Kick Off Merchants Blog

Four years ago today the idea of Kick Off Merchants was first discussed. A WhatsApp group was created which included myself, and various graphic designers supporting Arsenal, Chelsea, Rangers, Everton and Sheffield United. Everyone already did their own thing for the club they supported and we all had one thing in common - merchandise we would want to buy The idea was simple - to take what we knew doing merchandise for the clubs we supported and expand to do bits and pieces for as many clubs as possible. After we all agreed their was legs in the idea, the...

I do not really get the criticism of Gareth Southgate for calling up  Kobbie Mainoo. Now I may not be a huge Southgate fan (a better manager would have seen England at least one trophy during his period in charge), but it does feel like criticism for criticism sake. Recently we have all complained about Southgate selecting Jordan Henderson (whilst playing semi-professional football in Saudi Arabia) and Kalvin Phillips (whilst not even getting off the bench for Manchester City. England's upcoming games against Brazil and Belgium are friendlies. These are the perfect time for Southgate to select a few youngsters to see...

Yesterday the office discussion was about January transfer's and how much of an immediate impact they can have, especially in relation to title chasing teams. Tottenham have confirmed one new signing (at the time of writing. This could well be two by the time we publish), whilst Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa have yet to sign anyone. The view from the Arsenal fan in the office was that Arsenal were throwing away a chance of winning the league if they did not sign a player. I countered this with the view that in January, teams tend to make big signings...

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Morning and Happy Friday. As we look towards another international break commencing this week, there is one question I see continually asked on Twitter (or do we call it X now?). Why does Gareth Southgate continue to call-up Kalvin Phillips and Jordan Henderson? It is a valid question, as Kavlin Phillips has played less than 400 minutes of Premier League football since joining Manchester City, and Jordan Henderson has gone into semi-retirement moving out to Saudi Arabia. The argument against either of them being in the squad is very easy to make. But there is follow up question which is...