Unbelievable
The Square Ball: Season 34, Issue 02
This is the second issue of TSB’s 34th season, and we just be starting to like this Daniel Farke guy. Our cover art is a celebration of his many moods drawn by Arley Byrne, summed up in the words that best describe Farke’s work so far: ‘Unbelievable hard’.
There’s unbelievable much inside this issue, all of it unbelievable good.
- Rob Conlon speaks to former players and staff from Leeds Cougars, the gridiron team that was here long before the 49ers
- Our new columnist Gaetano Berardi — yes, him! — writes about want-away players, and what it’s like when someone wants to take your place
- Moxco on the most significant aspect of Joel Piroe’s arrival, listing five strikers who wore no.7
- Plus moaning loaners, explaining the transfer window to children, the joy of uniting Sam Byram and Archie Gray, peacocks, new music and art
- Click here to preview everything inside this issue
- Subscribe to get this issue cheap with TSB+ — click here for info
Support The Square Ball
Subscribe to TSB+ Mag
- ⬢ Yearly TSB+ membership
- ⬢ Regular issues of the magazine for £1 each (+p&p)
- ⬢ Ad-free podcasts, extra episodes, The Match Ball Live video, daily emails and more
- ⬢ Click here for one month free trial
How do I subscribe? Or read online?
Click here for more info on subscribing, and choose either TSB+ Mag or TSB Magazine.
Getting the magazine delivered to your home is a very good idea, as it will arrive free of beer stains and torn corners, unless your postie is having a bad morning.
The best way to buy The Square Ball is to subscribe and get every regular issue delivered to your home for the next twelve months.
That way we know how many to print, and we have the money up front to pay the printer. We’ll post anywhere in the world and you won’t miss an issue.
You can get £10 off a subscription to the paper magazine if you buy an annual membership of TSB+. TSB+ gets you all our podcasts advert free, early access and live streaming video of The Match Ball podcast, a digital sub to the magazine, a daily email, discounts and more — and that tenner off getting the paper version delivered.
If you don’t want to subscribe — why not?! — you can buy our first issue of the season on its own by clicking here, and we’ll post it out as soon as it’s printed.
Can I buy the magazine at Elland Road?
As always since 1989, barring pandemics and badly timed World Cups, The Square Ball magazine will be on sale outside Elland Road, for the match against Watford on Saturday 22nd September 2023. Just look out for our windswept but friendly sellers by the Lowfields tunnel, Billy’s Statue, the Kop gates, and anywhere else someone is holding a fanzine in the air, until about fifteen minutes before kick-off.
I’m a TSB+ member, where is the online magazine?
TSB+ members can read the magazine online now, either of two ways:
What else is in this issue?
Our now ten times-nominated and two-times FSF Award winning fanzine, plus one for the podcast and as of 2022 one for ‘Fan Media’, includes lots of pages of articles and artwork about what used to be the pain but now is the glory which still involves pain of being a Leeds United supporter, for more than 100 long, long years.
Can I read something now? For free? Ah go on?
Free to read from this issue is Rob Conlon’s story of Leeds Cougars bringing gridiron to 1980s/90s Elland Road, long before the 49ers got here. Click here to read that for free.
Also free in this issue, DJ Emily Pilbeam on the best new Leeds music, because Music Makes Football Better — click here to read that one — and Flora Snelson speaking to Saff Jarvis about how it feels to start playing the game we love.
You can order paper copies of issue two from our online shop now, and they’ll be sent out as soon as they’re printed. To read a digital version online, please become a TSB+ member, with a one month free trial, here.
As Howard Wilkinson always used to say, thank you for your magnificent support. ⬢
