Manchester United Ruined My Life

Author: Colin Shindler
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0755363922
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
Colin Shindler was dealt a cruel hand by Fate when he became a passionate Manchester City supporter. In this brilliant sporting autobiography he recalls the great characters of his youth, like his eccentric Uncle Laurence, as well as his professional heroes. Threaded through these sporting events is the author's own story, which touches on a universal nerve, growing up in a Jewish family, his childhodd destroyed by the sudden death of his mother and his slow emotional recovery through his love for Manchester City. It is a tale that reveals what it is like to be on the outside looking in, with his nose pressed up against the sweet shop window watching the United supporters take all the wine gums.

Manchester United Ruined My Wife

Author: David Blatt
Publisher: Pitch Pub
ISBN: 9781905449811
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Manchester United Ruined My Wife, the hilarious tale of a life-long United supporter and the way his obsession affected his wife and daughters, one of whom grew up to be an international pop star, was first published in 2004 selling over 10,000 copies. This new, updated edition brings the tale from the tragedy of Munich up to the triumph of Moscow, including the protracted sale to American owners, the rise and rise of FC United of Manchester and finally the double whammy of United's 17th league title and the agony and ecstasy of Russian penalty roulette in Moscow. How can a man love one woman, when he is in love with eleven men? When people get married it is "Till death do us part," yet, for almost 40% of the population, marriage ends in divorce. But, when you fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your football team there is no divorce; you do not stray. Your team is the one constant, consistent, permanent, overwhelming obsession in your life. Rarely has a book been written that so painfully yet humorously conveys the all-consuming red-hot passion, joy and despair felt by the vast majority of football fans. With highs so intense it reduces sex to mere skin rubbing, David Blatt puts wives in their rightful place on the substitutes bench as he takes the reader on a journey through his United-watching adventures, from the Busby Babes via the 1968 European Cup final, relegation, promotion, the wilderness years of the 70s and 80s, a first Championship in 26 years and the glorious 1999 treble, which culminated in the unforgettable Champions League triumph in Barcelona. It is a tale that millions of so-called "ordinary" football fans can relate to. After all, how can kissing girls compete with getting up at 5am for a 400 mile round trip for home games?

Manchester City Ruined My Life

Author: Colin Shindler
Publisher: Headline
ISBN: 0755363590
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description
Colin Shindler has previously written of his deep love for Manchester City in the bestselling Manchester United Ruined My Life and three other previous books. Now he tells the story of his sorrowful disenchantment with his home town club as, on the instruction of its new foreign owners, it turns itself remorselessly into a global brand. Trophyless since 1976, in 2011 Manchester City won the FA Cup and set off on their quest for the Premiership and the Champions League. In their zeal to win every competition the new Manchester City has spent money with wild abandon, signing outstandingly talented players as well as a few ordinary ones but in almost every case at hugely inflated prices. From the nail-biting win over Gillingham in the League Two Play Off final at Wembley in 1999 to the climax of the 2011 season, Shindler watches his team get steadily more successful and, to his own bewilderment, feels steadily more alienated from it. This is the story of a frustrated romantic who finds in the glitz and glamour of the current media-obsessed game a helter-skelter of artificially fabricated excitement. As he details how football courses through his veins Shindler tells how it intersects with his own life, a life that has been marked by family tragedy, and how he finally found personal redemption even as his team lost its soul.

Welcome to the Blue Heaven

Author: Jimmy Nielsen
Publisher: Ascend Books
ISBN: 9780985631482
Category : Soccer
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Major League Soccer's Goalkeeper of the year for 2012, Jimmy Nielsen has established himself as one of the best players in the league and a fan favorite while playing for Sporting Kansas City. Yet while supporters are familiar with his achievements on the field and larger-than-life personality off it, few are aware of the remarkable story that led himto the midwest. Compared from an early age to Denmark's greatest ever goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, Nielsen was scouted by Manchester United and a host of other leading European clubs, but at the point when he should have been building a great career he was instead developing a ferocious gambling habit. In 1999, he was dropped from Denmark's under 21 team after missing cerfew because of a lost night at the roulette table. Nicknamed 'Casino Jimmy' by rival supporters, Nielsen continued to gamble-the stakes getting so high that he was able to win $500,000 on a single night at one casinoand then throw more than half of that away at the same venue a day later. His losses finally caught up to him in2004, when his inability to pay off agambling debt helped put a major bookie out of business. Avoiding bankruptcy only with financial assistance from his soccer club and with the support of a family he feared would desert him, Nielsen gradually pieced his life back together. But in his soccer career he remained unfulfilled. He had spent almost his entire career with Aalborg, the team he supported as a boy, starting a record 398 games and winning the Danish championshipin 1999, but he dreamed of a fresh challenge. Were it not for a phone call, from Kansas City in January 2010,that might have been the end of the story. Despite still performing at a high level, Nielsen was contemplating retirement when he was offered a contract by an American club he didn't even know existed. He said yes.

Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches

Author: Colin Shlinder
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785316340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
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. One of sport's leading social historians tells the astonishing story of a cricket tour framed in a landscape of turbulent social history.

The Hit

Author: Melvin Burgess
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0545557003
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
“This fantasy about a drug that gives users a perfect week, then sudden death, is compelling fiction—and nearly a masterpiece.” —The Guardian A new drug is on the street. Everyone’s buzzing about it. Take the hit. Live the most intense week of your life. Then die. It’s the ultimate high at the ultimate price. Adam thinks it over. He’s poor, and doesn’t see that changing. Lizzie, his girlfriend, can’t make up her mind about sleeping with him, so he can’t get laid. His brother Jess is missing. And Manchester is in chaos, controlled by drug dealers and besieged by a group of homegrown terrorists who call themselves the Zealots. Wouldn’t one amazing week be better than this endless, penniless misery? After Adam downs one of the Death pills, he’s about to find out. “A boundary pushing thriller. . . . Amid violent action, existential anguish, and the heightened appreciation for life that death can bring, Burgess has created a premise that readers will find hard to forget.” —Publishers Weekly “Viscerally exciting and emotionally engaging. . . . A clear winner from Burgess.” —Booklist “An exciting, dark story of sex, drugs, and revolution that is sure to grip readers.” —School Library Journal

A Long Way Down

Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594633568
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
A wise, affecting novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Dickens and Prince, High Fidelity, and About A Boy. New York Times-bestselling author Nick Hornby mines the hearts and psyches of four lost souls who connect just when they've reached the end of the line. A Long Way Down is now a major motion picture from Magnolia Pictures starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots. Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives. In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances. Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life.

Illusions

Author: Madeline J. Reynolds
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
ISBN: 1640635645
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
Dear Thomas, I know you're angry. It's true, I was sent to expose your mentor as a fraud illusionist, and instead I have put your secret in jeopardy. I fear I have even put your life in jeopardy. For that I can only beg your forgiveness. I've fallen for you. You know I have. And I never wanted to create a rift between us, but if it means protecting you from those who wish you dead—I'll do it. I'll do anything to keep you safe, whatever the sacrifice. Please forgive me for all I've done and what I'm about to do next. I promise, it's one magic trick no one will ever see coming. Love, Saverio

Mein Kampf

Author: Adolf Hitler
Publisher: ببلومانيا للنشر والتوزيع
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 522

Book Description
Madman, tyrant, animal—history has given Adolf Hitler many names. In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), often called the Nazi bible, Hitler describes his life, frustrations, ideals, and dreams. Born to an impoverished couple in a small town in Austria, the young Adolf grew up with the fervent desire to become a painter. The death of his parents and outright rejection from art schools in Vienna forced him into underpaid work as a laborer. During the First World War, Hitler served in the infantry and was decorated for bravery. After the war, he became actively involved with socialist political groups and quickly rose to power, establishing himself as Chairman of the National Socialist German Worker's party. In 1924, Hitler led a coalition of nationalist groups in a bid to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. The infamous Munich "Beer-hall putsch" was unsuccessful, and Hitler was arrested. During the nine months he was in prison, an embittered and frustrated Hitler dictated a personal manifesto to his loyal follower Rudolph Hess. He vented his sentiments against communism and the Jewish people in this document, which was to become Mein Kampf, the controversial book that is seen as the blue-print for Hitler's political and military campaign. In Mein Kampf, Hitler describes his strategy for rebuilding Germany and conquering Europe. It is a glimpse into the mind of a man who destabilized world peace and pursued the genocide now known as the Holocaust.

One: My Autobiography

Author: Peter Schmeichel
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1529354145
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
'TERRIFIC' - Daily Mail 'ONE OF THE UNDISPUTED GREATS' - Sun 'Why me? How could a boy from a Copenhagen tower block say I want to be a champion with Manchester United and Denmark and make it happen?' Peter Schmeichel is a giant of football, who won more Premier League titles (five) than any player in his position and captained Manchester United in the incomparable, last-gasp Treble-clinching win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. 'I don't believe a better goalkeeper played the game,' Sir Alex Ferguson said. One: My Autobiography is Schmeichel's story. In it, he takes us inside the remarkable, winning environment of a club that transformed football during the 1990s, and on to the pitch on that crazy, breathless night in Barcelona in 1999. From Ferguson's unique gifts to Eric Cantona's unique personality, he delivers a close-up and insightful portrait of United's golden era. However, One: My Autobiography goes way beyond the pitch. Schmeichel has an incredible family story to tell, starting with his father, Antoni, a brilliant Polish jazz musician who battled demons and for years kept a momentous secret from those around him. And he explores what he has been able to pass on to his own son, Kasper - himself a Premier League-winning goalkeeper and number one in the Danish national side. Peter's life after football, seldom straightforward, is described with astonishing candour. One: My Autobiography is about football, origins, journeys and legacy.