Dictionary Of Cliches

Does the term 'selling club' still have a place in English football?

Let’s face it, football is a game of clichés. You just have to listen to mangers during interviews, hear the ‘expert’ commentary offered by the likes of Sky, read what journalists have to say about the games they have witnessed. Even if it really was a ‘game of two halves,’ these generic statements are almost more amusing than informative in the modern game.

And even when the season ends, the clichés continue. The transfer window has a dictionary of its own, whether the players are sending ‘come-and-get-me pleas’, the managers are ‘issuing hands off warnings,’ or the chairmen are ‘slapping price tags’ on players left, right and centre. It’s almost a shame these are metaphorical, as the idea of Carlos Tevez on his knees pleading with clubs whilst being stickered with ‘£50 million’ labels by Sheikh Mansour is actually quite amusing.

But one cliché that seems to have lost its meaning over the course of the last few years is the notion of a ‘selling club,’ i.e. a club that sells. Not one of the more creative ones, granted, but one that used to carry quite a bit of weight. Fans never wanted their clubs to be described as one, and yet licked their lips at the thought of the likes of Fulham and Newcastle being forced to surrender their stars.

This last couple of years however look to have signalled the end of such a concept. Let’s look at the Ronaldo transfer from Manchester United . United were under no pressure financially to sell, they didn’t really want to lose arguably their star player, and yet they still took the £80 million from Real Madrid. Why? They said it was good business, but when you’re the most commercially successful club in the world that argument doesn’t make any sense. The same happened last Autumn with the shock news that Wayne Rooney was looking for a way out of the club. In the end they managed to appease the England striker, but for fans it was a shocking revelation. How was it that United could be losing key players?

The trend has continued this summer. Tevez wants to leave Manchester City . Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri look to be on the way out at Arsenal despite Arsene Wenger’s protestations. Luka Modric is determined to be wearing something other than the white of Tottenham next season.

It feels like a zombie apocalypse. The Premier League teams are the survivors, desperate to reach ‘the arc’ where civilisation, and the status quo, can continue. But there’s that niggling suspicion that maybe, just maybe, Arsenal were bitten when you were running frantically to the last safehouse. What happens if they did catch it? You’re all locked together, they could bite you next, and you could suddenly start haemorrhaging your stars?

Catch Phrases, Cliches and Idioms: A Dictionary of Familiar ...

Catch phrases such as "shop till you drop," clichs like "life begins at forty" and idioms such as "talk the hind leg off a donkey" have long enriched the English language in both spoken and written form. Here is a collection of over 20,000 familiar expressions. To the casual reader or the general browser, this book will inform and entertain. To writers it is a treasure trove of idea-starters that will make for more imaginative creative writing. Each phrase is cross-referenced by key word. Thus "raining cats and dogs," for example, appears under "cat," "dog" and "rain." In most cases, various forms of the word are listed under the root word. So under "run" you will find not only sayings that include the word "run," but those that include "running," "runneth," "runner" and "run-around.

A Dictionary of Cliches

The dictionary of clichés

The Facts on File dictionary of clichés

The Dictionary of Cliches

The Penguin dictionary of clichés