2022-23 | Issue 08

£2.50

In stock

This is the eighth issue of TSB’s 33rd season, a magazine to remember from a season to forget. Our cover art is a collage of wrongness by Graeme Chapman aka Limited Output.

At the time of writing, nothing is over until it’s over, so we’ve a feature on some last day madnesses from Leeds United history. Can you believe that once upon a time Leeds had to beat Tottenham at Elland Road to stay in the top tier? ‘Impossible’, as Andrea Radrizzani might say.

There’s plenty more inside, including a lot of shouting about things going wrong:

  • Last Day’s Play, our final days through history
  • The return of watermelons, getting used to Sam Allardyce, wondering how much Marc Guehi’s goal was a new problem or the last one
  • A promotion party with Caleb Ekuban in Genoa (and not for Giuseppe Bellusci)
  • Plus love for Uruguay, complaints about sunny days, new music and art
  • Subscribe to get this issue cheap with TSB+ — click here for info


How do I subscribe? Or read online?

Getting the magazine delivered to your home is a very good idea, as it will arrive free of beer stains and torn corners, unless your postie is having a bad morning.

The best way to buy The Square Ball is to subscribe and get every regular issue delivered to your home for the next twelve months.

That way we know how many to print, and we have the money up front to pay the printer. We’ll post anywhere in the world and you won’t miss an issue.

You can get £10 off a subscription to the paper magazine if you buy an annual membership of TSB+. TSB+ gets you all our podcasts advert free, early access and live streaming video of The Match Ball podcast, a digital sub to the magazine, a daily email, discounts and more — and that tenner off getting the paper version delivered.

Click here for more info on subscribing, and choose either TSB+ Mag or TSB Magazine.

If you don’t want to subscribe — why not?! — you can buy our seventh issue of the season on its own by clicking here, and we’ll post it out as soon as it’s printed.

Can I buy the magazine at Elland Road?

As always since 1989, barring pandemics and badly timed World Cups, The Square Ball magazine will be on sale outside Elland Road, for the last match of the season against Spurs on Sunday 28th May 2023. Just look out for our windswept but friendly sellers by the Lowfields tunnel, Billy’s Statue, the Kop gates, and anywhere else someone is holding a fanzine in the air, until about fifteen minutes before kick-off.

I’m a TSB+ member, where is the online magazine?

TSB+ members can read the magazine online now, either of two ways:

Download the PDF here
Read the articles online here

What else is in this issue?

Our now ten times-nominated and two-times FSF Award winning fanzine, plus one for the podcast and as of 2022 one for ‘Fan Media’, includes lots of pages of articles and artwork about what used to be the pain but now is the glory which still involves pain of being a Leeds United supporter, for more than 100 long, long years.

A Last Day’s Play special featuring: Spurs or bust in 1926 | Don Revie flirting with Division Three in 1962 | One last rave up in 1993 | David Wetherall and unintended consequences in 2000 | post-relegation fun in 2007 | Ruining Neil Warnock’s day in 2011
From the Lowfields, our writers discussing: what it looks like when a team celebrates promotion, starring Caleb Ekuban and Genoa | comms, Ken Bates style | facing up to Sam Allardyce being our only hope | none of this being Big Sam’s problem | what did Marc Guehi’s goal do to us? | a rundown of the Under-21s we might be relying on next season | taking refuge from relegation in Singapore’s S-League | the three part destruction of Bielsa’s legacy | dinosaurs roaming Elland Road | watermelon theory comes back to Leeds | trying to remember that football can be a happy time | trying not to fear a sunny day spent watching Leeds
Bus to town, for when the game is over: | art by Alistair Woods | new Leeds music with DJ Emily Pilbeam | why we love Uruguay (yes, the manager)

Can I read something now? For free? Ah go on?

Free to read from this issue is a trip to the top of Serie B with Chris McMenamy, catching up with Caleb Ekuban (and Giuseppe Bellusci) and seeing a promotion party first hand, like we didn’t get in 2020 (but might get in 2024). Click here to read that for free.

Also free in this issue, DJ Emily Pilbeam on the best new Leeds music, because Music Makes Football Better — click here to read that one — and a selection of artist Alistair Woods’ work, featuring Diego Maradona and a Jack Charlton pin badge.


You can order paper copies of issue eight from this page now, and they’ll be sent out as soon as they’re printed. To read a digital version online, please become a TSB+ member, with a one month free trial, here.

As Howard Wilkinson always used to say, thank you for your magnificent support.

Additional information

Weight 0.145 kg
Dimensions 21 × 15 × 1 cm
The Square Ball