As an avid football (football, soccer, fùtbol, and any other synonym for the world’s game will be used interchangeably as a reflection of my diverse influences within this arena throughout my life – I am from the US so soccer is unfortunately what I grew up calling it and it seems foolish to say something else just to fit in) consumer, I, much like my enumerable counterparts around the world, have existed on a steady stream of watching games, highlights of the many games I missed in a particular gameweek, instagram posts from around 20-30 random pages, Fabrizio (we all know the first name is sufficient here), the Athletic, TIFO IRL, and conversations with friends and family. And if this seems excessive, podcasts have recently come to my attention as an additional supplemental medium.

Yet, besides watching games in full (which firmly remains the pinnacle of soccer consumption) and the rare, inspired opinion from the plethora of sports journalists, most of these other options have fatigued me in some way which has inspired me to simply create this blog. With most opinions and discussion and football content on the obvious and surface level, I wanted to create a space where I, and hopefully others eventually, can discuss the game after having time to digest it, think about it from different angles, argue it in our heads, think on precedence, and force ourselves to go beyond the surface.

I have no agenda, no deadlines, no big follower base to keep fed, I am simply someone who has played the game since I was seven years old reaching a competitive level, a passionate fan of the game since the same age, and, most importantly, someone eager to learn more about myself and the beautiful game through writing my thoughts and ideas down. (No one really cares and probably won’t ever read this so it does not really matter anyway).

My current vision (handicapped by my inability to figure out how to generate new tabs on this site) is to have a place where I can document and express opinions on a multitude of areas related to and around the game.

First, a scouting section, this will be where people can put players that they have seen, before they make a 1 billion pound move, that truly inspire them and cultivate belief in investing in their stock going forward. This section largely serves as a place I can show people time stamps from when I knew Doku, Gvardiol, Szoboszlai, Bellingham, and countless others were class before everyone was talking about them.

Second, a club section. This is where all matters club related can be discussed from finances, history, team building, fans, etc. I proudly support Chelsea FC (and Real Madrid, don’t tell anyone) and I am always interested in the perspective real fans of rival clubs from around the world offer in regard to their team.

Third, a tactics or the beautiful game section. I intend this to be a place where individuals can discuss the intricacies of the game that has impressed them as of late or of old. Truly a place where tactical brilliance, player brilliance, and team play can be put on display. (What Pep came up with essentially).

Fourth, a mainstay and a complementary facet to the scouting sectio in regard to it forward thinking outlook, is a section simply called game predictions. I don’t care about the score since that is truly something a fool would ever spend time pondering over, simply who wins and why (sometimes why is hard and gut feeling works as well).

Fifth, and likely the section I hope to invest the most time and thought into as the rest are pretty standard to any fans mental reservoir of knowledge and routine analysis, is a section that will be titled Synthesis (could and likely will be changed in the future). Here, the point and motivation behind creating this blog will be displayed, with articles on any topic regarding the game from trends, to concerns, to culture, to finance, to health, to any topic that requires a combination or synthesis, so to speak, of many ideas and hopefully opinions that provoke meaningful thought discussion and a breath of fresh air from the sludge that we has football fans usually consume.

Most importantly, I hope this is not a snobbish place as that is not my intention, nothing would make me happier if I wrote something I was quite proud of on some intellectual topic and somebody commented that is was stupid and I realized that it was actually quite stupid indeed. I think the most important takeaway from this blog is candor above all else.