it. Jobson just happens to be the surname of flamboyant ex frontman of Scottish punk band The Skids; Richard Jobson. Now I don’t know how common a name Jobson is in the UK, there are a few in the local phone book and a quick search on Google throws up a few more but it is a damn rare name on the streets of Sao Paolo. Now I can’t technically place the Dunfermline punk maestro anywhere near South America let alone Brasil. Nor can I begin to suggest that he sowed his royal oats whilst there but what if he did? His co-songwriter in the Skids, the sadly departed Stuart Adamson had an affinity to Dunfermline Athletic and enjoyed games of 5 a side when committments allowed so surely some of that must have rubbed off on Jobson. It could also be conceivable that on a sneaky wee jaunt to Rio whilst plugging a record or one of his films that he plugged something else? I live in hope and fervently believe that almost 6000 miles away from East End Park there is a talented footballer itching to bang one into the net at Hampden whilst shouting “Ahoy” at the top of his lungs.
Of course those that know their football might consider the Brasilian Jobson to be a chip off the block of ex England B Internationalist and Manchester City player coincidentally also called Richard Jobson. Definitely not; there is Scottish blood in Jobson and Craig Levein should get right on the case.
This article was published in the Livingston FC match day programme, Roar, on Saturday the 6th of November for the match against Dumbarton FC.
Every now and then I’m going to have a look at some of the memorabilia that the club has itself. If you are ever in the reception area or the corridors beyond reception, you may have been lucky enough to see several framed football shirts. These are a collection of match worn shirts from former Livingston players and two framed shirts from our opponents in the URFA Cup run of 2002/03.
My pick of the bunch is a fabulous Marvin Andrews Trinidad & Tobago shirt from a World Cup Qualifier against Jamaica in 2001. Marvin was an ever present player for us from 2000/04 and was a hero in our CIS Cup triumph. Marvin managed an incredible total of 101 caps for The Soca Warriors since his first cap in 1996 and is their 3rd most capped player ever. Alongside Marvin’s shirt is another cracker belonging to Davide Xausa. This is a match shirt from Canada’s triumph in the 2000 Gold Cup after beating Colombia in the final. Although Davide didn’t play in the final itself, this is his match shirt from the campaign. A little closer to home is David Macnamee’s match shirt from the game between Scotland & Trinidad & Tobago in 2004. David was the first Livingston player to capped at full international level whilst still playing with the club.
Visitors to Almondvale will have a better opportunity to see two fantastic shirts framed above the stairs to the hospitality suites. These belong to FC Vaduz and SK Sturm Graz who we played in the UEFA Cup in 2002. Both shirts are fine mementoes of heady times that we may never see again and are very important parts of the Livingston FC Memorabilia Collection. The Sturm Graz shirt is the pick of the two and of course it was a memorable night at Almondvale when it was presented to the club; Livingston although losing the tie won an exciting match 4-3.
Another easy shirt to spot is the framed home shirt from the CIS Cup Final in the Stadium Bar. Every member of the Cup Final Squad was issued with two shirts for the game which they were able to keep. This is one of Manu Dorado’s shirts although I’m unsure if it was worn. It was fully signed by the entire squad and is a great memento from an incredible day at Hampden.
It’s a great collection of shirts that will hopefully be added to over the years as more young Livingston stars make the grade at a higher level. I’m also hopeful that these shirts can be displayed somewhere that gives more fans the opportunity to see them.
This is my very compact review of five of the big continental leagues. This review usually features every week on the Football Nation blog which you can find here Football Nation Blog
Bundesliga
Bayern Munich continue to stumble as its 2 points dropped away to Munchengladbach in an exciting 3-3 draw. It took an 84th minute goal from Lahm to finally ensure even a point from Bayern! They now languish in 9th spot, 12 points behind the leaders……. Who are of course Borussia Dortmund who lead Mainz by 4 points after a comprehensive 4-0 win away to Hanover 96. Mainz, who were never contenders in the first place, lost 1-0 away to a steadily improving Feiburg. Eintracht Frankfurt are in third spot after a good 3-1 win against Wolfsburg. Their Greek striker Theofanis Gekas scoring a double puts himself at the top of the Bundesliga score charts with 11 from 11 games! Raul is the star at Schalke scoring a double at home in a 3-0 defeat of St Pauli. The surprise result of the weekend is Stuttgart’s 6-0 demolition of Werder Bremen who had been beginning to rise up the table
Serie A
The big game of the weekend was of course the Rome Derby. Going into the game, Lazio were top of the table and the in form team. Roma though, managed a good 2-0 victory which keeps a lid on the “Ranieri out” calls. Roma are now in 7th and looking a better bet than they have done recently. Lazio stay top but it’s getting tight! Milan move into second spot after a 3-2 win at Bari although the home team made the score slightly more flattering with an 89th minute goal. Juventus move into 4th after a 3-1 win over Cesena and Napoli are 5th after defeating Parma 2-0. Inter Milan are now third and followed their humbling at White Hart Lane with a lame 1-1 draw at the San Siro against Brescia. It took a 73rd minute penalty from Eto’o to save face if you can even call it that!
Here’s a clip of Borriello’s penalty for Roma which is remarkable in that it was a hopeless penalty, the handball may actually have broken the defender’s wrist and the as usual totally over the top Italian commentary.
Eredivisie
FC Twente stay top in Holland after coming from behind to beat SC Excelsior Rotterdam 2-1. They remain 1 point clear of a chasing pack headed by PSV. The Eindhoven team overcame Utrecht 2-1. Ajax surprisingly lost ground on the leaders after a surprise 1-0 reverse at home to ADO Den Haag. Ajax remain third four ponts behind Twente. FC Groningen are in fourth spot after a 2-1 win over NAC.
Ligue 1
Lille defeat Brest 3-1 which moves them into the top 5 and opens up the top of the table. Brest remain leaders but 5 points separate the top 12 teams!! PSG have a great 2-1 win at home to champions Marseille which propels them into 3rd spot. After yet another dismal performance by Lyon in their 1-1 draw with Stade Rennais, we are asking will they manage to get it together and start challenging for the title? They now sit on a disappointing 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses from their opening fixtures. Lyon manager Puel has already had the dreaded vote of confidence and interested observers are asking just how long can he last? It was in fact Stade Rennais that could have gone top of the league had they won! Coincidentally 2009 champions Bordeaux have had an identically awful start to the season and are also on 16 points with Lyon matching their win, draw and loss totals. A drab 1-1 draw with Valenciennes securing their 4th draw of the season. Elsewhere, AC Arles secure their first win of the season 3-2 against Caen but are still 5 points adrift at the foot of the table.
La Liga
No change at the top in Spain as Real Madrid (2-0 v Atletico in the Madrid Derby), Barcelona (3-1 away to Getafe) and Villarreal (4-1 v Athletic Bilbao) all win. Messi does indeed score yet again whilst Ronaldo doesn’t! Espanyol keep their good run going with a 1-0 win over Malaga and are in 4th although Valencia can leapfrog them tonight if they overcome Sevilla away from home.
Catch the goals from the Madrid Derby and another OTT commentator!
This article appears in Roar, Livingston FC’s matchday programme for the game against Peterhead on Saturday 23rd of October.
The match ticket. It doesn’t really mean much these days with fewer and fewer games being all ticket affairs as you are able to pay at the gate. In fact, can you remember the last time you actually had a match ticket in your hand? It’s certainly the case with Livingston but there was a time when getting hold of a match ticket for certain games was a major undertaking. Whether it was for local derbies, the visit of a big club or a crucial cup tie, getting that vital brief was the be all and end all! With the advent of smart card entry to matches in the English Premier League and SPL even technology is playing its part in the demise of the ticket. Of course the good news is that it makes collecting match tickets all the more fun!
It can be very hard to find certain tickets as by nature tickets are easily crumpled, torn and discarded. In most cases you will only ever be left with the ticket stub as the gate attendant will have detached part of the ticket. Some collectors will only ever collect unused tickets and others will have no quandaries about that- any old ticket will do! Again, as with all football memorabilia, the rule that “old” is most valuable is still the case. No-one is really sure when and where the first tickets came into being but as football quickly grew into the most watched spectator sport in the country, the issuing of tickets for certain matches became essential. The Scottish Football Museum has some great examples of early Scottish tickets dating from the lat 19th and early 20th century. Certain match tickets in good condition have changed hands for four figures and they are the sort of memorabilia that turns up in strange places such as old books having been used as handy bookmarks or more commonly inside programmes.
Of course sometimes it’s not the age of the ticket that makes it valuable, it’s the game that was played. Shown below are a couple of Livingston tickets that are remarkable in their own way. The first ticket is from the away tie in the UEFA Cup played against SK Sturm Graz. Being honest, we are unlikely to see Livingston compete competitively again in Europe and match memorabilia from our short run in the UEFA Cup will be very valuable in time. Away tie tickets like this one will be rarer even still so keep these types of item safe.
SK Sturm Graz v Livingston UEFA Cup Ticket
Hibs v Livingston CIS Cup Final Ticket
Of course Livingston’s greatest triumph was our capture of the CIS Cup in 2004. This is one of the match tickets from the Livingston allocation and is made all the more valuable due to the two signatures you can see. They of course belong to the two goal scorers for Livingston that day; Derek Lilly and Janie McAllister.
There are many people who will tell you that “football is their life”. I certainly can as not only am I a passionate fan of the beautiful game, I also make my living out of football. I own a company called Football Nation who specialise in licensed football merchandise such as replica football shirts as [...]more →
