ISSUE ONE THE RIGHT-BACK 1 THE SQUALL Matt Thacker When realisation dawned a month or two We hope the articles in this launch issue ago that there was unlikely to be any sport, of The Squall fit the bill and that you enjoy let alone any football, to write about for the read. As Jonathan mentions over there, quite some time, I approached Jonathan despite the generous waiving of fees and with the seemingly counter-intuitive donations to date, if The Squall is not to idea of creating a little brother for The blow itself out, it will need further funding. If Blizzard, a digital football magazine to give you are happy to buy this issue, please do freelance writers a forum for their work. so by paying into our bank account with Not just so they could get paid to write, sort code 40-05-17 and account number but so they would have something to aim 71515942, or you can pay via PayPal to for, a sense of job satisfaction at a time paypal.me/thesquall. Any money paid into when such satisfaction is in short supply. either of these accounts will be used for the sole purpose of producing future issues. Jonathan readily agreed and we then asked Blizzard writers who were due a percentage Finally, as a taster for this first issue, we of profits from previous issues if they would put together this ridiculous right-back- consider waiving these fees in order to start based video – youtu.be/ikcbbH6TUh8. this venture, allowing us to put money into Words courtesy of Adam Burnett, music the freelance ‘pot’. Led by Jonathan and by Billy Joel! Philippe Auclair, who has done so much to spread the word, many of them did so. May 2020 Knowing we had the necessary to embark on The Squall, we took a deep breath and off we We are very grateful to all of the people went. And the support from Blizzard readers who have waived fees and donated to The and supporters, as well as the response from Squall since we announced the project. freelance writers, has been truly heartening. Special thanks go to: Nick Ames, Philippe Auclair, John Brewin, James Corbett, Martin The Blizzard has never been about the da Cruz, Miguel Delaney, Andrew Downie, here and now, it’s much more taken with Ken Early, Emmet Gates, John Harding, the there and then. And we see The Squall Simon Hart, Gary Hartley, Frank Heinen, as serving the same function, showcasing Neil Jensen, Samindra Kunti, Simon Mills, great football writing on subjects you are James Montague, David Owen, MM Owen, unlikely to read about anywhere else. We Simone Pierotti, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Callum like to think of every piece written for either Rice-Coates, Philip Ross, Paul Simpson, Jon publication as the one thing that writer Spurling, Seb Stafford-Bloor, Ed Sugden, simply had to write, that nobody else could Jonathan Wilson and Suzy Wrack. And huge do quite as well. thanks to Getty Images, for use of the photos. 2 EDITOR'S NOTE Jonathan Wilson It’s an odd thing to launch a magazine The initial impetus to launch The Blizzard when you really wish it didn’t have to exist was to serve the football-writing and and when you hope it can close down as football-reading community, to sidestep the soon as possible. middle-managers and advertising wonks who so often seemed to stand in the way But that’s the reality. The Squall has been of what seemed worthwhile, in thrall to launched as a response to the Coronavirus SEO to pursue only the lowest common crisis. With live sport impossible and sports denominator. The generosity of our readers departments at newspapers squeezed, there and writers alike at a time of crisis to make has been an understandable and unavoidable sacrifices to help that community suggests downturn for freelances. If there’s no sport the initial spirit that fired us still burns strong. to report on, you don’t need sports reporters. But at the same time, if it’s to achieve its Those journalists, though, still have lives. objective, The Squall can’t be a charity. It has They still have mortgages or rent to pay, to stand as a magazine in its own right. We families to feed. They hope in a couple of needed the donations to launch, but now months to be back on the beat. So The we need people to buy the product. We’ve Squall is something. It’s a place that is still gone back to our roots and each issue will commissioning, that offers at least some be available on a pay-what-you-want basis. opportunity to some people to earn a (little) We recommend £3, but if that’s a stretch bit of money, to do their jobs. then pay what you can afford; conversely, if you can afford more, then every extra penny Hopefully live sport will return sooner is welcome. rather than later. Hopefully the economic downturn will not be too crippling or too It’s possible this will be a huge success. long. Hopefully the advertising market will Perhaps in time we won’t be reliant on recover and people will start making and donations and people working for free. But spending money again. But until then, here for now, we’re a temporary product to get is The Squall. It’s a monthly magazine, each us through the crisis and we urge you to issue centred around one theme. It’s been support us on that basis. funded largely by writers for The Blizzard waiving their share of the profit for last year, Hopefully soon, we won’t have to exist but also by kind donations from the public. any more. In addition, all editorial and design staff are working for free. To everybody who has May 2020 given money and time, a huge thank you. 3 AN UNMISSABLE HIGHLIGHTS PACKAGE The Best of the First Five Years features 23 brilliant essays originally published between 2011 and 2016. Buy now at theblizzard.co.uk 4 CONTENTS The Squall, Issue One – The Right-Back 8 David Squires, The Josimar 50 Ian Baker, The Worst Foul in Fortnight History? Mexico 86 and the brief glory of an Wycombe’s Jason Cousins and a lunge unheralded Botafago right-back that encapsulates the brutal past of the position 10 Felipe Almeida, The Brazilian Tradition 54 Callum Rice-Coates, Taxi for The evolution of the attacking right- Maicon back as a feature of football in Brazil The night Gareth Bale gave one of the best right-backs in the world a chasing 16 John Irving, Fascist, Gay, Double World Cup Winner 58 Richard Laverty, The Bronze The many lives of the Italian right-back Age Eraldo Monzeglio A goal against Norway announced the arrival of the best right-back in the 24 David Marples, Four Days of women’s game Misery Right-backs, own-goals and the 64 Eryk Delinger, The Arsenal misfortune of Brian Laws Succession How Arsène Wenger’s changing 30 Marvin Sordell, Six Steps to philosophy was mapped in his right-backs Modernity The right-backs whose careers trace the 70 Nicky Bandini, The Dependable recent development of the position Tractor Javier Zanetti – versatile, consistent and 36 Colin Millar, No Limits the model of the old-school right-back How Dani Alves emerged at Sevilla to revolutionise expectations of right-backs 76 The Contributors 44 Richard Jolly, The Makeshifts The Champions League finals that demonstrate how right-back was seen as a fill-in 5 Blizzard Subscriptions BLIZZARD SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscribe to the print version of The Blizzard, be the first to receive new issues, get exclusive Blizzard offers and access digital versions of all back-issues FREE Subscription Options Information for Existing Subscribers Set Price for Four Issues Get a four-issue subscription to The Blizzard — for you or as a gift — for a flat fee including postage and packing (P&P): UK: £40 Europe: £50 Non-Europe: £60 Subscriber Benefits Subscribing to The Blizzard not only means four copies of your favourite football quarterly through your door each year, but you also get online access to all 600+ articles in our back catalogue, Non-subscriber? advert free, through your browser. 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