You might think that this is the second iteration of this blog.
But, in a way, it isn't. During the second half of the 2014-15 season, I watched all the Rayo games and uploaded match reports to a Facebook page called the Pride of Vallekas. I then impulsively deleted that page, thinking I would never write again.
Moral of the story: this is, in an informal sense, the third iteration of this blog. And never, ever, delete things.
Umm....I'm deleting things. Again.
I started writing about football in September 2015. Back Page Football were kind enough to allow me to contribute - and it propelled me to write about twice or thrice a month. It provided me with a platform to write for BarcaBlaugranes and VillarrealUSA, two blogs under SBNation, and guest post on many others.
However, as I've said many times before, a lack of writing towards the end of 2016 frustrated me, and the mandate to write everyday was born impulsively on a Thursday morning more than a year ago. At the time, I said that I wanted to write about Rayo Vallecano. I wanted to write about its history, its famous players and its struggles. I wanted to write about the football and the board, the politics and the fans, the players and the coaches. And I wanted to give my take on the day-to-day coverage.
Before, I had focused on writing a finished article. Now, I was focusing on writing. A lot. And very often. And looking back over the last year, it seemed like things were going smoothly. But a couple of things happened that made me rethink.
Last July, in the First Qualifying Round of the Europa League, Welsh side Bala Town faced Liechtenstein-based club Vaduz. Now that would ordinarily not get much attention even from someone as obsessed with the obscure as me, but Bala Town had contacted me about an old piece I had done about the peculiarities of Vaduz, a Liechtenstein-based team playing in the Swiss league, and asked me if they could feature it in their match day program. And they did - and I was proud of that.
But it was directly at odds with the experiment. The daily blog experiment was very good at getting something out every day. But it would be hard for me to pull out a piece at random and say it was of a quality that I could be proud of. And I've come to realize that that's who I am - I would rather stay up all night to make a piece better than just publish anything. It's too easy just stating a half-hearted opinion and calling it a post - and much harder to write something that is well researched and well edited.
I'm not saying I want my pieces to go in magazines and programs. I'm saying I want my articles to be at that standard - and a daily blog is at odds with that. In fact, I did the math and about 40% of posts on this blog don't pass that test. That's actually not that bad - on average that means that 2 in 5 posts were, at least in my opinion, good articles. I'll take that.
You would have noticed that I haven't published since January - a combination of reasons, partly technical issues with the blog itself, have meant that it is time to retire this experiment, and create a new chapter.
And it starts today, in August, before the start of Rayo's latest foray into La Liga. In the meantime, I will be uploading all the match reports as part of the Rayo Report series that was abandoned in November over the course of the next season. Moreover, I will be deleting the posts that aren't up to the mark, and in the coming months I will be rewriting and re-uploading them.
So yeah. I'm deleting things. Again.
But I have some exciting plans for the blog coming up. Spanish football is a fantastic topic for a blog, but material dries up quickly - and so stay tuned for an expansion in the topics this blog focuses on. Football in different countries. And different sports. And geography, book reviews, politics...anything that is worth writing about and interests me.
Moreover, I do want to focus on writing on other blogs too, so make sure to follow this blog, and me, on Twitter. (@prideofvallekas, and @Vallecanos1924).
Other than that, stay tuned for tomorrow's first post in this new chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
But, in a way, it isn't. During the second half of the 2014-15 season, I watched all the Rayo games and uploaded match reports to a Facebook page called the Pride of Vallekas. I then impulsively deleted that page, thinking I would never write again.
Moral of the story: this is, in an informal sense, the third iteration of this blog. And never, ever, delete things.
Umm....I'm deleting things. Again.
I started writing about football in September 2015. Back Page Football were kind enough to allow me to contribute - and it propelled me to write about twice or thrice a month. It provided me with a platform to write for BarcaBlaugranes and VillarrealUSA, two blogs under SBNation, and guest post on many others.
However, as I've said many times before, a lack of writing towards the end of 2016 frustrated me, and the mandate to write everyday was born impulsively on a Thursday morning more than a year ago. At the time, I said that I wanted to write about Rayo Vallecano. I wanted to write about its history, its famous players and its struggles. I wanted to write about the football and the board, the politics and the fans, the players and the coaches. And I wanted to give my take on the day-to-day coverage.
Before, I had focused on writing a finished article. Now, I was focusing on writing. A lot. And very often. And looking back over the last year, it seemed like things were going smoothly. But a couple of things happened that made me rethink.
Last July, in the First Qualifying Round of the Europa League, Welsh side Bala Town faced Liechtenstein-based club Vaduz. Now that would ordinarily not get much attention even from someone as obsessed with the obscure as me, but Bala Town had contacted me about an old piece I had done about the peculiarities of Vaduz, a Liechtenstein-based team playing in the Swiss league, and asked me if they could feature it in their match day program. And they did - and I was proud of that.
Huge thanks to @BalaTownFC for featuring my article for @bpfootball in their matchday program against @VaduzFC!!https://t.co/gfJBpUZ9em pic.twitter.com/EltuQKeFCu— Sarthak Kumar (@Vallecanos1924) July 19, 2017
But it was directly at odds with the experiment. The daily blog experiment was very good at getting something out every day. But it would be hard for me to pull out a piece at random and say it was of a quality that I could be proud of. And I've come to realize that that's who I am - I would rather stay up all night to make a piece better than just publish anything. It's too easy just stating a half-hearted opinion and calling it a post - and much harder to write something that is well researched and well edited.
I'm not saying I want my pieces to go in magazines and programs. I'm saying I want my articles to be at that standard - and a daily blog is at odds with that. In fact, I did the math and about 40% of posts on this blog don't pass that test. That's actually not that bad - on average that means that 2 in 5 posts were, at least in my opinion, good articles. I'll take that.
You would have noticed that I haven't published since January - a combination of reasons, partly technical issues with the blog itself, have meant that it is time to retire this experiment, and create a new chapter.
And it starts today, in August, before the start of Rayo's latest foray into La Liga. In the meantime, I will be uploading all the match reports as part of the Rayo Report series that was abandoned in November over the course of the next season. Moreover, I will be deleting the posts that aren't up to the mark, and in the coming months I will be rewriting and re-uploading them.
So yeah. I'm deleting things. Again.
But I have some exciting plans for the blog coming up. Spanish football is a fantastic topic for a blog, but material dries up quickly - and so stay tuned for an expansion in the topics this blog focuses on. Football in different countries. And different sports. And geography, book reviews, politics...anything that is worth writing about and interests me.
Moreover, I do want to focus on writing on other blogs too, so make sure to follow this blog, and me, on Twitter. (@prideofvallekas, and @Vallecanos1924).
Other than that, stay tuned for tomorrow's first post in this new chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
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