Manchester City


Book Description

"Our city, our story. Manchester City, one of England's most famous clubs, celebrate their 125th anniversary in 2019. City are now the benchmark for Premier League successs and theis beautifully illustrated book looks back at the Club's greatest moments, players and managers, right up the the new culture of football under inspirational coach Pep Guardiola.




Richer Than God: Manchester City, Modern Football and Growing Up


Book Description

Richer Than God is an authoritative, emotional, provocative account of Manchester City's takeover by Sheikh Mansour, culminating in their remarkable last minute Premier League title victory in May 2012. By placing the club's extraordinary current rise in the wider context of its patchy modern history, this is also the story of English football's transformation--from the battlegrounds of the 1980s to today's moneyed, seated, global entertainment. Conn is led to question the very nature of football clubs and being a supporter, the underlying values and running of what used to be called "the people's game." A labor of love, this powerfully told account of Manchester City's fall and rise, based on meticulous research over many years, and exclusive access and interviews with key figures, is written in the gripping, revelatory style Conn has made his trademark.




The History of English Football Clubs


Book Description

The History of English Football Clubs is a comprehensive chronicle of the 133 football clubs to have played in English leagues over the last 150 years. From current Premier League juggernauts Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to League Two minnows like Bradford (2013 FA Cup finalists) and AFC Wimbledon. Each club has a proud history of its own, not to mention a legion of passionate, usually lifelong fans. Among these 133 are 41 clubs that lost their league status in years past, realising their supporters' worst fears. In his lively and engaging voice, Shoot magazine editor Colin Mitchell tells the fascinating stories of these English sporting institutions. Text is illuminated by rare historical images, while statistics detail important achievements, players and events. This intriguing, inclusive book is a must read for any football fan, revealing the legends and legacies behind every English club, whether brave, beloved, beleaguered or forgotten.




Manchester City Player by Player


Book Description

This book explores the history of Manchester City players over the past 125 years.




Old Trafford


Book Description

In the Edwardian era, Manchester was the workshop of the world and its leading football club, Manchester United, was one of the best in the land. Unfortunately, its stadium at Bank Street did not reflect its aspirations. So the directors took the brave decision to build a spectacular new stadium to reflect the club's, and the city's, status. On 19 February 1910, Old Trafford was open for action. Ian Marshall tells the astonishing story of the hundred years that followed. From early triumph, through inter-war depression, Old Trafford saw it all. But when the ground was twice bombed during the Second World War, its entire future was in question. However, under the inspirational managership of Matt Busby, both the team and the ground were rebuilt, and a new era of dominance was ushered in in the 1950s, only for United to be once again struck down by Munich. Speaking to players, employees and fans from across the years, as well as original research into the United archives, Marshall explains how Old Trafford has remained central not just to United but to the fortunes of an entire city. Old Traffordis the definitive story of an iconic venue.




How Football Began


Book Description

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.




5000-1: The Leicester City Story


Book Description

THE INCREDIBLE AS-IT-HAPPENED STORY OF LEICESTER CITY’S MARCH TO PREMIER LEAGUE VICTORY In August 2015 bookmakers priced Leicester at 5000-1 to win the Premier League – the same odds as Elvis being found alive. On 2 May 2016, the impossible happened – Leicester won, to ecstatic celebrations in the city and around the world. Relive this remarkable season with Rob Tanner, the Leicester Mercury ’s chief football writer, from the great escape of 2015 to the curtain-closer at Stamford Bridge, via Ulloa’s last-gasp winner at Norwich and Vardy’s stunning volley against Liverpool. Detailing the key matches and turning points, Tanner’s book tells the inside story of Leicester City’s heroic year of triumph – and the players who under Claudio Ranieri’s inspired leadership became the most unlikely champions in football history.




Soccernomics


Book Description

Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn't America dominate the sport internationally...and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style? These are questions every soccer aficionado has asked. Soccernomics answers them. Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, Soccernomics reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup, Soccernomics is a new way of looking at the world's most popular game.




The Anatomy of Manchester United


Book Description

Award-winning football writer Jonathan Wilson selects ten landmark matches from Manchester United's history, from the first time they lifted the FA Cup, beating Bristol City in 1909, to the Cup victory of 2016 that proved to be Louis van Gaal's last game in charge. In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to being one of the foremost teams of the twentieth century. With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the matches themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluating and reassessing, and going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to discover why what happened happened. It is in this way, as far as possible, a football history of a great club. And because this is Manchester United, there is additional resonance. From the completion of Old Trafford in 1910, United have had a significant financial advantage. Yet their past has not been one of sustained success. As such, their history is also, to an extent, a history of English football, with all of its possibilities and frustrations.




Pep Guardiola


Book Description

'A must-read for anyone who's doubted Pep's influence, from handing the power to Barça's homegrown crop to never betraying his childhood romanticism of the game Four Four Two 'Balague's insightful biography presents Guardiola as a relentless perfectionist - a man obsessed with the minutiae of football, often unable to switch off' SPORT This fully updated edition of the international bestseller includes Manchester City's incredible 2017-18 league triumph Pep Guardiola is the most successful and sought-after football coach in the world. After being appointed first-team manager in 2008, he transformed Barcelona into arguably the greatest club side of all time, winning thirteen trophies in four years, and he won the Double twice in his three years in charge of Bayern Munich. He then faced his biggest challenge yet when he joined Manchester City in 2016: to turn them into a team that consistently wins in the most difficult of leagues and a regular challenger in the Champions League. But in only his second year at the club, he had turned a good side into memorable one, leading them to the Premier League title in record-breaking style . . . and doing it the Guardiola way. Guillem Balagué has followed Pep's career from the outset and has had direct access to the man and his inner circle for this updated edition. This then is the definitive portrait of Pep Guardiola and his relentless pursuit of footballing perfection.