Champions League Dreams

Author: Rafa Benitez
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755363639
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Book Description
This is a stimulating and deeply insightful football narrative by Rafa Benitez which focuses on the legendary manager's dramatic six Champions League campaigns with Liverpool. Rafa expertly navigates fans through intriguing European adventures that embrace the triumph and despair of two Champions League finals, three semi-finals and five quarter-finals in what was a golden era for the Anfield club - an era that supporters felt gave them their pride back after years in the wilderness. What sets this apart is the unique ways in which Rafa allows fans into his high-pressured world, the fascinating glimpses he offers of a top manager's thought processes and decision making during the cut and thrust of a high-octane European campaign. Understand how a great manager prepares for, then executes, a master-plan for European success.

Rafa Benitez

Author: Paco Lloret
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing - Dewi Lewis Media
ISBN: 9780954684372
Category : Soccer
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
On 25 May 2005, Liverpool FC won the Champions League Final in one of the most memorable and extraordinary nights of English football. Benitez surpassed his fantastic Spanish success with Liverpool FC. This authorised biography is a vivid and lively account of both his personal and professional life, from his early days up to his most recent successes. Author Paco Lloret has been a sports journalist for over 20 years. He first met Benitez in 1996 and has been in frequent contact since, giving him a privileged viewpoint of this extraordinary manager.

A Season on the Brink

Author: Guillem Balague
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 1409138143
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Book Description
Biographical Portrait of Liverpool's Spanish football manager Rafael Benitez and an extraordinary season for the club. When Rafael Benitez was appointed manager of under-achieving Liverpool at the start of the 2004-2005 season, the reaction of many fans was 'Who the **** is Rafael Benitez?'. The Liverpool fans had grown used to French manager Gerard Houllier but he had been a fan of the club himself since his days as a teacher on Merseyside. A Spaniard with admittedly a wonderful record at Valencia was going to take over management of Liverpool's famous Boot Room and try and win over a disillusioned Kop. But in one season, Benitez's importation of Spanish players, coaching methods and diet has led to a revolution, even usurping Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, whereby the team has ended the season winning the ultimate trophy for any European club - the European Champions League. No fan will ever forget the comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 3-3 scoreline, then dramatic success in the penalty shoot-out. This is the story of Rafa's remarkable success.

The Real Madrid Handbook

Author: Rab MacWilliam
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 1913538834
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
The ultimate guide to Real Madrid. The Real Madrid Handbook is an entertaining compendium of fascinating facts, match coverage, stories, personalities and trivia from the biggest club team on the planet. Rab MacWilliam traces the history of Real Madrid from the early 20th century, examining its progress in the domestic cup and league, and analyses the impact that the Republic, the Spanish Civil War and the repressive authoritarian aftermath had on the club. He relates how the stunning success in European football in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s was one of the factors that helped to ease Spain's integration into Europe and explores the club's rise to become one of the most skilful and dominant teams in the global game over the last thirty years. Fascinating, informative, irreverent and insightful, The Real Madrid Handbook is the perfect guide to the history of this extraordinary club.

The Return of King Kenny - Liverpool FC's 2010-2011 Season from a Fan's Perspective (Unauthorised)

Author: Oliver Smith
Publisher: Punked Books
ISBN: 1908375108
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
"At over 100,000 words, The Return of King Kenny is the most comprehensive guide yet published to Liverpool Football Club's 2010-2011 season, arguably the most tumultuous of any in the club's history. The previous lacklustre year had ended with the sacking of Rafael Benitez, which led the author of this book to believe that things could only get worse... Of course, Benitez was replaced by Roy Hodgson, who had achieved the phenomenal feat of getting Fulham to the 2010 UEFA Europa League final. To his credit, Oliver had doubts from the start that Roy Hodgson could successfully make the step up to a bigger club such as Liverpool FC, and Oliver's ideal appointment at this time would have been a certain 'King Kenny'... Yet Liverpool were still owned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who were certainly not a "safe pair of hands", as under their stewardship, Liverpool FC came dangerously close to the brink of administration... Oliver Smith cuts through the broken promises, the bluster, and the red tape to provide a scintillating account of the events that could have wrecked Liverpool FC forever. With the stunning purchase of Liverpool FC by John W. Henry's New England Sports Ventures (NESV), Oliver was finally able to detect a little bit of that "golden sky' so promised by the Kop's famous anthem. However, with Liverpool FC having the worst start to the season since the 50s, with an accompanying drop into the Premier League relegation zone, more drama was to come, culminating in the crowning of a legendary Anfield hero as King..."--

An Epic Swindle

Author: Brian Reade
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1623655366
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
An Epic Swindle is the inside story of how Liverpool FC came within hours of being re-possessed by the banks after the shambolic 44-month reign of American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett. It is the tale of a civil war that dragged Britain's most successful football club to its knees, through the High Court and almost into administration. Players Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher tell of their anger at the broken promises, as well as their pain at watching loyal fans in open revolt. Manager, chief executive, board members, leading fans and journalists reveal the turmoil at a revered sporting institution run by two men at war with each other, who trampled Liverpool's cherished traditions into the gutter. No story sums up the naked greed at the heart of modern football quite like Hicks' and Gillett's attempt to turn a buck at Liverpool. No-one has had as much access to the truth, or tells it with as much passion, wit and insight as Brian Reade. An Epic Swindle is the riveting story of how close one of the great football clubs came to financial implosion.

Whistle Blower

Author: Mark Clattenburg
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 1472282043
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
The outspoken and hard-hitting autobiography of one of the most highly-rated, recognisable and controversial football referees of modern times. Mark Clattenburg found himself in the centre circle, whistle in hand, at the start of 450 Premier League matches during a highly eventful 13-year career in football's top flight. He has shaken hands with, issued red and yellow cards to, and been sworn at by hundreds of players. He has been screamed at and shared jokes with dozens and dozens of managers. And he's felt the wrath of thousands upon thousands of irate fans. His autobiography is the ultimate guide to what it's really like to be in the referee's spotlight. It offers numerous intriguing insights into the daily trials and tribulations, the acute stresses and strains, of a top-flight referee. Clattenburg takes the reader into the referee's room, the players' tunnel and out on the pitch to experience precisely what a referee goes through on match day.

Looking for the Toffees

Author: Brian Viner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471131726
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Book Description
In 1977-78, Brian Viner was a season ticket-holder in the Gwladys Street End at Goodison Park, home to his beloved Everton. In front of him were the stars of the day: striker Bob Latchford, creative midfielder Duncan McKenzie and goalkeeping hero George Wood. There were no airs and graces then: Viner would regularly see Latchford in the local pub, and even once saw Wood mowing the field at his school, so asked him to come and join his classmates for a kickabout, which he did. It would never happen now. But as well as nostalgia for that period, Viner reveals how this was a time when so much was on the cusp of change: in football the first wave of foreign players would arrive the next season, with Ossie Ardiles and Arnold Muhren among them; on Merseyside, the era of punk would soon give way to Thatcherism; and even Viner himself, at 16, was on the verge of adulthood. But little of what happened next could ever have been predicted. Viner's investigation of that year in the 1970s, based on many interviews with the players of the time, not only reveals a vanished era, but also shows how football often fails to look after its own, as the life stories of what happened to the players afterwards shows, but how the spirit of the sport will always shine through.

Steven Gerrard - Portrait of A Hero

Author: Adam Cottier
Publisher: Kings Road Publishing
ISBN: 1784184519
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
Steven Gerrard has already fulfilled his dreams of success and glory in the world of football. A lifetime supporter of Liverpool FC, Steven is surely the most successful product of the club's youth academy. In such a short space of time, the young trainee reached outstanding form as he continually improved his game. He was the winner of the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2001 and has been nominated for the senior award in recent years.An all-rounded player, he has played a pivotal role for both club and country making him one of the most popular players of all time. As his playing went from strength to strength, he quickly followed in the steps of Liverpool legends such as Ian Rush and John Barnes as he was passed the captains armband in 2005, Gerrard reached an ultimate high as he marched his side to victory in the Champions League Final in Istanbul.With Liverpool crowned the champions of Europe, Gerrard became the greatest hero and a sought after player. But he wasn't finished there. Inspiring Liverpool to another dramatic comeback against West Ham in the 2006 FA Cup Final, Gerrard scored a spectacular goal to help take the trophy back to Anfield.

Torres

Author: Luca Caioli
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
ISBN: 1906850127
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
A brand new biography of Liverpool and Premier League superstar, Fernando Torres, based on one-of-a-kind insider interviews with those closest to him ... and the player himself. This is the story of a kid who wanted to be a rock star but who turned into a football god, the idolised and adopted son of 42 million Liverpool fans across the world. From his birth in Madrid through to his winning goal in Euro 2008 and beyond, the book goes ehind the scenes of Torres' life and career to examine what makes the golden boy of football tick as well as kick. Renowned sports journalist Luca Caioli has exclusively interviewed figures from fans to his father, Rafa Benítez to Luís Aragones, Steven Gerrard to Kenny Dalglish, Fabio Capello, and Fernando Torres himself. This unrivalled material will give the real untold story of how The Kid became the King of Europe...