{"title":"Homepage - the classics","description":"Every self-regarding football fan needs should have these in their collection","products":[{"product_id":"a-life-too-short-the-tragedy-of-robert-enke","title":"A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the publisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy does an international footballer with the world at his feet decide to take his own life?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn 10 November 2009 the German national goalkeeper, Robert Enke, stepped in front of a passing train. He was thirty-two years old and a devoted husband and father.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnke had played for a string of Europe's top clubs, including Barcelona and Jose Mourinho's Benfica and was destined to become his country's first choice in goal for years to come. 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Through stories of superstition, heartbreak, tragedy, luck, heroes and villains, those who lived for football and those who died for it, Eduardo Galeano celebrates the glory of a game that - however much the rich and powerful try to control it - still retains its magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'The Uruguayan whose writing got right to the heart of football ... readers were never in doubt of the warmth of the blood running through his veins'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Galeano can run rings round our glamorous football intelligentsia'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Saturday Comes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Stands out like Pele on a field of second-stringers'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEduardo Galeano is one of Latin America's most distinguished writers. 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Hunter Davies was, and still is, the only author ever to be allowed into the inner sanctum of a top-level football team (Tottenham Hotspur) and his pen spared nothing and no one. 'His accuracy is sufficiently uncanny to be embarrassing,' wrote Bob Wilson in the New Statesman.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'Brilliant, vicious, unmerciful,' wrote The Sun. Davies spent a whole season with the team, training with them, visiting the players' homes and witnessing the dressing-room confrontations. 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The motley crew that comprised the di Sangro soccer team in the early 90s masked an unparalleled prowess for playing soccer. This is the story of a team and a town with no aspirations, just a passion for the game, and how that passion allowed this team to rise to the top of the professional Italian soccer league.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith the lust for life of Robert Crichton's THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA and the sporting dreams of modern movie classic FIELDS OF DREAMS, THE MIRACLE OF CASTEL DI SANGRO is an ebullient story of how a two-hour game transformed a dot on the map into a place of magic, miracles and wonder.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a young man Joe McGinniss shot to literary stardom with The Selling of the President, his account of the 1968 American Election. 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From the birth of Total Football in the sixties, through two decades of World Cup near misses to the exiles who remade clubs like AC Milan, Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea in their own image, the Dutch have often been dazzlingly original and influential. The elements of their style (exquisite skills, adventurous attacking tactics, a unique blend of individual creativity and teamwork, weird patterns of self-destruction) reflect and embody the country's culture and history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book lays bare the elegant, fractured soul of the Dutch Masters and the culture that spawned them by exploring and analysing its key ideas, institutions, personalities and history in the context of wider Dutch society.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Winner is a freelance journalist and has written two previous books, Those Feet and Brilliant Orange. 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Once, football stood for passion, community, honour, even beauty. The game is in danger of losing its lifeblood - and its soul.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Beautiful Game?\u003c\/em\u003e David Conn, the game's most respected investigative journalist, sets out on a journey through the heart of our national game, exploring how the sport has failed - and who is to blame. This is a book for those who keep the faith, who believe that the sport itself, stripped of the greed and self-interest blighting its organisation, still has values, and can still be beautiful. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'For a fascinating insight into the causes, and the creators, of the game's ills this is a superbly told tale' - Independent\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Conn is football's foremost investigative journalist. 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It is a funny and heart-warming tale of football at the very bottom: Dave turns up to each match with his football boots in his bag, just in case the team are a player short; the crowd is always announced as 400 as no-one can be bothered to count; the team ship so many goals that in one match, the taunting opposition fans actually lose count of the score.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt's easy being a football fan when your team are always winning. 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They have names like Bonehead, Paraffin Pete and Steamin' Sammy. They like lager, football, the Queen, and themselves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey love England. They dislike the rest of the known universe. The beautiful game remains ugly.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom following Manchester's Red Army to drinking with skinheads, acclaimed writer Bill Buford enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of Hunter S. Thompson. 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Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience \u003chighlight\u003eis\u003c\/highlight\u003e the World Cup final.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this extraordinary tour de force, David \u003chighlight\u003eGoldblatt\u003c\/highlight\u003e tells the full story of football's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Ball is Round\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates football's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game.\u003cbr\u003e___________________________________\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Goldblatt writes with authority, humour, and passion, not least in the accounts of famous or significant matches scattered throughout the book' \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Since it became a worldwide phenomenon, nobody has attempted to write an overall history of the game. Now David Goldblatt's stunning book will be the measure against which all other such volumes are judged' \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Goldblatt's magnum opus . . . Anyone with a brain and an interest in football will enjoy this book' \u003ci\u003eThe Daily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Goldblatt was born in 1965 and inherited, for his sins, Tottenham Hotspur from his father. His books include Social Theory and the Environment, Global Transformations and the World Football Yearbook. He currently lives in Bristol, the Bermuda triangle of football prowess, where he spreads his affections amongst Spurs, Bristol Rovers and Bristol City.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e---\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"product_spec\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePenguin\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e23 x 15 cm\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePaperback\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e992 pages\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"product_spec\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eAugust 2007\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eEnglish\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"product_spec\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e9780141015828\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"David Goldblatt","offers":[{"title":"Unsigned","offer_id":56743001194877,"sku":"4851597390","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Signed","offer_id":56743001162109,"sku":"4851597389","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0271\/5149\/9341\/files\/2025-08-2014.14.20.jpg?v=1755696599"},{"product_id":"inverting-the-pyramid-the-history-of-football-tactics-new-edition","title":"Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (15th anniversary edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the publisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'MASTERFUL' Time Out\u003cbr\u003e'REVELATORY' Scotland on Sunday\u003cbr\u003e'GLORIOUSLY READABLE' Metro\u003cbr\u003e'FASCINATING' Independent\u003cbr\u003e'EXCELLENT' Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e'ABSORBING' Guardian\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the British Sports Book Awards\u003cbr\u003eFootball Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe fifteenth anniversary edition, fully revised and updated, of Jonathan Wilson's modern classic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the modern classic, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning, when chaos reigned. Along the way, he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the sport, and probes why the English, in particular, have proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFully revised and updated, this fifteenth-anniversary edition analyses the evolution of modern international football, including the 2022 World Cup, charting the influence of the great Spanish, German and Portuguese tacticians of the last decade, whilst pondering the effects of footballs increased globalisation and commercialisation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid won the National Sporting Club Book of the Year award, and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award amongst others. 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Whether national, political or cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world's hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper travelled to twenty-two countries from South Africa and Italy to Russia and the USA to examine the way football has shaped them. At the same time, he tried to find out what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play, from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper's first book, FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY, won the WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR in 1994, and went on to become an international bestseller. Born in Uganda in 1969, he spent most of his childhood in Holland. 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How much do managers matter? Is hosting a World Cup a poisoned chalice?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eSoccernomics \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003echallenges the conventional wisdom to reveal the surprising truths that actually determine success and failure on the pitch. From an acclaimed economist and leading sports journalist, this modern classic uses data and economic principles to explore the myths that dominate the game.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFully revised and updated ahead of the 2026 World Cup, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eSoccernomics\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e takes you behind the passion and into the patterns – revealing why your team wins, why it loses, and why the game you love doesn't always work the way you think it does.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eSoccernomics \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eis essential reading for anyone in search of a more strategic, systematic perspective on the game, answering the questions that most consume football fans.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe author:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSimon Kuper's first book, Football Against the Enemy, won the 1994 William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize and is widely acknowledged as one of football's seminal books. Simon writes a weekly sports column in the Financial Times and has previously written football columns for The Times and The Observer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStefan Szymanski is Professor of Economics and MBA Dean at Cass Business School in London. 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