The Times They Are a-Changin’
Maybe it’s the remarkable new design at the Run of Play, the continued incisive and original coverage of American soccer at Fake Sigi or the daily compendium of excellence that is Must Read Soccer, but I’ve been feeling things are a little stale at Pitch Invasion lately relative to others’ work.
The weekly brilliance of Andrew Guest and Peter Wilt aside, writing the daily Sweeper has begun to feel like a chore for me, and when you’re not exactly making money hand over fist doing something, there’s not much point just grinding it out for the sake of it. I burned myself out once here keeping up the daily coverage for too long and I don’t want that to happen again.
So we’re going to change things up a bit around here in the next few weeks. Content will keep coming (just not in the daily sweeper pieces), but I’m going to try a few new things with my writing, along with continuing the stream of amazing photography from the contributors in the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool. And Richard Whittall will, I hope, continue to keep us entertained at the weekends with his excellent round-ups as well.
I’m also going to work on a new design for Pitch Invasion in time for the World Cup, and that’ll slow things down a bit as well in the next few weeks. By the time things kick-off in South Africa, we’ll be full steam ahead again, though. As ever, we’re open to new contributors, and all we ask for is originality and quality. Drop me a line at tom@pitchinvasion.net if you’re interested, or catch me over on Twitter.
Thanks for reading and supporting the blog — stick around as this’ll lead to a new and better Pitch Invasion coming soon.
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- The Sweeper: Sweeping Up Something New for the Weekend | Pitch Invasion
- Welcome to the new Pitch Invasion | Pitch Invasion
- A World Cup Miscellany: Group C | Pitch Invasion
Tom,
Thanks for the kind words.
More importantly, I understand the need to refresh one’s writing and break out of the daily grind. I resolved to not do daily or weekly features precisely because of the burnout potential.
I’ve liked the Sweeper, and will miss it somewhat. But I’m excited to see what you come up with as you experiment with new writing forms and designs. Your blog, as is, is already among the best soccerblogs, and could make claim in a number of areas to being the best.
As for Richard, he keeps me entertained on more than just the weekends.
-FS
Relax, refresh and come back strong. PI consistently offers the best reads from the stable of contributors. I find myself linking to your stories on an almost daily basis.
Looking forward to the new and improved Pitch Invasion Tom.
You’re finally going to take on MLS Rumors at their own game, aren’t you? This is going to be excellent.
Seriously, between this site and Section 8, I don’t know how you have time to breathe. There’s precious little reason to blog at all if it starts to turn into a grind, so by all means, hit the refresh button and take this in whatever direction seems most exciting. It’s the best thing you can do for us, your Loyal Readers, as well as for you.
I like your current design so much that I’ll be sad to see it go, but I’m excited to see what you come up with next.
Ahh, about time the sweeper went from Pitch Invasion, the position on the football pitch has been redundant for years.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with. After a well-deserved break!
Hate to ruin the surprise, but PI is actually turning to a more video-based approach… and by video-based I mean this domain will soon only play clips of Ben Olsen from his turn-of-the-century loan spell at Nottingham Forest.
Serioulsy, though… Tom, keep up the good work – there aren’t many soccer sites in the US as solid as this one. I trust with you behind the wheel whatever you come up with will still be in the upper echelon of high-quality soccer blogs.
As a blogger myself, I know what it’s like to feel burnt out sometimes. I think that changing the way you do things is a great idea. Best of luck from across the pond!
Tom-
I’m sure you’ll come back relaxed, refreshed, and with the batteries charged in time for the World Cup!
I voted for Hanhan. I like him both as a writer and motorist.