Grant McKenzie writes about how France 1998, Scotland and a certain Zinedine Zidane kick-started his love affair with football and the World Cup.

The years when every top English side had a nucleus of world-class Scottish players is due in no small part to two ‘super scouts’. At Leeds and Man United, John Barr and Jimmy Dickie were rivals competing for talent north of the border but their friendship and integrity prevailed. By Greg Gordon

Liverpool fans were left to wonder what might have been had their talisman Mo Salah not been forced to depart the action with a shoulder injury in the 2018 Champions League Final. But those in the game will only seen the long shadow cast by Jean Marc Bosman a Belgian midfielder whose legacy impacts every single club.

Time and again club’s appoint a popular caretaker manager. But history suggests that a team that appoints a boss in haste is a team that repents at leisure.

If nothing else, the recently concluded USSF Presidential elections and the start to the MLS season are demonstrating the widespread appetite for change that exists within America’s domestic game.

Tennis is engulfed in a “tsunami” of betting-related corruption according to an independent review of the sport published last week . It is a report that football must learn a lesson from.

Richard Allen, Spurs’ former head of academy recruitment, has used his platform as a speaker at the Sports Analytics Innovation Summit in London to claim that the success of Harry Kane is a victory for hard-won scouting common sense.

There was a time in football when the club physio was something of an afterthought but how things have changed. These days, the afterthought has become an industry and the physio is just as likely to be a woman as a man and a key cog in a club’s sports science machine.

Zinedine Zidane’s career may not ultimately enjoy the same longevity as that of Sir Alex Ferguson but he is the one young coach working today that appears to have most in common with the former Manchester United boss.

After a preseason dominated by the USSF Presidential elections it is finally time to return to onfield action.

Football clubs are embracing big data to inform their player recruitment. They are chasing a chimera.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has embarked upon a sporting project of unmatched global ambition. But can China really become a global football power within a generation?

After an FA Cup weekend, where the controversial VAR initiative was trialled in anger for the first time in England’s premier cup competition, the effect has been broadly counterproductive. No-one is talking about the football. Everyone is talking about technology and its implementation.

Jimmy Armfield was a force for good who lived his life at the heart of a golden era for the British game.

The lack of a living wage within clubs that could well afford to pay one is The Premier League’s secret shame and rather than indulge a game of ‘whataboutery’, it is time to call the people that are truly responsible to account.

The Bundesliga’s fiscally prudent model based on cheap tickets and genuine youth development sounds like a panacea – and it is for the fans in the rocking stadiums. But as a TV spectacle, The Bundesliga is increasingly poor fare.

There’s been much said about football’s role as a release for fans’ everyday frustrations, but anyone who thinks that footballers should show good grace towards their tormentors in the stands, in the streets, or online is operating to an unrealistic standard.

The Scottish Football Association’s Head of Coaching and Scotland U19 boss, Donald Park, says that as football grows ever-more dynamic, new player profiles are emerging.

Who is the better manager Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho or Carlo Ancelotti? It is a question that underlines the fact that football managers’ fortunes are built on shifting sands. But, says Greg Gordon, there’s a better way to evaluate a manager’s credentials than big club trophies, specious stats and PR hype.

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have drawn widespread acclaim for their hands-off approach to encouraging their kids in Barcelona’s youth set-up. But says the ex-Sheffield United and Wolves central defender Neil Collins, the next time you see a parent at the side of the park trying to motivate their child to do better, think twice before condemning them. They might just be nurturing a future champion.

Does the tightening net of football’s recruitment intelligence effectively spell the end for the classic selling club model of early talent identification, player development and selling on with a massive upside? Greg Gordon fears the worst.

Chief scout Graham Carr leaves St James Park five years into an eight year deal, unbowed but with a mixed record. But there is an overwhelming sense that it will be the bum notes of a flawed strategy that live longer in the memory than the rousing crowd-pleasers.

23 years on from the famous ‘rocking baby’ goal celebration, Bebeto’s son has signed for Sporting.

So, has football’s ultimate rebrander bitten off more than he can chew in England? Has he come unstuck in the mire of the blood and snotters Premier League, of endless physical tests and a leg-sapping cycle of competition?

“Had the brief asked for a depiction of Ronaldo as a ‘melted waxwork of himself’, a caricature, or as a street urchin lookalike then you’d have a case for calling this a satirical masterpiece – Ronaldo’s ‘portrait in the attic’.”

In the wake of the latest international break, Greg Gordon discusses the differences between the international and club game.

Greg Gordon profiles US career builders Prep4Pro.

“Looking at Gareth Southgate’s squad you can only conclude that it shows the problems of English football writ large…”

Following the historic 6-5 win at the Nou Camp, Grant McKenzie looks at what is next for Unai Emery and Luis Enrique.

Greg Gordon looks at the reasons why Johann Cruyff is sometimes overshadowed by supposed bigger names.

Greg Gordon tells the fascinating story of the unlucky footballer.

Grant McKenzie examines the shifting influence of fans in football

Greg Gordon believes Gianni Infantino may have scored an own goal with his hasty desire to usher in Video Assistant Referee technology to elite competition.

We look at the role of the State in improving the fortunes of Scottish football.

As Claudio Ranieri exits Leicester City only a matter of months after delivering a historic Premier League title we look at the paradox of loyalty and success.

Greg Gordon looks back at the career, impact and legacy of legendary English manager Sir Bobby Robson.

Marco van Basten is using his role as technical director at FIFA to propose a series of radical changes to the laws of our game.

Scout Greg Gordon explains what a next opponent analyst records in their reports.

John Barr’s life revolved around simple the pleasures of football, family and caravanning. Yet the super scout’s list of signings for Leeds United in the seventies stands comparison with anyone in the game. Here, Sir Alex Ferguson pays testament to a mentor whose expert eyes shaped his views of players and the game.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s innovation as a tactician has been wildly underplayed but it is this flexibility and his prowess as a master teambuilder that cements his incomparable legacy as a great of the game.

Whether in the stands, as a scout or in a previous life working for newspapers, I’ve regularly been asked the question: ‘How come TV football pundits, even good football pundits, regularly get their pre match analysis of a game totally wrong?’

Rather than being a statement of fact, the description of players as late bloomers is most often an expression of sentiment, of perception, that has been motivated by a change of circumstances.

Can Moneyball really be applied to football and crucially lead to success?