The Football Man

Author: Arthur Hopcraft
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1845138384
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
‘Football matters, as poetry does to some people and alcohol does to others… Football is inherent in the people… There is more eccentricity in deliberately disregarding it than in devoting a life to it. The way we play the game, organize it and reward it reflects the kind of community we are’ Written just two years after England’s ’66 triumph when the national game was at its zenith, Arthur Hopcraft’s The Football Man is repeatedly quoted as the best book ever written about the sport. This definitive, magisterial study of football and society profiles includes interviews with all-time greats like Bobby Charlton, George Best, Alf Ramsay, Stanley Matthews, Matt Busby and Nat Lofthouse. It is a snapshot of a pivotal era in sporting history; changes and decisions were made in the sixties that would create the game we know today. For many who are disenchanted with the modern game – the grip of businesses and corporations, the dominance of advertising, the extortionate ticket prices and inaccessible matches, the fickleness of teenage millionaires – The Football Man takes the reader back to the heart and soul of the national game when pitches were muddy and the players were footballers not brands. Voted in May 2005 as one of Observer’s top sports books of all time, this is a long-awaited reissue of the classic football ‘bible’. ‘Masterpiece among sports books’ Guardian ‘It remains one of my favourite football reads’ Graham Taylor

The Football Men

Author: Simon Kuper
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0857201611
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
The great footballers and coaches are rarely glimpsed from up close. They shield themselves from the tabloids, hide their personalities behind professionalism, and in the words of the cliché, 'do their talking on the pitch'. This book gets up close to them. The Football Menis not a series of celebrity profiles, and it doesn't attempt to unearth secrets in the players' private lives. Rather, it portrays these men as three-dimensional human beings. It describes their upbringings, the football cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage that they bring to their relationships at work. This multimillion-pound, multinational world is mostly inhabited by ordinary men. The profiles in this book are sometimes funny, but never breathless or sensational. Some of the profiles in this book are based on interviews; others are the results of time the author spent with that person; sometimes the profile is a story of a country. All are fascinating and shed light on their subject to reveal things you wouldn't expect. From one of the great sports writers of our time this is a penetrating and surprising collection of articles on the figures that have defined the modern sporting world.

The Nowhere Men

Author: Michael Calvin
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448149967
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
Winner of The Times British Sports Book Award 2014. A fascinating insight into the enclosed world of football scouts in the UK A teenaged boy plays football in a suburban park. His name is Raheem Sterling. The call is made: “Get down here quick. This is something special”. Another boy is 8, going on 28. His name is Jack Wilshere. The referee, an Arsenal scout, spirits him away from Luton Town. A young goalkeeper struggles on loan at Cheltenham Town in League Two. His name is Jack Butland. Within months he will be playing for England. Welcome to football’s hidden tribe. Scouts are everywhere yet nowhere, faceless and nameless, despite making the informed decisions worth millions. Award-winning sportswriter Michael Calvin opens up their hidden world, examining their disconnected lifestyles, petty betrayals and unconsidered professionalism of men who spend long, lonely hours on the road.

The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football

Author: Paul Zimmerman
Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media, LLC
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 495

Book Description
During his nearly 30 years at Sports Illustrated, Paul Zimmerman—known to readers as “Dr. Z”—rose to fame as one of the top writers in football history. The follow up to Zimmerman’s 1971 classic The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football, The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football builds on the timeless insights of his original work. Filled with personal anecdotes from Zimmerman’s years covering football, this book offers a fascinating insight into the sport that will appeal to any fan that wants a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game. More than a generation later, Zimmerman’s work is as applicable today as when the updated edition came out in the late 1980s. This widely-acclaimed guide covers: Positions Tactics Football scouting Broadcasting Minor leagues Time strategies Great players and top moments

The Men in Black

Author: Tony O'Neill
Publisher: Milo Books Ltd
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
From the late Eighties onwards, one football gang dominated the hooligan world. Older, harder and better organised than their foes, they travelled everywhere and feared no-one. After one spectacular street victory, vanquished rivals gave them the name that became a byword for soccer violence: The Men In Black. Manchester United's hooligan mob had long caused mayhem, but in 1989 their hardcore was the target of a massive undercover police investigation, codenamed Operation Mars. It focused on the most infamous of the firm's members, including its `general', Tony O'Neill, and led to more than thirty arrests. But when the trial collapsed, the firm returned to the fray, wiser, more cunning and more ruthless than ever. They went on to defend their fearsome reputation against the toughest outfits in Britain: the Soul Crew, the Zulu Warriors, the Boro Frontline and the ICF. And they were never defeated. Covering the crucial period 1988-2005, The Men In Black recounts these stories and many more, told by those who were there, those who were involved in the hand-to-hand, close quarter battles and notably, the man police called Target Kilo: Tony O'Neill.

The Man in Black

Author: Gordon Thomson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781853752841
Category : Soccer
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
This work looks at the football referee from every discipline and angle: the history of their genesis as gentlemen arbiters in the Victorian era and their adjustment to the increasing sophistication of the laws; statistical analysis; social profile; cultural comparisons from refereeing around the world and in different sports; the outlook from the bottom (Sunday pub leagues) to the top (FIFA); refereeing philosophies (what is the referee's job?); and personal testimonies. Other influences on the games' decisions - linesmen, corruption, the crowd, TV and technology - are also included, together with many anecdotes, such as worst ever blunders.

The Christmas Match

Author: Pehr Thermaenius
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1910500070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
After four months of intense fighting, the war in Flanders between German and British soldiers fell silent on Christmas Eve 1914. The soldiers started singing instead of shooting. On Christmas Day they came out of their trenches and met in No Man's Land. Some chased rabbits. Some played football. This true story is about two footballers and soldiers, one Saxon and one Scot, who were in units that played a match in a field between the French villages Houplines and Frelinghien. Scotsman Jimmy Coyle had played professional football before the war. Saxon Albert Schmidt played in the third team for his local club. On Christmas afternoon they each got the chance to defeat their opponents without weapons. Pehr Thermaenius has tracked both Jimmy's and Albert’s stories through military archives; from mobilization in August to the hard frozen mud in that field in Flanders that became a football field on Christmas Day. The story of the football match is a light in the darkness as the world remembers the tragic waste of a hundred years ago.

Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle

Author: Bill Curry
Publisher: ESPN
ISBN: 0345517490
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
No sport rivals football for building character. In the scorching heat of two-a-days and the fierce combat of the gridiron, true leaders are born. Just ask Bill Curry, whose credentials for exploring the relationship between football and leadership include two Super Bowl rings and the distinction of having snapped footballs to Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas. In Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle, Curry shares the wit, wisdom, and tough love of teammates and coaches who turned him from a next-to-last NFL draft pick into a two-time Pro Bowler. Learning from such giants as Vince Lombardi and Don Shula, Ray Nitschke and Bubba Smith, Bobby Dodd and even the indomitable George Plimpton, Curry led a football life of nonstop exploration packed with adventure and surprise. Blessed with irresistible characters, rich personal history, and a strong, simple, down-to-earth voice, Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle proves that football is much more than a game. It’s a metaphor for life. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Grit and Glory

Author: Laura Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781931721288
Category : School sports
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A collection of forty black-and-white illustrated photographs document six-man football.

True Storey

Author: Peter Storey
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1907195734
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
True Storey is the compelling autobiography of notorious 1970s football legend Peter Storey, dubbed 'the bastard's bastard', who gained a reputation for ultra-violence on the pitch and had a capacity to find even greater trouble off it - a fact borne out by a string of criminal convictions and several jail sentences. A key member, as their midfield enforcer, of the resilient Arsenal team that won the European Fairs Cup followed by the cherished Double in 1970-71, Storey was a confirmed ladies' man who loved a drink. In the mid-'70s, Storey's pub, the Jolly Farmers in Islington, became a magnet for north London villains and he rubbed shoulders with Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey and Howard 'Mr Nice' Marks, Britain's biggest drug smuggler. Storey talks candidly about the crimes he committed and the spells in prison that blighted his life. He reveals the truth about his feud with George Best and relays an astonishing account of how Bertie Mee tried to make him miss the 1971 FA Cup final against Bill Shankly's Liverpool side because the Arsenal manager wanted Eddie Kelly to start instead. Today, Peter is an elusive character but a man transformed and at ease with life. Only now does he feel the circumstances are right to set the record straight and tell his side of a remarkable True Storey.