A thread for books about football

bergain

meant to be very good.

the new dunphy book sounds interesting enough too.

Thanks D

I picked up another footy-related book second-hand yesterday, Awaydays by Kevin Sampson. I had it then lost it when I was a student, and remembered it as a pretty good read, plus I saw the film recently (fine, but comically underbudgeted), so I thought I'd give it another try. First chapter rolls along nicely, good bit of colour, one or two promising characters.

Arseclenching stuff from adams

Oh god: The Anatomy of Liverpool

everyone needs to read that tony cascarino book if they havent already

Bergkamp's book is really good, so refreshing to have a footballer talk about football: favoured positions and formations, how some work for him and some don't, spaces between players and lines, how he worked on technique, etc.

You can see he is genuinely interested in how others assess his difficult period at Inter - where he was something of a pawn in a religious war between Catenaccio and Sacchi's revolution at Milan - rather than just blaming failings on poor coaching or poor relationships with players.

I had just about given up on football autobiographies with all the usual shite about contracts and booze and how they carry on the fine tradition of bullying apprentices but Bergkamp may have kept me on board for one more self-indulgent tell-all.

otm

best bits def as you describe- his on-pitch spatial reasonings broken down, and the back-and-forth nature of the inter discussion

also- blessedly short.

I got it for 49p thanks to your link upthread btw, so thank you (now £9.49).

yeah idk what went on there but

everything Jonathan Wilson does is great,though i habent had a chance to read the outsider.

The ball is round by David Goldblatt(?) is a great history of football.

I really,really want to read soccer nemesis by Brian Glanville as any excerpts of it have always piqued my interest. Another on my wishlist are dunphy's a strange kind of glory.

haven't
Is

have you

i'm banging on about it now

read only a game from dunphy?

I only really started reading football books last couple years but living in fucking hockey land it's a bit difficult to get anything that is remotely old or esoteric. might get myself a crimbo present off yon internet.

It's just irritating, the "Bill Shankly put on the kettle. Bill Shankly made a cup of tea. Bill Shankly took it to the table. Bill Shankly sat down. Bill Shankly put his head in his hands. Bill Shankly wept."
Shocked that there is this kind of repetitive writing to be found in a David Peace book.

I enjoyed Inverting the Pyramid. David Winner's Brilliant Orange and Those Feet are excellent, although Brilliant Orange is as much a book about the Dutch psyche than anything lese.

I just finished The Nowhere Men by Michael Calvin, as recommended by Swygart upthread. It's fantastic - packing in the detail, never wasting a word is right. I've read four other footy books this year - Bergkamp's, Zlatan's, The Glory Game, Dunphy's autobiography - and they're all good, but this is the best. Highly recommended.

Just finished the Zlatan book. It did nothing to change my firm belief, based on years of fitba biogs, that footballers are mostly arseholes. Ten years of annually collecting league trophies at every country he passes through and it's all agitating for transfers and head-butting team mates and carrying grudges against every cunt who dared to look at him sideways.

It's amazing how in awe of his agent he is. Everything else in life he's the big boss; but when it comes to doing a deal, he's snuggling up to daddy while the grown-ups talk.

Pirlo's book is out in paperback in English translation. Good stuff especially on free kick technique, being tapped up by Pep, torturing gattuso. The gap in behaviour between English pros and European ones not so great judging by his strict Milan training regime of arrive a training for 9am, one hour of FIFA vs Nesta, train for 2 hours then more FIFA until 4pm!

He also p much accuses Depor of doping wrt the game they overturned a 1-4 deficit to knock Milan out of the CL.

His free kick technique is based on Juninho and involves striking the ball with only the last 3 toes iirc.

Just finished Ronald Reng's Matchdays. Really enjoyed it a sort of history of the bundesliga through the playing and management career of Heinz Höher (someone I had never heard of). By the end when he's training Juri Judt by himself and encouraging him it's p sad.

About 1/3 of the way thru Michael Calvin's 'Living On The Volcano'. Between Shaun Derry,Ian Holloway and Mark Hughes there's plenty of good QPR stuff including Julio Cesar advising Derry to buy a helicopter instead of commuting for 2 hours into training. The Martin Ling stuff is scary as is the Brendon Rodgers stuff though for completely different reasons.

He sets the scene in a style worthy of a local garda novel when describing his first meeting with John Still....

"in a rain lashed Portokabin in the garden suburbs of Luton, where a black plastic dustbin asking for donations 'for Africa' contains a solitary football boot."

also chronicles an aside from Sean Dyche - these guys are going to be regarded as rock legends (on Kasabian)

Poch book is really good

revelatory stuff in the p crouch book... james mcclean puts hp sauce on the majority of his meals up to and including rice pudding!