No worries, I didn’t think you meant The Offside (or [cough, plug, cough] the recently revitalized World Cup Blog) specifically.

It’s more that your comment served as a reminder not to fall into that trap and to try and make sure every post adds something to the story rather than just regurgitating it with a funny picture.

And Dave, I’m no more upset about or offended by what you wrote than Daryl is.

It would be wonderful to write only the feel-good stories, like the one about Brad Friedel’s non-profit soccer academy. Unfortunately, too few people read them. (Admit it, Offside readers. The number of the people who read that one pales in comparison to the number who go for the sordid. If you saw that post, chances are you skipped right over it and went for the webcam wanker. It’s human nature.)

It’s an odd world we live in, and like most areas of life, it’s driven by economics. We — the writers at our site — have been given the job of pulling in traffic. If we don’t pull in the traffic, the site will fold. And then we won’t have a place where we can come and hang out and discuss things like the latest games of the teams we love.

There are few things in the world I enjoy more than watching an Olympique Lyonnais game online while discussing it at The Offside with people thousands of miles away across two or more continents. It’s exhilarating. And I also love writing my completely and totally non-sleazy page about my beloved France National Team, which draws in readers from all over the world. Take away the Offside, I lose that, and so does everyone else.

And I understand absolutely that I am justifying and rationalizing. There are things that go up on our site that I wouldn’t want either my parents or my kids to read. And yes, I’ve written some of them, (although not nearly as many as I could have) and this makes me uncomfortable, just as it does Daryl. Because at these times there is a fundamental conflict between who I am and what I write.

And I’m hoping the day comes when soccer can sustain enough interest that this kind of conflict won’t be necessary. And I’m hoping that day comes before I have to give this up because I can’t live with what I do any longer.

Economics aside, though, I’ll probably always write the occasional post about WAGs or hubristic player behavior because I find it surreal, and I think this surreality is interesting.

We each have to find our own balance, Dave. You’re finding yours, we’re finding ours. (We’ve only been doing the main page for two + weeks now, and it’s definitely a work in progress.) And I am with Daryl in valuing discussions like this one, even if it doesn’t (or can’t) effect immediate change.

This has struck a chord with me. I posted about the Ashley Young thing (as it’s become known) on The Offside yesterday and felt a little cheap afterwards, but didn’t quite understand why. I wasn’t chasing traffic or Deadspin links, especially as it was already old news at that point, but still felt not quite right about it.

Reading Brian’s comment about today’s zany news with a half-assed quip attached made me realize what that feeling was. If a blogger has nothing to add to a story then what’s the point? He’s right that blogs should offer something more insightful than just a quick chuckle.

A good example is the story about Efrain Viara controlling the ball with his arse and starting a riot. That’s obviously “zany” but it’s also a good starting point to discuss cultural football differences. The interesting thing shouldn’t be “he controlled the ball with his bum! isn’t that funny!” it should be how and why showboating is such a contentious issue in many South American countries (Kerlon, etc.)

I do think the Ashley Young thing is worth writing about though. It’s not necessarily noteworthy because just because it’s funny, and I disagree with Dave that it was just a case of an athlete doing the same lame thing we do. Because what he did – webcam and all – is pretty out there and is an interesting reflection of the ego and mindset of at least one professional footballer.

In many ways the Ashley Young thing could be a starting point for an insightful discussion about the egos and attitudes of modern footballers, and what that means for the game. In hindsight I wish that was how I’d approached it, if at all.

Most importantly Dave, don’t let what’s been a slightly depressing week for football news make you give up on doing what you’re doing. Just reading this post means I’m going to pay extra attention to make sure I’m not doing what you’ve complained about above. It’s a discussion that football bloggers need to have and I’m glad you started it.

As far as I can see there’s one really easy solution, and that’s just not to write about subjects that seem pointless to you. You, in particular, are too good at what you’re doing to throw yourself away on Ashley Young’s erotic misadventures, unless you feel like writing something on that subject and publishing a piece that’s worth reading because of what you’ve said about it rather than because of the three-second chuckle of the subject itself. If it seems like a waste of time to you, do something better, and if the people at Fanhouse don’t like it, well, Fanhouse isn’t the only place on the internet. I think you’ve proved on this blog that there’s an audience for a different kind of football writing, and my (short but very happy) experience at The Run of Play suggests the same. We don’t have a huge readership by any means, but boy have I been happy with the quality of the comments.

Yes, I do agree with you that Pitch Invasion is an excellent blog and not one of the blogs that is looking for a quick link from Deadspin.

Here is the model of what I think you want to do. http://www.rl1908.com/

It is a great website dealing with the history of rugby league in Australia. Just expand ithe concept to include all of the codes of football.

Good luck on whatever you do.

But all this is to say: keep at it, you do us all a service.

Like I said, maybe this whole post is just a roundabout way of saying that I’m not really satisfied with what I’m doing in this space right now. Trying to cover everything happening in all these different forms of football is just too much for one blogger with too little free time. Some changes are in order, I think…

Not everyone knows what’s going on in ultras culture worldwide, and when possible we try to get reporting on the scene. The Serbian story had not been widely disseminated when I wrote about it, and it doesn’t seem to be “just another story” as it seems likely to result in a police crackdown which can only worsen the situation (as we’ve followed-up on).

The aim we have remains to take a different perspective than most of the mainstream media, even on topics that aren’t “news” as they’ve been widely covered: we’ve had direct reports from ultras or those close to them in Poland, Italy and Egypt recently. These things can be done originally, if people are prepared to put the effort in.

I do see your point about not writing in a tabloid sensationalist fashion, and covering sex-scandals and the like. I don’t cover those stories usually, but there’s surely room for blogs that do, too, and I wouldn’t criticise them for wanting eyeballs, especially if they do tons of other interesting posts too (like The Offside, for example).

And I don’t have that high a horse to sit on, as you point out my Peruvian-ass-piece (which does speak to an interesting cultural contrast in events on the field, though). A mix of irreverence alongside some serious subjects can work well, I think, though I’m not good at irreverence myself and generally avoid it.

I also see why you want to write about the game on the field instead, and I’d like to see more of that too, if it’s done originally — like the freedarko guys, for example. I think you’ve done plenty of that yourself here too, if less elsewhere (which is perhaps what you’re getting at?).

I’ll be very interested to see what you come up with.

It might be, but it doesn’t get me links from Deadspin, and I don’t have any google ads to make pennies off. . .