Welcome to the first edition of the Tribal Tribune - where we're going to lift the lid on what has happened at Tribalfootball and what is in the works.
Basically, we'll be breaking the fourth wall and giving you a better insight on what we're planning, whose involved and how it all gets done.
World Cup planning
Right now our content manager, Andrew Maclean, is putting the finishing touches on his team for the World Cup. Andrew will be in Russia for the tournament (he lands tomorrow!) and the team we've now assembled will have every game covered.
We're pretty excited about what's planned, as Andrew has also added our tactical experts Alex Keble and Blair Newman to run their eye over the teams and systems. They'll be analysing and previewing games throughout the four weeks in the same fashion as they've successfully done this season.
The feedback we've received on Alex and Blair has been very welcome. We're delighted you guys are appreciating we're now going deeper with our coverage of games. If you ever have questions for the guys please drop them a line in the comments section below their features - we all appreciate the support and feedback.
Alex has been with us for two seasons with his excellent weekly 'Talking Tactics' column. You may've seen his regular features with SportingLife and Vice. Blair joined us this past season and we know you're enjoying his great work - especially with his 'Secrets of Success' columns. Having Alex and Blair available to give an indepth tactical review/preview of all the big games in Russia is something we're really looking forward to. Going deeper with analysis is something we haven't been able to do in the past for big tournaments - we hope you enjoy it!
A year on
It's coming up to a year that Andrew has been with us as content manager.
I've been nagging him to introduce himself with a column, but to be fair he's had his hands full since his promotion. You will have seen the brilliant interviews he's landed this past season, from Liverpool greats Terry McDermott and John Barnes, to former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards and Sir Alex's old No2 Archie Knox.
Along with Blair and Alex, the great exclusive interviews we're now bringing you is another big change we've introduced over the past year.
So a little bit about Andrew: he's actually a former pro. Andrew played in Scotland with Hamilton under their former manager Billy Reid. He came to us as a writer through our old content manager Andrew Slevison. When 'Slevo' decided to move on after over eight years with us he recommended Andrew to succeed him.
As a kid I was allowed to stay up every year to watch the FA Cup final. And now I'm here in the flesh. Surreal moment. @tribalfootball#FACupFinalpic.twitter.com/v91YnPZnwM — Andrew Maclean (@andrewmaclean30) May 19, 2018
It's a nice circle that's about to be completed, as Slevo achieved one of our high points four years ago making it all the way to the World Cup final at the Maracana. An idea between two mates over a decade ago had led to Tribalfootball.com having a reporter mixing with the biggest publishers on the planet. It's something we're very proud of.
Vitale and De Vito
Another great addition to the team over the last season has been our Rome-based reporter Matteo Vitale. We'll introduce you to Matteo in the coming editions, but no doubt you will have noticed the exclusives he's landed for us in Italy.
The latest is with agent Giovanni de Vito. He was able to sit down with De Vito last week and tap into his expert knowledge of the East European transfer market. He gave us some cracking stuff of which only some of it you've so far seen. Confirming Real Madrid's approach for Hajduk Split goalkeeper Karlo Letica - and revealing he'd offered Lovro Majer to Sampdoria before Pep Guardiola had even heard of him. And there's still plenty to come!
If you appreciate Matteo's stuff be sure to 'like it' and 'share it' across your own social media accounts. Every bit of interaction helps us. Just the one click on a story when you visit can make a big difference to search engine rank and in turn bring more people to Tribalfootball. It all goes a long way. And of course, the more who visit us the more revenue we generate so allowing us to add another Matteo to the payroll. That's our prime goal now, we want to keep expanding the team, bringing on more writers who can seek out and bring interviews to you that you're not going to see anywhere else.
Get in touch
We greatly appreciate your support and feedback. As you know, we're a purely independent company. There's no big media backer behind us. We're genuinely supporter driven.
For a first edition, we've barely scratched the surface. We'll definitely be going deeper about our plans in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please get in touch: [email protected]
