"I can’t decide if I feel more like the habitually unfunny Shemp with Larry and Moe..." I thought Shemp was pretty darn funny. Why doesn't Soccer America fire Paul Gardner and hire one or all 3 of these fine gentleman to write for their magazine? Gardner's last piece on the mythical coach Terry Bull was itself terrible, not to mention boring and useless.
For some reason I can't really explain I'm a Gardner fan, but I agree with you, his last piece about the mythical coach may have been the worst essay written in the English language, of any genre, soccer or otherwise. Total trash. I imagine the boys at SA secretly are waiting for ol' Paul to go gently into the night, either through retirement (unlikely) or other, more natural, means, so one of them can acclaim the coveted post. I also agree with you that Bradley or Connolly (and who knows, maybe Palace too) could and would do a great - and far different - job with that post.
TCS can say gaffer any time they want, its fine with me. ============= ..According to the emails I got, I just hope Dallas gaffer (sorry JB) Mike Jeffries puts as much into his game plans as the Burn faithful...