There’s a lot of gumf out there on the web. I’m open to suggestions in the comments here, but here are some of my personal favourite blogs and news tools.

Guardian.co.uk/football

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football

- Minute by minutes, match reports, general journalism

- The superb and very funny Football Weekly podcast which delightfully covers a lot of football outside of England as well. Football is a global sport and it’s easy to forget that actually English football isn’t the be-all and end-all.

- The chalkboard function is also invaluable and I will be using it.

Football Speak

Recently launched, and with yours truly as one of the writers (See the page ‘Kickabout with the Gents elsewhere’ for links), this is a powerful new website which even in its beta stage is racking up tens of thousands of page views – if you have an interest in football writing, sign up, and try and write as imaginatively as possible. 

http://footballspeak.com/

Zonal Marking

http://www.zonalmarking.net/

A one-man football blog which I have not seen bettered. As the name suggests, it follows the tactical side of the game.

BBC Sport/Football

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm

Obvious, but a premier source of news. The coverage of foreign football is lacking, and the structure of the site sometimes leaves something to be desired, but over-all a great news source.

WhoScored?

http://www.whoscored.com/

WhoScored provides statistics on thousands of matches – whilst its layout is at times counter-intuitive, when you find the relevant section there’s few sites better, and unlike services like Opta it’s free.

Tangerine Dreaming

http://www.tangerinedreaming.com/

Once a fellow WordPress blog which focused on Blackpool FC in the Premier League – now on a dedicated website, featuring the complete archive. In the same vein as Zonal Marking, and the tactical discussions on this site, with insightful analysis beyond the usual platitudes. It also has a really good name.

Newsnow

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football

A customisable news feed for your club. Aggregates news sources such as Caughtoffside and regional papers. Useful for these, often Reuters/News Agency based pieces which often churn out transfer rumours.

Chris Lepkowski’s blog at Birmingham Mail

http://blogs.birminghammail.net/westbromwichalbion/

I’m a West Brom fan. I admit it. But Lepkowski does a smart blog, and he has an informative Twitter feed which does cover non-WBA football. He’s close to the club, and has been interviewed several times on the regional BBC news programme.

Jonathan Wilson @ The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jonathanwilson

Jonathan Wilson is awesome. I’d also recommend his book Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (Google Shopping search link).

More to come