By Sharon Jones, Senior Tutor at Bolton Sixth Form College and Club Poet at Bacup Borough Fc.
Sharon runs a Football Poetry Workshops in schools, libraries, community centres, and you can find me @BBFCClubPoet and www.barbfc.co.uk
Arsenal
The Professor
Resplendent in FA Cup glory
Yet Gunners salivate for the source
Of Premier Silverware
To crown new princes of the park
Create new artists
Bergkamp Henry and Brady
The Wright Wright Wright stuff of dreams
Where football paves its pathway
From the summits of the past
Beyond the borders of boots
And blazes Giroud Ozil Walcott
Whose football ignites with possibilities
And the perfume of passion.
Aston Villa
The Villans
With their Angel
Perhaps
The saving grace
Post-modern wings
Not flights of fancy
And Sherwood
Bets survival success
Against the odds.
Bournemouth
The Cherries
The pick of the crop
From bucket collections
To bucket list
“Pensioners Piers Panto and Premiership”
But new headlines are waiting to be written
Scribed by boots
That blow down the wings
Of history
Ask Steve Fletcher
He’s a legend of some standing.
Chelsea
Oh Mourinho
What dreams scheme
In reams
And coil
Around the subtleties
Of sound-bites
That nib the pens
And scribe the dens
Of journos
Keeping football on the pitch
And off the pages
Of scrutiny
And
Speculation
Scratch Jose
And the special one bleeds
But one blood…
Football.
Crystal Palace
There are dreams of silver glory
And there are dreams of past’s revival
But the dreams that keep ambition checked
Are the dreams that grant survival
The parish buzz for eagles dare
Tho wings may melt too high
But Pardew punches in his weight
To hold on to the Sky…..
Everton
The blue side of the Mersey
The ‘Peoples Club’ declared
A rise up former glories
Behind the toffee lady’s skirts
The gathering of the Gwladys Street
Blue Kippers number 9
The return of Big Dunc Ferguson
The summer’s biggest sign!
Leicester
The Foxes resurrect
The Tinkerman
And Claudio is his name
The ‘dead man’ walking back to life
Football’s a funny old game!
Liverpool
The leaving of Liverpool
Proved hard for Stevie G
But past is passed
The Reds walk on
Can Rodgers Kop the league?
Man City
The Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock
‘Superbia in Proelio’
Sterling Delph Zuculini
Money talks a damn good game
Will they flow as strong?
Man Utd
A nod to Adidas
And a new retro kit
When they won the lot
With a bunch of kids!
Newcastle Utd
The Faithful
As always, tested
But in black and white terms
Gallowgate hearts
Beat in Toon
The clock is ticking…
Norwich City
Vibrant green and yellow
And the oldest football song
“On the ball, City”
And whilst they have a ghost of a chance
Of surviving
I wonder if M R James
Took in a game…
Southampton
There is a romance about Saints
Perhaps stemming back to the days of
Big Lawrie McMenemy
Whose surname I could never pronounce
But who was once voted
“Housewives Choice”
Which was much more prestigious than
Manager of the Year!
Stoke
Club of the marvellous kitman
Neil Baldwin
And
Now with Sparky in charge
Fresh fireworks
Fused in the boots of Britannia
That won’t cost Banks of England!
Sunderland AFC
Black Cats
With charm
Sat at the Match
Contemplate
Beneath the light of a stadium
Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants!
Swansea
High flying birds!
Tottenham Hotspur
White Hart Lane
Not Drury Lane
But
The stage is set for
Broadway Danny Rose
With Fast Harry Kane
Thirty goals off the hip
The sharpest gun in town
Boots for bullets
In
Pochettino’s cannon.
Watford
The Pozzos and the Joker
Like Goodfellas we are amused
By the
Partizan Hornets
Twist of managerial turnstiles
But I remember Luther Blissett
Scoring the winner against Tranmere Rovers
Graham Taylor really liked that!
West Bromich Albion
Regis Cunningham and Batson
God blessed the knees of the ‘Three Degrees’
Three boss lads who blazed the path
Three black pearls who shone with brilliance
Played with resilience
And the fans they danced
They whipped up a trend
‘Samba in the Smethwick End’
Before BOING BOING BAGGIES
And the Astle Skinner-thon
The terrace roared for
Regis Cunningham and Batson.
West Ham
A
Pig
Headed
From
The East.