Sam Smith
@sgpsmith
Palace fan | Former journalist, now work in local governance | Media essay blog: @medialore.bsky.social
Next three on my reading list. Will probs do Palace first, but intrigued by the Brentford book
Currently reading! I sit at a weird cross-section of public opinion in which I'm largely anti-monarchy but the seven-year-old in me finds the history fascinating. I'm also a big fan of David Mitchell's work. V good so far
Depressing, sadly. Some good tidbits of info. Currently sat in a Colchester charity shop. Next...
A hardcopy I don't have to hand as I lent it to my dad straight after finishing. Bit biased about this book as JM's my hero. Dad introduced me to The Smiths before I could walk or talk, and I rekindled my love for their music during Covid. Lots of his later stuff is great
This is also up there in terms of great recent sport books. Enhanced my view that the stories of people outside the status quo/elite are invariably the best. V well written
I read this a while ago but wanted to include because it's the best football book I've ever read. Liverpool's ex data guy goes into extreme depths on his time at the club. Great stuff
speaks to the quality of the rest of the Premier League that this starting 11 doesn't have a stronger chance of staying up
Couple of days off work so it's FM time. Here's my squad for season two. I somehow won the league in my first season because 1) Olise, Eze, Wharton and Guehi are extremely OP, and 2) this edition has basically been Morale Manager. Win/lose a few games in row and it's difficult to stop the sequence.
This is in part caused by Everton being quite bold. (Soz for pic quality) Here, Wharton and Kamada join a high man-to-man press but there's an issue: Everton are 3v3 vs defence. I'd still ideally want that back line at least 5, maybe even 7 or 8 yards further forward
to progress forward with the ball. It overloaded Everton at times and pinned back Mykolenko. The issues seem to come in front of the CB. Am starting to see the sense in Kamada at CM. He's a relatively efficient tackler (see below) and, in possession, progresses the ball really well. 2/X
had a splendid day at Beth Chatto gardens, v peaceful, saw a heron and bought a plant that's ever so slightly too big for the pot I acquired for it
Visited a certain someone's constituency for the first time since the GE today. Provocative stickers on lampposts, weirdly strong police presence on the beach. It's going to suffer for the next five years