The Accidental Footballer

Author: Pat Nevin
Publisher: Monoray
ISBN: 1913183394
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Book Description
*** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A heroic outsider - a pleasure to read.' - The Guardian 'A fulsome evocation of football before the Premier League.' - The i 'Such a good storyteller...joyous.' - Financial Times 'Honest, raw, revealing and very funny. How to live a life and career to the full. Insightful book about the most successful outsider inside football ever...' - Henry Winter, Chief Football Writer, The Times 'Pat is a wonderful one-off...and this is the story of why that is.' - John Murray, Chief Sports Correspondent, BBC Radio 5 Live 'Unusually vibrant and elegant with heroic doses of humour, insight and self-effacement, this is an absolute must-read for the football connoisseur.' - Omid Djalili 'The biggest influence of my professional career both on and off the pitch.' - Graeme Le Saux 'I grew up captivated by Pat Nevin the player. As a man he taught me even more about the beauty of the game. One of football's great mavericks, and Chelsea's greatest players. And he can spin a mean tune too.' - Sam Matterface 'I used to walk miles to see Pat Nevin play football and I'd do the same now to read his thoughts. Always challenging, always entertaining.' - Lord Sebastian Coe 'A refreshingly honest and thought-provoking autobiography. As deftly delivered as some of Pat's ball skills in his 1980's heyday.' - ToffeeWeb Pat Nevin never wanted to be a professional footballer. His future was clear, he'd become a teacher like his brothers. There was only one problem with this - Pat was far too good to avoid attention. Raised in Glasgow's East End, Pat loved the game, playing for hours and obsessively following Celtic. But as he grew up, he also loved Joy Division, wearing his Indie 'gloom boom' coat and going on marches - hardly typical footballer behaviour! Placed firmly in the 80s and 90s, before the advent of the Premier League, and often with racism and violence present, Pat Nevin writes with honesty, insight and wry humour. We are transported vividly to Chelsea and Everton, and colourfully diverted by John Peel, Morrissey and nights out at the Hacienda. The Accidental Footballer is a different kind of football memoir. Capturing all the joys of professional football as well as its contradictions and conflicts, it's about being defined by your actions, not your job, and is the perfect reminder of how life can throw you the most extraordinary surprises, when you least expect it.

Carlo Ancelotti

Author: Carlo Ancelotti
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 0847835588
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
The entertaining, revealing, and controversial bestselling autobiography of one of the most respected figures in the world of soccer. Carlo Ancelotti is one of only six people to have won the Champions League—European soccer’s most coveted trophy—as both player and coach. After a successful career playing for several of the most important teams in Italy—and for the Italian national team—Ancelotti went on to become one of the most acclaimed and outspoken coaches in European football, managing Italian giants Parma, Juventus, and Milan before moving to Chelsea, one of the Premier League’s most successful clubs, in 2009. The book moves from anecdotes of his life growing up in Reggio Emilia to stories of his time playing among the best footballers in the world. With a characteristic mixture of sharp insight and humor, Ancelotti explores the differences between the Italian and the English games, shares his thoughts on soccer’s future with the MLS in America, and reflects on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. With a preface by the legendary former captain of the Italian national team, Paolo Maldini, this book is at once a tactician’s bible from one of the world’s most celebrated footballing minds, the fascinating story of an ordinary man reaching great heights, and in part a revealing tell-all from an outspoken insider in the cut-throat world of European soccer. The perfect book for anyone with a passion for the beautiful game.

The Funniest Chelsea Quotes... Ever!

Author: Gordon Law
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781539777991
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
From Jose Mourinho to Ron 'Chopper' Harris, Chelsea managers and players have kept us entertained with some truly hilarious sound bites over the years. In this comprehensive collection, author Gordon Law has compiled more than 250 side-splitting quotes and quips from the men of Stamford Bridge.Packed with loads of classic one-liners, wise-cracks, verbal volleys and mixed metaphors, this book will have you chuckling throughout the season. "Mark Hughes is playing better and better, even if he's starting to look like a pigeon."Gianluca Vialli "Chelsea were a sausage, eggs and chips club before the foreign players arrived."Dennis Wise. "Wisey said I think too much. But I have to do all his thinking for him."Gianfranco Zola "With hindsight, it's easy to look at it with hindsight."Glenn Hoddle

Making History, Not Reliving It

Author: Mark Worrall
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 0955745985
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
£80 million in debt and with financial meltdown a matter of weeks away, in July 2003 Chelsea Football Club were saved from almost certain penury by Roman Abramovich, a reclusive young billionaire that few people outside his native Russia had heard of. Making History, Not Reliving It recounts the first decade of Roman’s rule in London mirrored against a backdrop of an ever-changing, social-media-driven, angst and envy-ridden world where the revolving door of change seems to spin as fast as that of the manager’s at Stamford Bridge. Granular season-by-season detail of exactly how Chelsea amassed three league titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, a Champions League and a Europa League in ten eventful years is entertainingly supplemented with news and entertainment bulletins and rounded off with enlightening and diverse points of view provided by a broad cross section of supporters unified by their blissful enjoyment of the desperate jealousy of rival fans now only able to relive the history that their own precious club’s once made.

Pulisic: My Journey So Far

Author: Christian Pulisic
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 0847872076
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
America’s first true European soccer champion and the captain of the U.S. men’s national team relates his journey from Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the pinnacle of world soccer. Pulisic’s rise from his childhood in Pennsylvania to captain of the U.S. national team in the coming World Cup and Champions League glory is ultimately a story about a lifelong determination to realize a dream. Growing up in an area without role models, Pulisic would look to European stars for inspiration and to European soccer as his ultimate goal. In this book Pulisic talks candidly about his journey so far, revealing the extraordinary excitement of fulfilling some of his goals and the great challenges involved. He also shares experiences from behind the scenes playing for club and country, his most memorable career moments, moving to a new country without knowing the language, training drills he’s used over the years to hone his skills, and his daily life as a soccer player. Photographs from his family albums and some of the world’s best sports photographers document Pulisic’s path from his first visit to Chelsea at age seven to signing for the club for a record transfer fee when he turned twenty to his defense of the Champions League title and preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Featuring dressing-room anecdotes and heartwarming stories, this fascinating look into the world of a quiet American boy turned soccer star is the real-life story of every aspiring young American soccer player’s dream and the perfect book for anyone with a passion for the beautiful game.

The Club

Author: Joshua Robinson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 1328506452
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Book Description
Two veteran sports writers and editors take readers inside the history of the most-watched sports league on earth -- England's Premier League.

Uganda Be Kidding Me

Author: Chelsea Handler
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1455599727
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Book Description
In this uproarious collection of travel essays, Chelsea Handler sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever. On safari in Africa, it's anyone's guess as to what's more dangerous: the wildlife or Chelsea. But whether she's fumbling the seduction of a guide by not knowing where tigers live (Asia, duh) or wearing a bathrobe into the bush because her clothes stopped fitting seven margaritas ago, she's always game for the next misadventure. The situation gets down and dirty as she defiles a kayak in the Bahamas, and outright sweaty as she escapes from a German hospital on crutches. When things get truly scary, like finding herself stuck next to a passenger with bad breath, she knows she can rely on her family to make matters even worse. Thank goodness she has the devoted Chunk by her side-except for the time she loses him in Telluride. Complete with answers to the most frequently asked traveler's questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed, Uganda Be Kidding Me has Chelsea taking on the world, one laugh-out-loud incident at a time.

The Bromley Boys

Author: Dave Roberts
Publisher: Portico
ISBN: 1909396079
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
The book that inspired the major motion picture 'I loved it ... extremely funny. A must-read for anyone who loves football.' Peter Crouch In the late 1960s, in the warm glow of England winning the World Cup, Dave Roberts, like most teenage boys his age, was football mad. There was just one difference: rather than supporting the likes of Arsenal or Manchester United, Dave’s team of choice was the ever so slightly less glamorous Bromley Football Club – one of the last genuinely amateur football teams left, fighting for survival in the lowest non-league division. This book is the story of Bromley’s worst ever season. It is a funny and heart-warming tale of football at the very bottom: Dave turns up to each match with his football boots in his bag, just in case the team are a player short; the crowd is always announced as 400 as no-one can be bothered to count; the team ship so many goals that in one match, the taunting opposition fans actually lose count of the score. It’s easy being a football fan when your team are always winning. The Bromley Boys is the touching true story about supporting a club through thin and even thinner: proof that the more your team may lose on the pitch, the more there is to gain on the terraces.

Chelsea FC: The Official Biography

Author: Rick Glanvill
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 9780755314669
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
CHELSEA FC: THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY goes to the heart of what gives the club its personality. The author has access to all the key characters, including Mourinho, Abramovich and the star players, plus legendary names of the past. He addresses all the controversies, including: the near suffocation through lack of cash in the 1970s and in 2002; the impact of Abramovich's money; the club and fans' response to racism; how the hooliganism which dogged Chelsea for years has been tackled. On the lighter side, Chelsea is regarded as the country's glamour club, and fashions, good and dreadful, will feature alongside celebrity fans and the worlds of art and music. And then there is the football at the core of it all, creating moments of huge tension and excitement.

Rebels for the Cause

Author: Jon Spurling
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 178057486X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
Arsenal's on-field success has been well documented. But what has never been written before is the equally remarkable history of Arsenal's rebels, both on and off the pitch. Spanning almost 120 years, and set against a backdrop of turbulent social and political change, Rebels for the Cause assesses the legacy and impact of Arsenal's most controversial players, officials and matches. From hard men like '30s player Wilf Copping to the reformed wild ones of recent years such as Tony Adams, Jon Spurling highlights the infamous figures whose refusal to conform has made them terrace legends. Mavericks such as '80s star Charlie Nicholas and the 'King of Highbury' Charlie George are here, as are '70s lads Alan Hudson and Malcolm Macdonald. The book also focuses on the club's revolutionary founding fathers, David Danskin and Jack Humble, the terrifying '20s 'soccer Tsar' Sir Henry Norris and David Dein's controversial introduction of free-market economics to Highbury in the regressive '80s. Also investigated are the stories behind Arsenal's most infamous tabloid exposés. Featuring extensive interviews with 15 former players, Rebels for the Cause is an indispensable guide to the alternative history of Arsenal Football Club, shedding new light on the origins of the rivalry with Tottenham, on many of Highbury's cult heroes and on the struggle of several players to adapt to life outside the game.