Who Ate All the Squid? chronicles the season Ian Porterfield, a former Chelsea manager and Sunderland FA Cup legend, took charge of a struggling South Korean football club. Can he revitalise the team by luring a trio of players with Premier League experience out to East Asia? Can the Brits adapt to life in Korea as they battle personal demons?
The authorised biography of Ken Shellito, the first and only Chelsea manager to enter the job after rising through the ranks at Stamford Bridge. Ken's anecdotes - some harrowing, others hilarious - paint a fascinating portrait of how the game was played in the 1950s and how it evolved into today's commercialised era of glitz and glamour.
Second Yellow: More Adventures of our Footballing Heroes brings you more funny, fascinating and downright baffling tales gleaned from over 240 footballer autobiographies. From arm-wrestling Sly Stallone to setting a 1980s wag's hair on fire, it's an illuminating study of the often unbelievable world of the footballer, both on and off the pitch.
Flight to Bogota charts an infamous episode in sports history, when UK footballers turned their backs on club and country before the 1950 World Cup for a sporting El Dorado. England's Neil Franklin led the rebellion, only to return home with his career in tatters. But the players' vociferous defence of their behaviour enlightened a shocked nation.
Champions Under Lockdown: Jurgen and the Holy Grail is the story of Liverpool's remarkable 2019/20 season. With the Reds on the brink of a first league title in 30 years, a global virus pandemic almost crushed their dream of a 19th championship. But Liverpool rose again to claim their holy grail. This is the story of the champions under lockdown.
Arsenal FC Minute by Minute takes you on a fantastic journey through the Gunners' matchday history. Relive all the breathtaking goals, heroic penalty saves, sending offs and other memorable moments. From Thierry Henry to Cliff Bastin, from Ian Wright to Charlie George, all the club legends are here. An absolute 'must' for Arsenal fans.
How to Run a Football Club is the story of our national game. Told through a journey up the pyramid, from the muddy pitches and ramshackle changing rooms at grass-roots level to the glitz and glamour of the Premier League, the book explores that common theme that links the game at all levels - the simple love of the sport.
What Was Football Like in the 1980s? provides a fascinating and insightful perspective on the game in a decade when football faced major challenges on and off the field. Richard Crooks explores the good, the bad and the ugly of '80s football, leaving no stone unturned.
England On This Day revisits all the most magical and memorable moments from the national football side's rollercoaster history, mixing in a maelstrom of quirky anecdotes and legendary characters to produce an irresistibly dippable Lions diary. From 1872's first international to the Premier League era, there's an entry for every day of the year.
The King of Dens Park is the authorised life story of Alan Gilzean, the legendary, world-class Dundee, Spurs and Scotland footballer. Exclusive insights provided by his family, closest friends and colleagues add to the author's own experience to reveal Gilzean the man and the player, dubbed 'Nureyev in Boots'.
Manchester City Minute By Minute takes you on a fantastic journey through the Citizens' matchday history. Relive all the breathtaking goals, heroic penalty saves, sending offs and other memorable moments. From Sergio Aguero to Colin Bell, from Dennis Tueart to Shaun Goater, all the club legends are here. An absolute 'must' for City fans.
What would the late, great Bill Shankly have made of the current Liverpool side? There's a great deal he would have hated about the modern game, but there's a lot about today's Liverpool he would have liked. With Jurgen Klopp instilling a team ethic and re-engaging the fans, the Reds have restored something of 'Shanks's Holy Trinity' - that union between players, manager and supporters - at least as much as a 21st-century conglomerate will allow. Although he grew up as a socialist during the Great Depression, Shanks was never shy to spend big and used methods ahead of his time. Shanks, Yanks and Jurgen shows how the values he acquired from his pit-village background formed key elements of the Liverpool way. When wounded by tragedies and tricked by con men, the club briefly lost direction. Recovery was started by Liverpool's astute new owners and completed by an inspirational manager, but also by returning to aspects of Shankly's template - albeit in a modern context. Bob Holmes explains how Shanks's philosophies still resonate today.
King Klopp: Rebuilding the Liverpool Dynasty is the story behind Jurgen Klopp's success at Liverpool. It takes an in-depth look at the tactical concepts underpinning Liverpool's success - revealing who does what, how and why. Discover the secrets of the game model developed by Klopp as well as the roles of key players in realising his master plan.
The brutal 2010 murders of promising footballer Eddie Moussa and his brother were a harbinger of the gang violence now laying siege to Sweden. Written by crime reporter Ann Tornkvist, Follow Fucking Orders captures the freefall of a quaint town, known for its sports-crazed community and top-league football team, into a bloody turf war. After the biggest police investigation into organised crime in Swedish history, the local mob boss was sentenced to life for ordering the hit on Eddie. Author Ann Tornkvist followed the gripping story for five years, securing unique access to families who had fled into the witness protection programme. In 2016, the mob boss tried to derail this book's publication by threatening to have her killed. Undeterred, Tornkvist published Follow Fucking Orders in Sweden in 2018. The first edition sold out within a week and soon became the most popular book in the country's maximum-security prisons. Ultimately, the book offers a chilling reminder that true crime has no last chapter.
Because it's Saturday is a whimsical tour through the heartland of football, from Accrington to Plymouth via Grimsby and Blackpool, during a season of triumphs and near disasters. It is a paean on the passion and loyalty that sustain the grass roots of the game in communities for whom the local club is far more than a football team.
Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches is the compelling story of a cricket tour framed in a landscape of turbulent social history. Cricket, England's gentle summer game, was shaken to its core by demonstrations, strikes, arrests and violence amid growing global disgust at apartheid, ahead of South Africa's planned 1970 tour. The battle to stop and then to save the tour split the nation, drove a wedge between the generations and destroyed friendships in an uncanny foreshadowing of Brexit. Fifty years on, acclaimed author and social historian Dr Colin Shindler has delved deep into the MCC archives for new information and gained exclusive interviews with key players of the time. Alongside the views of cricketers Mike Brearley and Ray Illingworth are the opinions of Labour politician Peter Hain, who was chairman of the Stop The Seventy Tour campaign. Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches brings you the full untold story of one of cricket's biggest controversies - the significance of which reaches far beyond the realm of sport.
England On This Day revisits all the most magical and memorable moments from the national cricket team's illustrious past, mixing in a maelstrom of quirky anecdotes and legendary characters to produce an irresistible England diary. From the first ever Test match of 1977 to the Twenty20 era, there's an entry for every day of the year.
Branded a 'rebel' for touring in apartheid South Africa with a West Indian XI, Franklyn Stephenson overcame domestic bans to become one of the world's finest all-rounders. Recognised as the first fast bowler to develop a cunning slower ball, the beaming Barbadian was the last to do the Double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English summer.
Fine Margins is the definitive story of how Manchester City and Liverpool became rivals across English and world football. For over 50 years, these two clubs from opposite ends of the M62 have been perennial thorns in each other's side. Countless managers, players and directors have carried what Bill Shankly started into the modern era.
Brian Horton is one of the most respected managers in English football. As a player, manager and assistant, he took part in over 2,000 games - in Britain only Sir Alex Ferguson can claim more. With spells at Manchester City, Brighton, Oxford, Hull, Preston, Port Vale, Southend, Swindon and Macclesfield, Horton has managed clubs in every division.
Applauding the Kop is the definitive story of Liverpool FC's goalkeepers. Through a series of remarkable interviews, it reveals the pressure and demands of playing in the prime position for one of the most successful sides in world football. The book offers honest observer accounts of the greatest goalkeepers to ever pull on the number-one jersey at Anfield, and first-hand anecdotes from those who trained at the club. Get an insider's view on the likes of Bruce Grobbelaar, Jerzy Dudek and David James. The players share funny, emotional and alternative viewpoints of their more illustrious team-mates at Liverpool and elsewhere, offering a rare glimpse of life in the most extraordinary leagues and teams in Europe. Applauding the Kop provides a unique insight into the personalities of many goalkeeping greats, and tells the tales of others who were less successful, detailing the events that dictate how they are perceived. Each player had a very different journey in their quest to reach the pinnacle of the game.
Mike Brearley was one of England's greatest cricket captains. He thrice won the Ashes, including the unforgettable series of 1981, when his leadership helped England to snatch victory from defeat. Yet there was nothing inevitable about his rise. A spell out of the game in his mid-20s stymied his progress and when he returned full-time to captain Middlesex, his innovative approach found little favour with the old guard. In this first-ever biography of Brearley, award-winning cricket writer Mark Peel reveals how Brearley overcame his critics to lead Middlesex to four county championships and two Gillette Cup wins. His rise to the England captaincy was fast, but his unrivalled leadership skills contrasted with his repeated failures with the bat. Away from cricket, Brearley possessed a range of cultural interests along with a sharp intellect, which saw him achieve eminence as a psychoanalyst. Drawing on interviews with friends and team-mates, Peel assesses the many facets of this complex man to explain his phenomenal success as a leader.
Award-winning cricket writer Mark Peel charts the development of the England captaincy - from the autocratic captains of the post-war years to the dual captaincy of the present, where power is shared between captain and coach. Peel examines the huge demands the England captaincy imposes on the occupant and why few leave office with their reputation enhanced. You'll learn about the long-lasting legacy of the Hutton captaincy of the mid-1950s, the downfall of mavericks such as Brian Close, Tony Greig and Mike Gatting, the success of the Illingworth and Brearley eras and the chaos of the 1980s, when captains came and went with regular abandon, and finally the glory years of Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss. The Hollow Crown contains individual portraits of the 43 England captains, exploring their background, philosophy, strengths, weaknesses and the legacy they left, with special attention given to the likes of Hutton, May, Illingworth, Brearley, Atherton, Hussain, Vaughan and Strauss.
Firsts, Lasts & Onlys is chock-full of astonishing events, time-honoured anecdotes and extraordinary facts. It contains all sorts of tennis-related trivia from the heir to the throne whose death was caused by tennis, to the vicar who won Wimbledon and the murderer who reached a final. Filled with fascinating tales that will tantalise and enthral.
Foot Soldiers is the story of the football team which astonished Victorian England, by daring to be different. The Royal Engineers combine silky skills with military muscle and an unbreakable team spirit. In their quest to land the sport's greatest prize, they face heartbreak, monstrous bad luck and tragedy.
What is it like to follow one of English football's perennial non-achievers? Hugging Strangers is a celebration of what it means to support your club through thick and thin. It speaks to all who love the game but are lumbered - by way of family, geography or plain bad luck - with a team whose glory days are few and far between. At the end of the 1963/64 season Birmingham City stayed in the first division by winning on the last day of the campaign. In the 55 years that followed, the Blues kept either survival or promotion for the final fixture on a further 12 occasions. Stir in nine relegations, eight promotions, along with play-off failures and embarrassing exits from cup competitions and you'll have an idea of what it means to be a Blues fan. But you don't have to be a Birmingham fan to enjoy this book. This light-hearted collection of tales from a lifelong, hopeless football addict will strike a chord with anyone who has asked themselves quite why they allow this simple game to assume such importance in their lives.
In March 1977, England cricket captain Tony Greig was arguably the most famous and popular sportsman in the country, and the best all-rounder in world cricket. He had recently led England to a famous series victory in India, her first successful campaign on the subcontinent since the Second World War. Then he had conjured a doughty performance from his travel-weary troops in the dramatic, one-off Centenary Test in Melbourne, narrowly losing by 45 runs. Within weeks, though, his reputation was in tatters. He was branded a traitor and mercenary, stripped of the England captaincy and excluded from the national side. He was also relieved of the Sussex captaincy and banned from first-class cricket for eight weeks. His involvement in the controversial 'Packer Revolution' had caused his fall from grace. Soon afterwards, he left England for good for a commentary career in Australia. At 6ft 7in, Greig was a giant of the game both figuratively and literally. His life story is every bit as fascinating as the controversy that engulfed him.
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