Books from the Boot Room
One Night in Turin
(Originally Published as All Played Out)
Pete Davies
First published in 1990
One Night in Turin is set to the backdrop of, what is arguably, a turning point in English football. Interestingly, the backdrop is set in Italy. Today, the English Premiership is a product sold all over the world. During the 1990 Italian World Cup, the league didn’t even exist, in its current form. Pete Davies describes a single cultural event that happened over the summer of that year that has echoed across football in the years since then. He gained access to players and coaching staff, which would be thought of as unusual today, as well as the fans and others to give a well rounded view of what happened in this few weeks; a very interesting read.
Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby
First Published in 1992
Fever Pitch is a benchmark of sports literature for many writers and sports fans, providing articulation for scope of what others had only thought and spoken about in smaller confines. Cambridge educated and English graduate Nick Hornby explains the consequences of the obsession that can come from fandom specifically focused around football some consequences around that and his own personal growth that came from his experiences, with a succinct honesty – a style that has similarities to Ernest Hemingway, but unique to himself and perhaps his Englishness. The lessons learnt from his quasi-autobiography and subsequent film, of which he wrote the screenplay, aren’t particular to football, or sports, but can have a message for a wider audience. Fever Pitch won the William Hill Sports Book Award of the Year for 1992.
Addicted
Tony Adams & Ian Ridley
First Published in 1998
A frank and honest depiction of what addiction can do to a high functioning alcoholic. Tony Adams gives a very clear account of how when a person approaches rock bottom amidst a haze of issues and vulnerability and how he came back up again to resurrect his career. Additionally, due him being a highly successful footballer and a captain of both Arsenal and England, there are insights and stories from the inner sanctums of the game.
Manslaughter United – A Season with a Prison Football Team
Chris Hulme
First Published in 1999
This book focuses on one year of an English amateur football team during the 1997/98 league season. Unusually, though, all of their games are at home. This is a prison side and this tells their story how they wound up where they are. It is an interesting look at how sport can develop people and allow people to have a second chance.
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro
Joe McGinniss
First Published in 1999
What happens when a footballing novice becomes obsessed with football? Joe McGinniss, until his death in 2014, was an American writer and novelist. Subject matters for his work over the years has included Richard Nixon and Sarah Palin. However, during the 1990’s he developed a particular passion for Italian calcio (football), having not paid much attention to it in the past. In this turn away from his usual set of focuses, he spends around a year of his life following the trials and tribulations of a small Italian football team in their quest for glory. He gets to know the players and the coach and gains interesting insights into what happens inside the game, behind the scenes.
Barca – A People’s Passion
Jimmy Burns
First Published in 1999
A cultural extravaganza of a book that informs and educates on how, culture, politics, rebellion and sport can all collide. The author, Jimmy Burns, shows how a club can be about more than just one thing, it can be more than just about football. He tells us how FC Barcelona can represent a culture and become a vessel for a community whilst those very same people are being maligned. It is an interesting look at what sport can provide people other than entertainment.
The Best of Enemies – England v Germany
David Downing
First Published in 2000
The England – Germany football games have become something of legend within the mother of the sport. David Downing takes a look at the history of the fixture from the Christmas Day game in ‘No Man’s Land’ between the soldiers in the First World War to the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship. We take in continental club fixtures, as well as World Cups, issues from national politics to sporting diplomacy. He brings us history, statistics and talking points.
My Father and other Working Class Heroes
Gary Imlach
First Published in 2005
Gary Imlach is an author, journalist and broadcaster, known best for his coverage of the Tour de France on British television. He is also the son of former Scotland football international Stewart Imlach. His biography of his father won the 2005 William Hill Sports Book Award and subsequently the 2006 British Sports Book Award for Best New Writer. It is a lovely story about somebody who means so much to him and one might get a sense of the author getting to know his old dad a bit better than he did in life. It also serves as documentation for British football of that time period and gives the younger generations an insight into how the game was different compared to the glitz and the glamour of today’s English Premier League.
GOAL! The Story of the Homeless World Cup
Mel Young
First Published in 2005
The Homeless World Cup is football tournament set up by Mel Young (of the Big Issue) and Harald Schmied a street newspaper colleague. The book provides insight into the benefits of building positive experiences and relationships through sport, for people who have found themselves in vulnerable situations.
Behind the Iron Curtain – Travels in Eastern European Football
Jonathan Wilson
First Published in 2006
This is a book that, until you’ve read it, you could be forgiven for not realising how important it is. Jonathan Wilson has such a skill in writing that he can inform the reader on something that, on the surface of things may appear uninteresting, but portray a sense of romance and sentimental nostalgia that comes from his own passion in the subject. It is also an important book in terms of a modern context and how the changing political, cultural and socio-economic elements of European 20th century history can have an affect on the spectacle of football today.
Provided You Don’t Kiss Me – 20 Years with Brian Clough
Duncan Hamilton
First Published in 2007
Winner of the 2007 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Duncan Hamilton’s biography of Brian Clough stands up against a variety of good books about the brilliant football manager. As a writer for the Nottingham Evening Post, he covered matches of Nottingham Forest, whilst Clough was manager there. Here he developed a working relationship with the man and they got to know each other as people. This beautiful portrait of a sports coach, speaks of a human getting on in life, with all of the positives and negatives that come with that. A must-read for any fan of old school football and Brian Clough anecdotes.
You’ll Win Nothing with Kids – Fathers, Sons and Football
Jim White
First Published in 2007
Jim White is a sports journalist, who has worked for The Independent, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. He is a fan of Manchester United FC. This book of his is about his experiences of coaching his son’s youth football team. He provides a heart felt tale of what it is like to be involved at the beginning of the journey into the enjoyment of the game whilst coaching children, whilst articulating what the amateur game in the UK is really like. He adds to this with comments and suggestions from famous names from the world of football coaching, through his job as a sports correspondent.
More than Just a Game – Football v Apartheid; The Most Important Football Story Ever Told
Chuck Korr and Marvin Close
First Published in 2008
There are many Sunday league standard players, like myself, who think that it is a right to have played on and then complained about a series of bad pitches and inhospitable facilities that we have had to endure. I suspect that, having played predominately within the comfortable confines of the urban fields and parks of Britain, that we don’t always appreciate how lucky we are. More than Just a Game tells the true story of how the Makana Football Association was set up on Robben Island, by the political prisoners of an Apartheid South Africa. We learn about the trials and struggles that had to be endured in order to establish a league structure for the people striving for equal rights in their own country and can begin to appreciate a new elements of what is important about sport.
A Life Too Short – The Tragedy of Robert Enke
Ronald Reng
First published in 2011
At 32 years old, Robert Enke was challenging for one of the goalkeeping positions within the German national team at the 2010 World Cup, but in 2009 he committed suicide. His biography was written by his friend and journalist Ronald Reng. The book deals with how anxiety and depression can affect somebody’s day to day life and can change a person in their day to day lives, including the affect to his or her work and family lives and most importantly provides a pathway of how it can develop that anybody can relate to. A Life Too Short was the winner of the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.
Inverting the Pyramid – The History of Football Tactics
Johnathan Wilson
First Published in 2008
New Edition Published in 2013
Jonathan Wilson is one of the top football writers within the United Kingdom. He has contributed towards The Guardian, The Independent, Sports Illustrated, Four Four Two, The Daily Telegraph, World Soccer and the podcast Football Weekly and has also written a number of books. Inverting the Pyramid, for me, is his best. It shows how tactics and formations within the game have evolved across the world, how cultural permutations can affect tactical development within nations independently of each other, but also how cross pollination of ideas can and has actually happened over the decades. Inverting the Pyramid is also an award winning tome, taking the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and ‘Best Football Book’ at the British Sports Book Awards in 2009.
Rock ’n’ Roll Soccer – The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League
Ian Plenderleith
First Published in 2014
The North American Soccer League, or NASL if you don’t fancy that particular mouthful, now has somewhat of a legendary status in history of football. Although now defunct, for reasons explained in this fascinating and well written historical account, the league itself trail-blazed and experimented with a number of rule changes, new ideas and prompted some interesting talking points within the sport. Players, who in their day were world class, were attracted to go over and play in what was the unofficial competition in the USA and Canada. George Best, Johan Cruyff, Pele and Eusebio all spent periods of time playing in the NASL, which just adds to its glamour. Ian Plenderleith’s book is definitely worth a read for any fan of the new American franchise, Major League Soccer.
Golazo – A History of Latin American Football
Andreas Campomar
First Published in 2014
Andreas Campomar has written a tome in tribute to football within the Latin American continent. He provides a long a varied history of the development of the sport, starting in the nineteenth century, moving across the entirety of South America and culminating in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. We learn about the cultural specifics that brought the game across from Europe and the differences between the many different nations, living side by side. An interesting look at a vast and intriguing part of the intercontinental game, that I suspect many Europeans are ignorant of.
Living on the Volcano – The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager
Michael Calvin
First Published in 2015
If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to be the person in charge of a football club, then this book gives some particular insights. Michael Calvin speaks to a variety coaches and managers from a variety of levels. He provides a bit of background to each individual and then gets them to guide him through the day to day issues that come with the job. The book deals particularly with the stressful parts of the vocation and how different people deal with the different some of the hardships that they come across.
Pep Guardiola – The Evolution
Martí Perarnau
First Published in 2016
Written and researched predominately during Pep Guardiola’s time coaching Bayern Munich and in the lead up to his move to Manchester City, the reader is able to gain an incredible amount of insight into the workings of, arguably, the best football coach currently working. The level of access given to Martí Perarnau and the amount of detail allowed to be made public is almost unheard of in recent times. For coaches, this is a fascinating look inside the mind of somebody steeped in the Cruyffian school of thought and an exponent of modern total football.