12 of the Best: 2024 on Unexpected Delirium
On the first day of 2025, it's time to have a look back on 2024 on this place.
The start of a new year always brings an opportunity to renew and an opportunity to review. Last year was a dislocated year for me. In many, many senses it’s been a bit of a disaster. On the one hand, my earnings have reduced and things are back to being a struggle again. I’ve had stresses and strains which have hit me hard, and there have been times when the struggle has felt somewhat realer than I would have liked. But on the other, one incredible thing has happened to me which allows me to step back and conclude that actually, 2024 wasn’t quite so bad after all, so long as I’m almost completely selfish about it.
So on the first day of this new year, it’s time to take a look back over the previous twelve months with my very personal review of the year. It’s been 576 days since this place opened, and in that time 591 articles and podcasts have appeared on this place. So here’s a collection from throughout 2024 of the pieces that I’ve been most pleased with, that were the things I most needed to say, and that have really shaped the way I’ve been thinking and feeling this year. Only seven of the twelve are about football, which may surprise some of you, but last year was a year of change for me and there’s much more coming this year. So, on with the show, then. What did I make of last year, while it was happening?
23rd January: On Neil Kulkarni, and loss in the age of parasocial media
A sudden loss is always a horrible loss, and in an age during which we know vast numbers of people that we haven’t even met it can feel all the stranger to have this feeling over someone who you’ve barely even met. The death of Neil Kulkarni last year was a shock to thousands of people, and led to this, an attempt to articulate how it feels to lose somebody who you feel that you know but don’t really.
11th February: One in the eye for Hastings in The Castle Derby
Of course, you guys were accompanying me to football matches of dubious virtue throughout the whole of 2024, but one sticks about all the others as having been the most entertaining days out of the year. So in February, with a not-insignificant likelihood of the match being called off, it was off to the other Sussex for a local derby between Hastings United and Lewes. It was a match with a real bit of bite to it, featuring my heart almost exploding and a touching tribute to Bagpuss.
12th February: The strange story of the team without a goalkeeper
I’m a sucker for curious stories from the history of the game, and this one from Bordeaux in the early 1980s was an absolute doozy, featuring an eccentric club owner with an exceptional moustache, a goalkeeper perhaps booting a linesman up the arse (or perhaps not), and a local derby which ended up being quite unlike any other local derby ever played.
27th February: So who’s this guy who’s taken over Blyth Spartans, then?
I used to be almost well-known-ish for this sort of thing, you know, so when the story came up that Blyth Spartans, one of the most famous names in non-league football, were being sold to a ‘businessman’ of curious origin there was definitely something worth investigating. Fortunately, the future of this football club did end up getting secured, and it was a pleasure to report on that, as well.
12th July: Football doesn’t want to talk about its domestic violence problem
For decades it has simply been taken as read that domestic violence incidents skyrocket during major football tournaments. So, what is this about and what can we all do to try and help to minimise it? The numbers are frankly frightening, but we can all do better in terms of helping to tackle it.
27th July: Bend me, shape me, any way you want me
To say that Wimpy is a peculiarly British institution is somewhat understating the matter somewhat. But how has this chain managed to survive through decades, and what does it look like in the 21st century? I took my kids there to get their opinion on it all. Their review was… mixed.
30th August: A conversation between my 16 year-old self and my 42 year-old self
Forgive me the indulgence of including something on here which I actually first drafted a full decade ago, but this is one of the most enjoyable pieces to write that I’ve managed in the entire 19 years (!) that I’ve been doing this sort of thing. I’m most proud of how much of an idiot I made 16 year-old Ian sound, because if I’m absolutely honest, that’s exactly what he was.
Personal interest time, I guess, since I now have an extremly important Sri-Lankan in my life. In Sri-Lanka it’s all about the cricket, to the extent that it’s only been in the last few months that the first professional Tamil Sri-Lankan made his debut in the English game. So, what does football look like in a country of 22m people in which ‘the world’s game’ gets virtually no attention whatsoever?
26th October: The Pelicot Trial, and why we have to speak up
As you may have noticed, I’ve been trying to diversify my writing this year, and the Pelicot trial was a subject that I needed to say something about. The grotesquery of it all called to mind one serious question: if masculinity is in crisis but this is what it looks like, does it in any way deserve to be rescued? Sometimes it’s necessary to ask extremely uncomfortable questions.
30th October: Not for the first time, Swindon Wilts
A club that has played Premier League football but which is at risk of falling into the non-league game for the first time in more than a century is always going to pique my interest, and this piece ended up being the most read piece on this Substack this year. They’ve improved a little since then, though Ian Holloway’s eccentricities have remained as pronounced as ever.
20th November: Dumbarton FC and a "get-rich quick pipe dream"
One of Scotland’s oldest football clubs found itself in a financial pickle last year, and getting to the root of the story behind what had been going on revealed a story of considerable chicanery. Of all the things to feel proud of in this piece, the one I enjoyed the most is that it ended up being read by an audience several times the size of Dumbarton’s average attendance. When I write these pieces, my intention is to get them—to the extent to which I can—into the public domain and draw attention to them. In this case, it worked.
11th December: Single Parenthood & I: The Morning Routine
Sometimes, there is a story behind these things. When I first met my girlfriend last year, I wrote a short description of what my mornings are like as a single dad which she very much seemed to enjoy. When this subject came up between us last month, I decided to expand that short WhatsApp message into a longer piece for your delectation.
And that’s your lot. It’s been an adventure, this year, and I’m so incredibly grateful for the support of everyone who has read, subscribed and supported me. More of the same in 2025? Perhaps, perhaps not. As the new year begins, I’m brimming with ideas for this place and beyond. On the 1st January 2025, the adventure begins anew.