Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths


Book Description

'We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others' George Best Written in the months before he died, Hard Tackles and Dirty Baths is George's farewell letter to the great footballing era in which he burned so brightly - a personal history of the golden years before TV and agents changed everything. From the breaking of the maximum wage to the cusp of the first million-pound player, it follows the triumphs and tragedies of every season from 1960 to 1974. It is the story of our greatest footballing generation - Greaves, Moore, Law, Charlton, Osgood, Lorimer, Jennings, Hurst and, of course, Best himself.




Leicester City: The Immortals


Book Description

The Immortals is the fairy-tale account of Leicester City, who rose from the very bottom of the English Premier League—the world’s toughest soccer league—to triumph against all odds (5,000–1) and finish as champions. Ending up in League One (third level) for the first time in 2008–09, the team stormed through the season to win the league and was promoted back up to the League Championship (second league). After four seasons as a middle-of-the-pack team, Leicester won the league in 2013–14, being promoted to the EPL for the first time in a decade. After a strong start the following season, the team quickly faded and looked to be facing relegation. But after winning seven out of their last nine games, they avoided the demotion and finished in fourteenth place. Under the calm and wise management of Claudio Ranieri—who was named as manager to start the 2015–16 season—the East Midlands club stunned football supporters by winning despite not having a recognizable superstar on the team. With massive team spirit and a never-say-die attitude, the team kept Tottenham, Arsenal, and Manchester City at bay to secure their first ever Premier League trophy in their 132-year history. In the process, journeyman players such as Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante, and Kasper Schmeichel became household names and added to the team’s growing lore. Written by legendary soccer writer Harry Harris, with seventy-six books to his name, The Immortals is a must-read for all fans of the sport, as well as those who adopted Leicester City and the Foxes during their dramatic run.




Pelé: His Life and Times - Revised & Updated


Book Description

A bestseller in both the UK and the USA on its first publication, this book was the first fully authorised life of world's greatest living footballer. With exclusive access to Pelé, award-winning sports writer Harry Harris charts his meteoric rise from humble beginnings in Brazil to his first international at the age of sixteen. Superb athleticism, speed of thought and execution, and astonishing ball control helped him become the only player to have appeared in three World Cup-winning sides, and to have scored more than 1,200 goals in his senior career, a feat that is now unlikely ever to be equalled, let alone surpassed. Pelé remains the best footballer of all time, despite the extraordinary exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and legends such as Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Now revised and updated to bring the story completely up to date, this is a tribute to a world-class sporting hero, a great sportsman and, to this day, an inspiration to millions.




When George Came to Edinburgh


Book Description

Played 24, won 10, lost 10 and drawn four. Three goals, three benders, one suspension and one sacking. This is the inside story of what happened when the world's most famous footballer joined the tenth best team in Scotland. In the winter of 1979 Hibs were enduring a season from hell and were freefalling towards relegation. They needed a miracle man to save them - what they got was a lonely, depressed man caught in a downwards alcoholic spiral. In just under a year in Edinburgh, George Best was never off the front and back pages of the national newspapers. A scrupulous, moving, extraordinary account, John Neil Munro weaves together an absorbing and unique portrait of a lost icon, with insights from his widow, his team-mates, his drinking buddies and many of the fans who saw his great performances; this is the definitive story of what happened when George Best came to Edinburgh.




Planet Football


Book Description

Planet Football profiles twelve great players, moving from Alfredo Di Stefano and Pele, stars half a century ago, to the current global presence of David Beckham and Lionel Messi. Here are the sublime skills of Eusebio and Johan Cruyff, the determined spirit of Kevin Keegan, Bryan Robson, and Gary Lineker, plus the wayward genius of George Best, Diego Maradona, and Eric Cantona. Besides the contribution of these players to the development of the game, there are fascinating tales from off the pitch. Andrew Godsell is the acclaimed author of several books, including The World Cup and Europe United: A History of the European Cup / Champions League.




Stokoe, Sunderland and 73


Book Description

50th anniversary edition of the story of the team that caused the last, great FA Cup upset... 'Times have changed but this book is an engrossing reminder for all fans' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'An essential piece of British football history for fans of any club. Brilliantly researched and written with an undisguised passion' Guy Mowbray, BBC's Match of the Day Today, it seems inconceivable that a team from the lower reaches of the Championship could beat the likes of Chelsea or Manchester United in the FA Cup Final. Yet, on 5 May 1973 that is exactly what happened. Six months earlier, Bob Stokoe took on an ailing Sunderland team, struggling at the bottom of the second division. But the long road to Wembley sees them beating Arsenal and Manchester City to reach the final, where they face Don Revie's mighty Leeds United in a game few expect them to win. Yet what lies ninety minutes ahead is the greatest FA Cup Final shock of all time. Sunderland's victory was, arguably, the last fairytale of recent footballing times. In STOKOE, SUNDERLAND AND '73, Lance Hardy talked with all the Sunderland players who turned out at Wembley that day and to the family of Bob Stokoe, to produce the definitive account of an unforgettable game.







Red Card to Racism


Book Description

‘It’s not banter. It’s racist.’Is football doing enough to give racism the boot? The global Black Lives Matter campaign has given greater exposure to the extent of the structural and systemic racism that exists in all strata of our society. It has provided renewed impetus to the urgent need to challenge and eradicate racism in all its forms and wherever it is found. Sadly, sport has not been immune from this, especially so in the case of football. For too long, there were attempts to hide and mitigate racist attitudes and actions within the game, but thanks to the growing profile and visibility of black and minority ethnic (BAME) players both past and present - Viv Anderson, Cyrille Regis, Jimmy Carter, Les Ferdinand, Pat Nevin and Ruud Gullit - to name just a few and almost three decades of education and campaigning led by Kick It Out, attitudes have changed. However, there's still a great deal left to do. Throughout his entire journalistic career, leading sportswriter Harry Harris has championed the fight against racism in football. Now, within these pages, he shines a timely spotlight on the Beautiful Game, revealing the forces within football that have both helped expose and challenge racism - and, at times, sadly, hinder more rapid positive change. Includes exclusive commentary from Greg Dyke, Glenn Hoddle, Ivor Baddiel, Mek Stein, and Jermain Defoe. ‘Highly commendable and will keep the debate raging’ – John Barnes







Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008


Book Description

Who made modern Britain? This book, drawn from the award-winning Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, tells the story of our recent past through the lives of those who shaped national life. Following on from the Oxford DNB's first supplement volume-noteworthy people who died between 2001 and 2004-this new volume offers biographies of more than 850 men and women who left their mark on twentieth and twenty-first century Britain, and who died in the years 2005 to 2008. Here are the people responsible for major developments in national life: from politics, the arts, business, technology, and law to military service, sport, education, science, and medicine. Many are closely connected to specific periods in Britain's recent history. From the 1950s, the young Harold Pinter or the Yorkshire cricketer, Fred Trueman, for example. From the Sixties, the footballer George Best, photographer Patrick Lichfield, and the Pink Floyd musician, Syd Barrett. It's hard to look back to the 1970s without thinking of Edward Heath and James Callaghan, who led the country for seven years in that turbulent decade; or similarly Freddie Laker, pioneer of budget air travel, and the comedians Ronnie Barker and Dave Allen who entertained with their sketch shows and sit coms. A decade later you probably browsed in Anita Roddick's Body Shop, or danced to the music of Factory Records, established by the Manchester entrepreneur, Tony Wilson. In the 1990s you may have hoped that 'Things can only get better' with a New Labour government which included Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam. Many in this volume are remembered for lives dedicated to a profession or cause: Bill Deedes or Conor Cruise O'Brien in journalism; Ned Sherrin in broadcasting or, indeed, Ted Heath whose political career spanned more than 50 years. Others were responsible for discoveries or innovations of lasting legacy and benefit-among them the epidemiologist Richard Doll, who made the link between smoking and lung cancer, Cicely Saunders, creator of the hospice movement, and Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans. With John Profumo-who gave his name to a scandal-policeman Malcolm Fewtrell-who investigated the Great Train Robbery-or the Russian dissident Aleksandr Litvinenko-who was killed in London in 2006-we have individuals best known for specific moments in our recent past. Others are synonymous with popular objects and experiences evocative of recent decades: Mastermind with Magnus Magnusson, the PG-Tips chimpanzees trained by Molly Badham, John DeLorean's 'gull-wing' car, or the new British Library designed by Colin St John Wilson-though, as rounded and balanced accounts, Oxford DNB biographies also set these events in the wider context of a person's life story. Authoritative and accessible, the biographies in this volume are written by specialist authors, many of them leading figures in their field. Here you will find Michael Billington on Harold Pinter, Michael Crick on George Best, Richard Davenport-Hines on Anita Roddick, Brenda Hale on Rose Heilbron, Roy Hattersley on James Callaghan, Simon Heffer on John Profumo, Douglas Hurd on Edward Heath, Alex Jennings on Paul Scofield, Hermione Lee on Pat Kavanagh, Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Conor Cruise O'Brien, and Peregrine Worsthorne on Bill Deedes. Many in this volume are, naturally, household names. But a good number are also remembered for lives away from the headlines. What in the 1980s became 'Thatcherism' owed much to behind the scenes advice from Ralph Harris and Alfred Sherman; children who learned to read with Ladybird Books must thank their creator, Douglas Keen; while, without its first producer, Verity Lambert, there would have been no Doctor Who. Others are 'ordinary' people capable of remarkable acts. Take, for instance, Arthur Bywater who over two days in 1944 cleared thousands of bombs from a Liverpool munitions factory following an explosion-only to do the same, months later, in an another factory. Awarded the George Cross and the George Medal, Bywater remains the only non-combatant to have received Britain's two highest awards for civilian bravery.




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