Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

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John Cairney

James Edward McGrory (1904-82) is a Celtic legend, remembered today as the greatest goal-scorer in the history of Scottish football. His record of 550 goals in his 15-year career at Parkhead from 1922 to 1937 is unlikely to be surpassed and will stand forever as a memorial to a player who was a typical product of the period between the two world wars. At a depressing time when wages were low and work was scarce, his feats on the field provided a welcome and much-needed escape for the thousands of ordinary, cloth-capped Scottish working men who packed the dirt terracing to cheer on every move he made. 
 
Heroes are Forever tells the full story of McGrory's life and career, and is set against the vividly drawn background of the inter-war period. It is a portrait of a loyal, modest and inspirational man who lifted the hearts of his countrymen and raised the spirits of a nation. It was he, after all, who by scoring twice for Scotland in 1933 provoked the original 'Hampden Roar'.

Heroes are Forever

The Life and Times of Celtic Legend Jimmy McGrory

'Clutching in my hand my seven copper pennies, I ran down the two flights of stone stairs from our tenement flat and through the East End to Kinloch Street, where, puffing a bit, I joined the queue of other wee boys lining up to place their coins on the brass plate above the iron turnstile, push hard against it, then climb up onto the dirt terracing and into Paradise. The rest of the world called it Celtic Park.' 
 
This is a story seen through green-and-white spectacles. It begins when nine-year-old Glaswegian John Cairney walks through the boys' gate at Celtic Park and embarks on a series of adventures that, over the years, take him all over Scotland and beyond. 
 
The Sevenpenny Gate is about a search for heroes, Celtic heroes. It is also the tale of an East End club of humble Irish origins that has developed into a worldwide brand and continues to command the devotion of its fans, even with the Celtic diaspora now spread across the globe.

The Sevenpenny Gate

A Lifelong Love Affair with Celtic FC

Alex Gordon

Celtic strode majestically into the history books in 1967 as the first British club to conquer Europe, and the iconic photograph of captain Billy McNeill holding aloft the glittering European Cup in the Lisbon sunshine is the defining image of that footballing era. Yet at the start of the decade, Celtic were a team plagued by defeats and in disarray both on and off the field. What brought about their remarkable transformation? 
 
In Celtic: The Awakening, Alex Gordon enters uncharted territory to investigate the story of Celtic in the 1960s, an extraordinary decade in the club's roller-coaster 125-year history. Players of the era, good, bad and indifferent, are interviewed in depth in an attempt to unravel one of football’s greatest mysteries. 
 
Sweeping through the ’60s and beyond, Celtic: The Awakening details the previously untold story of how a proud club rose from grief to glory, from dismay to delight.

Celtic: The Awakening

From East End Misfits to European Masters

Colin Shindler

Before the Thai millions and Abu Dhabi billions, Manchester City was always a club that attracted fierce controversy. 
 
July 1965: Manchester City are on the scrapheap, managerless and languishing in Second Division mediocrity. Desperate to reverse the club's fortunes, the board turns to Joe Mercer, a respected football veteran hungry for a final chance to achieve management glory. Yet age and ill health are against Joe: he needs an assistant, and volatile, ambitious coaching genius Malcolm Allison is his man. Recently sacked from managing Plymouth, Malcolm is out to prove that his innovative tactics can breathe new life into the staid English game. City is the perfect opportunity to show off his talents - especially since Joe promises him the manager's job in two years' time . . . 
 
July 1970: City rule supreme, having just won their fifth trophy in as many seasons. The Mercer-Allison partnership is the most successful management team in the club's history. But, unwilling to let go of his success, Joe breaks his word and refuses to step aside. In order to fulfil his self-proclaimed destiny as the greatest manager in English football, an embittered Malcolm engineers a boardroom takeover that risks everything he and Joe have worked for. 
 
Based on real events, Colin Shindler's novel explores the clash of personalities that led to the spectacular rise and fall of Manchester City's 'Golden Age'. Malcolm and Joe's story is a cautionary tale of how ambition and betrayal brought down two men who had the world at their feet and of how two of the greatest management partners in British football history became the worst of friends.

The Worst of Friends

The Betrayal of Joe Mercer

Pat Woods

Peter Burns

Celtic's astonishing 7-1 victory over arch-rivals Rangers in the 1957 Scottish League Cup final brought the club its last major trophy prior to the appointment of Jock Stein as manager in 1965 and the glory years which followed. The triumph was the final major success achieved by such famous Celtic stars of the '50s as Charlie Tully, Neil Mochan, Willie Fernie, Bobby Evans, Bertie Peacock, Sean Fallon and Bobby Collins. Oh, Hampden in the Sun . . . not only tells the story of that remarkable game - which still stands as the most emphatic victory in a national cup final in Britain - but also commemorates Celtic, their players and supporters, viewed in the social context of life in the West of Scotland 40 years ago. This book explores both the romance and the reality of Celtic and the club's supporters in that era through extensive interviews with players and fans, supplemented by much original research. The mystery of the missing television film of the 7-1 match in finally solved, and Celtic fans will be able to revel in a mass of anecdotes and reminiscences surrounding one of the greatest moments in their history and in indelible part of the club's folklore.

Oh, Hampden in the Sun . . .

Darragh Ó Sé

For 16 years, Darragh Ó Sé wore the number 8 jersey for Gaelic football's most celebrated county, stoking the fires in Kerry's engine room. With six All Ireland medals, he is the most decorated footballer of the modern era. 
 
Darragh's name is synonymous with his county's unrelenting appetite for success, but throughout his illustrious career he has held his counsel, allowing his football to do the talking. Until now. 
 
This is the story of a modern Kerry icon. Uncompromising, passionate and possessing a savage wit, Darragh talks openly for the first time about his life in the green and gold, and about his constant drive to succeed. 
 
Elsewhere in the book, he details his setbacks, reflects on a family tragedy and reveals how his upbringing on the fringe of west Kerry helped shape his character, steeling him for a career in the toughest position in Gaelic football. 
 
This is the story of Darragh Ó Sé - the life of a legend.

Darragh

My Story

Jack Milburn

Written by his own son, Jackie Milburn: A Man of Two Halves gives an unprecedented insight into the life and career of the legendary Newcastle United forward. To this day, 'Wor Jackie' remains the Magpies' top goalscorer, having notched up 238 goals in 492 appearances in the black-and-white shirt throughout the 1940s and '50s. Milburn also won the FA Cup with Newcastle three times in five years. 
 
Jackie Milburn delves beneath the surface glory to reveal how, in spite of his remarkable success as a player, Milburn was constantly tortured by his lack of self-belief. It details his days across the Irish Sea after becoming player/coach at Protestant Linfield FC and explains why he felt the need to move on after receiving menacing threats directed at his family. It reveals how, as newly appointed manager of Ipswich Town, he had a totally unexpected falling out with the departing England supremo, Alf Ramsey. We also learn how the pressures of work took their toll on Milburn and how he spent his post-football days working in a scrapyard, before being rescued by the world of sports journalism. 
 
Later in life, many honours continued to be bestowed upon Milburn, and when he died in 1988 huge crowds lined the streets for his funeral parade. 
 
Few people had a bad word to say about Jackie Milburn, and this candid biography, with contributions from Sir Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer, expertly demonstrates why he is still held in high esteem half a century after the peak of his career and 16 years after his death.

Jackie Milburn

A Man of Two Halves

Stephen Walsh

This revised and updated edition of Voices of the Old Firm tells the story of Rangers and Celtic in the words of those who can say 'I was there'. By interviewing players, managers but above all supporters of the two great clubs, Stephen Walsh has built up a unique portrait of sixty years of football in the city. 
Full of evocative social and historical detail, the book surveys all the great moments since the war - the ups and downs, the triumphs and disasters. What was it like to be in Lisbon for Celtic's epic 1967 European Cup victory, or in Barcelona for Rangers' European triumph of 1972? The different 'voices' which describe these and many other key events include some of the greatest players ever to pull on a green or a blue jersey and they have vivid tales to tell of encounters on the field. 
 
But the book also hears the voices of those who have spent their time standing on the terraces or sitting in the stands cheering on their heroes. Ordinary supporters tell of their adventures at home and abroad while following their clubs with sometimes ridiculous levels of devotion. In their own words, they tell of great games of football, but they also describe the fabric of the fan's life - the buses, the songs, the drink, the clothes, the bigotry and the passionate emotion which marks Glasgow out from almost all other footballing cities. 
 
This classic oral history has been brought fully up to date with the addition of new material reflecting the way the teams have come to dominate the Scottish football scene in the last ten years. Highlights include Celtic's pilgrimage to Seville for the UEFA Cup final and Rangers' unforgettable championship win of 2005.

Voices Of The Old Firm

Martin Greig

Since his move to Celtic in the summer of 2005, Shunsuke Nakamura has become a cult hero in both Scotland and the Far East. From the wonderful goal in his Champions League debut against Manchester United in 2006 to the strike against Kilmarnock that secured Celtic's league win in 2006-07, Nakamura has firmly established himself as a Celtic legend. 
 
Nakamura's ability to confront and overcome adversity has been the key to his success. From his rejection as a youngster by home-town club Yokohama Marinos to his omission from the 2002 World Cup squad by Philippe Troussier and his struggle to adapt to the defensive nature of Italian football, Nakamura has bounced back stronger every time. 
 
The Zen of Naka is a comprehensive, revealing account of Nakamura's career to date. It explores his development from the early stages of his footballing journey to his time with Celtic at present, and looks ahead at what the future may hold for the star.

The Zen of Naka

The Journey of a Japanese Genius

John Quinn

Years of tradition crashed around the ears of Celtic supporters when the Jungle was demolished and replaced by seating to conform with the Taylor Report. It might never have been the most attractive setting in which to watch football but to the fans who occupied the gentle slopes under the covered North Enclosure it was as familiar as their own living-room. To them it was the nerve-centre of all that was good about their team and about Scottish football in general. There they had gathered to witness the great dramas unfold, the star players weave their artistry, and there they experienced the nerve-jangling, magical nights as Celtic joined the ranks of great European sides in the 1960s. 
 
John Quinn spent months interviewing the people who shaped the history of the Jungle. Star players past and present describe their favourite memories and the fans themselves recall the scenes indelibly etched in their minds. Jungle Tales is an exercise in pure nostalgia. It is in many ways a book by the fans for the fans as they reminisce over past glories and long for the days when they will return.

Jungle Tales

Celtic Memories of an Epic Stand

Roger Hermiston

Don Revie and Brian Clough were born a brisk walk away from each other in Middlesbrough, in 1927 and 1935 respectively. They were brought up in a town ravaged by the Depression and went on to become highly successful professional footballers. Then, as young managers, they both took clubs languishing in the doldrums (Leeds United and Derby County) and moulded them into championship winners. 
 
Despite the myriad similarities, these two sons of the Tees were as different in character as Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. A bitter rivalry developed between them, which in turn enlivened and then blighted English football in the 1960s and '70s. 
 
In Clough and Revie, exclusive interviews with players, relatives and friends shed fresh light on these two intriguing characters. Part footballing chronicle, part social history, the book is a revelatory exploration of the rivalry between the two men. It brings a fresh perspective on their early years in the North-East, tells how they nearly became teammates and explains why the feud began and what its repercussions were.

Clough and Revie

The Rivals Who Changed the Face of English Football

Jim Wilkie

The star Argentiniean striker Claudio Caniggia has described Dundee as 'a football town' and, as the favoured partner of arguably the world's greatest-ever player Diego Maradona, he should know. But why should he care? What was this man doing, plying his trade in Dundee? 
 
Dundee Football Club - the Dark Blues - do have a tradition; they have produced a number of outstanding players, won all the major Scottish trophies and, in 1963, reached the semi-final of the European Cup. For the next three decades, however, their story was one of gradual decline - and you can lose a lot of supporters in 30 years. 
 
When brothers Peter and Jimmy Marr, local businessmen, took over at Dens Park in 1997, the fans didn't know what to expect. They were a different proposition from their predecessors in that they had experience of running successful amateur and junior football clubs - but while the team performed creditably under Jocky Scott, there were still a number of very average players getting a game and the wider fan base was only inclined to attend a handful of matches during the season. 
 
Having battled to get promotion to the Scottish Premier League and build new stands, however, Peter Marr proceeded to make a leap of cultural faith. He knew that quality football was the key to any form of success and that, generally speaking, it could be found on the European continent. 
 
Marr originally expressed interest in Ivano Bonetti as a player, but when he discovered that the Italian was also interested in management, decided to embark on a footballing adventure with him. What followed has been one of the most remarkable episodes in recent Scottish football history. In the face of great cynicism and limited resources, Bonetti has assembled a squad of outstanding international talent, with his friend Claudio Caniggia the jewel in the crown. Results have been both good and bad - and sometimes downright weird - but the football has always been consistently entertaining and frequently breathtaking. No Dundee fan will ever forget season 2000-01. In this book Jim Wilkie reviews the tradition of the club and, using key profiles and reports, charts their amazing transformation to Bonetti's Blues.

Bonetti's Blues

Dundee FC and its Cultural Experiment

Jackie Cahill

Paddy Russell

Tipperary native Paddy Russell has been one of the leading referees in the GAA for the past 30 years. His story is a remarkable one, following his rise from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of two All-Ireland finals. 
 
Inspired by the late, great John Moloney, Russell took his first steps in refereeing in 1976. He quickly emerged as a leading light and rapidly worked his way to the top of his profession. 
 
Russell has enjoyed a successful career but it is also one laced with drama, most notably that arising from the 1995 All-Ireland senior football final between Tyrone and Dublin. Russell later took charge of the tempestuous National Football League clash between Dublin and Tyrone in 2006, which became known as 'The Battle of Omagh', and the stormy showdown between Leinster rivals Dublin and Meath in April 2008. Just two months later, Russell was in charge of the Munster senior football championship tie between All-Ireland champions Kerry and Clare when Kerry captain Paul Galvin slapped the referee's notebook from his hands, earning a three-month suspension. 
 
In Final Whistle, Russell reflects on his eventful journey, including these controversial matches, and describes vividly the stresses and strains of refereeing modern-day Gaelic games.

Final Whistle

The Paddy Russell Story

David Bryce

From running with the infamous Calton Tongs to running Calton Athletic, David Bryce's life story is a remarkable account of crime, violence, alcoholism and drug addiction in Glasgow's gangland. 
 
A respected 'hard man', Bryce worked his way through most of HM's prisons in Scotland before an epiphany in 1977 made him realise that he was a hopeless alcoholic who needed help. A five-year battle followed, during which he sank into the abyss of heroin addiction before finally getting clean. 
 
In 1985, in an effort to help others who were struggling against substance abuse, Bryce set up Calton Athletic, a football team and social group made up solely of recovering drug addicts. Reformed gangster Jimmy Boyle was one of the first to have faith in Bryce and Calton Athletic, but the club eventually won widespread respect. Gordon Brown, then a young MP, was so impressed that he wrote an article for The Observer which led to a TV film starring Lenny Henry and Robbie Coltrane. In the '90s, Ewan McGregor, Irvine Welsh and the Trainspotting crew sought Bryce's advice and friendship during the making of the internationally acclaimed cult film, while Robbie Williams begged to switch nationality and play for Calton Atheltic in an 'England v. Scotland' celebrity charity match. 
 
Bryce's uncompromising belief that the only way to come off drugs is to go cold turkey and stay completely clean saw him clash with government agencies over the 'harm-reduction' policy of recent years. The club's statutory funding was withdrawn in 1998, but today Calton Athletic are still providing an invaluable lifeline while the 'official' drugs policy has become increasingly discredited. 
 
Alive and Kicking is an inspirational tale of survival and success against the odds.

Alive and Kicking

A Story of Crime, Addiction and Redemption in Glasgow's Gangland

Ben Sharratt

Kirk Blows

From the World Cup-winning days of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters to highly acclaimed modern-day heroes such as Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe, West Ham United supporters have always had the greatest affection for homegrown Hammers. Since the 1960s, talents such as Trevor Brooking, Tony Cottee, Paul Ince and Rio Ferdinand (who has twice hit the headlines as the world's most expensive defender following his move to Leeds and Manchester United) have been nurtured and brought through the club's ranks, ensuring the Hammers can rightly lay claim to having one of the country's most fruitful youth policies. 
 
In this revised and fully updated paperback edition, Claret and Blue Blood brings together all these characters and others for the very first time, including new chapters on Anton Ferdinand, Stephen Bywater and Kevin Horlock. Using exclusive new interviews, the authors present biographical pieces that collectively tell the story of West Ham United's evolution over the last half-century. Focusing on each player's roots, development and personal achievements, Claret and Blue Blood is a unique book that features key characters, candid conversations, successes, failures and controversies as it explores the very essence of West Ham United.

Claret and Blue Blood

Pumping Life into West Ham United

Bill Leckie

Penthouse and Pavement is not a book for glory-hunters. It is a book about pain. It's about the anguish of watching your team lose 9-2 in the very first game you ever saw, about the horrible inevitability of defeat that so many feel so often. It's about despair, dismay and black, frightening, deathly gloom. 
 
But it's also about hope. About dreams. And about dreams which sometimes, just sometimes, come true. Like the once-in-a-lifetime ecstasy of winning the Cup or a league. And as anyone who's had that moment-of-a-lifetime knows, the joy is even greater because you've known the pain. For Bill Leckie, who has followed St Mirren since 1964, it all became worthwhile when they won the Scottish Cup in 1987. This book is about these clubs and the people who love them. It's about the kind of fan who doesn't go to games expecting to win . . . or, worse, demanding it. This book is about being willing to accept a lifetime of frustration in return for one day of utter wonderment.

Penthouse and Pavement

How to Survive in Football Without Sucking Up to the Old Firm

John Hartson

In July 2009, former Celtic and Wales soccer star John Hartson was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had also spread to his lungs and brain. But before his treatment even began, John came to the brink of death after contracting pneumonia, ceasing to breathe and undergoing emergency brain surgery. Against all the odds, he pulled through, and in Please Don't Go he documents his incredible fight for life. 
 
Profoundly moving, John's own story is interwoven with the poignant recollections of his pregnant wife, Sarah, as well as with extracts from his sister Victoria's personal diary. This remarkable book covers the five-week period during which John's survival was most in jeopardy. 
 
John's truly inspirational account of how he has managed to overcome a very aggressive form of cancer will offer hope and courage to others affected by the disease. It is a touching and ultimately uplifting insight into the bravery of the popular football hero, who has fought back to full health in the face of adversity.

Please Don't Go

Big John's Journey Back to Life

Martin Hannan

Some football derbies around the world might have bigger crowds and feature more fanatical fans, but no fixture has as long and passionate a history as the Old Firm derby. For more than 120 years, Glasgow has been divided between the green of Celtic and the blue of Rangers. The first official match ever played by Celtic was a 5-2 win over Rangers in 1888. Since then, the Old Firm derby has grown in stature to be acknowledged as one of the great clashes of football. 
 
Concentrating on the twenty greatest Old Firm matches from the perspective of Celtic Football Club, renowned sportswriter Martin Hannan puts these games in context, showing how the two clubs became such massive rivals and why the Old Firm derby became and remains by far the biggest match in Scottish club football. 
 
With exclusive reflections from a number of Celtic managers and players past and present, Hail! Hail! covers all of the magical matches, such as the titanic, league-winning 4-2 match in 1979, the amazing 6-2 win in 2000 and, of course, the famous 7-1 victory in the 1957 League Cup final, which remains the Parkhead club's biggest win over Rangers. 
 
Highly entertaining and informative, Hail! Hail! is a must-read for supporters of Celtic, football fans in general and anyone who wonders what all the fuss over the Old Firm is about.

Hail! Hail!

Classic Celtic Old Firm Clashes

Frank McGarvey

Ronnie Esplin

During a glorious but controversial career, Frank McGarvey won every major trophy in Scottish football. Under Alex Ferguson at St Mirren in the 1970s, he inspired a young Saints team to victory in the First Division - an effort that attracted the attention of English giants Liverpool and Scotland manager Jock Stein. 
 
After a frustrating spell at Anfield, he headed back north to join boyhood heroes Celtic, with whom he won five medals in five seasons. However, he was shown the door by Davie Hay just days after scoring the winner for the club in the 1985 Scottish Cup final. 
 
McGarvey then returned to St Mirren, with whom he won the Scottish Cup two years later, and he continued his success after a move into management, helping Clyde to win the Second Division trophy. But this is only half of Frank McGarvey's story. Throughout his remarkable career and beyond, McGarvey fought and, for the most part, lost a battle with gambling, which cost him his marriage, home and self-respect. 
 
In Totally Frank, McGarvey chronicles his many highs and lows, and reveals how he finally succeeded in overcoming his gambling addiction.

Totally Frank

The Frank McGarvey Story

Alan Edge

Alan Edge is a lifelong Liverpool supporter who grew up in an environment where team loyalties were embedded in working-class culture. He was shocked to discover that his young son not only had not intention of following in his father's footsteps as a Liverpool fan, but preferred a Newcastle shirt because it was more fashionable! 
 
Faith of our Fathers is more than a personal story; it is a universal tale written with a strong sense of pathos and a rare capacity to bring to life the concerns of fans who feel the game they grew up with is being eroded by commercial exploitation.

Faith of our Fathers

Football as a Religion

Eddie Turnbull

As the first British player to score a goal in European club competition in 1955, Hibs hero Eddie Turnbull holds a unique place in footballing history. In Eddie Turnbull: Having a Ball, he charts his extraordinary career and tells the story of his eventful life so far. 
 
Turnbull explains how he became one-fifth of the most celebrated forward line ever to grace Scottish football - the Famous Five of Hibernian FC - and reveals how he had to wait until he was eighty-two to be awarded his first international 'cap', despite having played for Scotland nine times throughout the forties and fifties. 
 
After his playing career ended, Turnbull achieved lasting fame as manager of Aberdeen and his beloved Hibs. 'Turnbull's Tornadoes' beat Jock Stein's Celtic side to lift the Scottish League in season 1972-73 and won the Drybrough Cup twice, in 1972 and 1973. During his decade with Hibs, Turnbull also managed George Best, and here he tells all about his turbulent time with the late great legend. 
 
In this engrossing memoir, Turnbull candidly explains why he walked away from football in 1980, recounts many entertaining behind-the-scenes stories and gives his diagnoses of the ills of the modern game.

Having a Ball

Roger Hutchinson

Into the Light reveals the full thrilling story of Sunderland Football Club - charting the club's progress from being the first great team to dominate the Football League, to the squad which returned to the top of English soccer at the dawn of the new millennium. Hutchinson traces a journey from Newcastle Road to the Stadium of Light by way of Roker Park. 
 
The early days of the Team Of All The Talents - the side in red-and-white stripes which took the English League by storm, breaking records and their opponents' hearts year after brilliant year - are brought vividly to life for the first time. 
 
Great goalscorers like Johnny Campbell and Jimmy Gillespie and sensational goalkeepers such as the legendary Ned Doig stride out of the pages of Into The Light; and the figures whose brilliance made Roker roar - from Len Shackleton and Brian Clough to the modern greats - are vividly portrayed. 
 
League successes came easily and early to Sunderland. Into The Light explores the club's devotion to winning trophies with style. The long - and finally triumphant - quest for FA cup victories is followed game by game. The heartbreaks and disappointments are also here in this see-saw ride through 120 years of English football, which ends as it began - right at the very top. This is the history of a football club and more - it is the tale of British soccer.

Into the Light

A Complete History of Sunderland Football Club

Iain Duff

For more than 120 years, Rangers and Celtic have vied for supremacy in one of the world's sporting hotbeds. The rivalry between the two teams is among the fiercest anywhere in sport, making an Old Firm derby much more than a football game. Controversy is rarely far away when the Glasgow giants meet, but amid the fallout that invariably follows their contests, the actual game is often forgotten. 
 
In Follow, Follow, Iain Duff recounts the greatest footballing moments of Rangers' illustrious history in Old Firm clashes, from their very first competitive win over Celtic, in the 1893 Glasgow Cup final, through to the 1-0 victory at Ibrox that was a vital factor in Rangers' 2009-10 SPL title win. 
 
The intervening years saw famous Old Firm contributions from legendary Ibrox names such as Gillick, Meiklejohn, McPhail, Baxter, Johnston, McCoist, Cooper, Laudrup, Ferguson and Novo, all of which are revisited here, along with the goals, the flare-ups and the controversies that make these derby days simply unforgettable for every Rangers fan.

Follow, Follow

Classic Rangers Old Firm Clashes

David Tossell

Malcolm Allison is one of the most controversial figures of the last half-century of English football. Leader of the famed 'West Ham Academy', his playing career was cut short by the loss of a lung to tuberculosis. Disillusioned, he became a professional gambler before acknowledging that football was his calling. After humble beginnings as a coach, he began a celebrated partnership with Joe Mercer, turning Manchester City into one of the most stylish teams English football has produced. 
 
 Along with the trophies came the birth of Big Mal, the larger-than-life personality who helped revolutionise televised football. He became instantly recognisable for his cigar and Fedora, and equally notorious for a string of affairs with beautiful women. 
 
 As the dark side of Big Mal took over, he was banned for life from the touchlines, became embroiled in a series of boardroom battles and spent time in police cells and rehabilitation clinics fighting the effects of alcoholism. Yet despite the often-destructive effect of his Big Mal persona, Malcolm Allison retains his status as one of the most incisive minds to have graced the game. This book tells both sides of the story, tracing the life and times of one of the most charismatic characters in British sport.

Big Mal

The High Life and Hard Times of Malcolm Allison, Football Legend

John Robertson

John Lawson

The unprecedented success of Nottingham Forest under master manager Brian Clough is one of the greatest stories in football folklore. Winning the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 were the remarkable highlights of that era in the club's history. And the player at the heart of those Forest glories was winger John Robertson, who fashioned the goal that conquered Europe a first time and then scored the match-winner as Clough's side retained the trophy. 
 
His unkempt and unshaven appearance made him the most unlikely of footballers but his artistry and vision made him the creative on-the-field force behind a Forest side that swept all before them. 
 
After retiring from playing, Robertson went on to strike up a wonderfully successful managerial partnership with Martin O'Neill at Leicester, Celtic and Aston Villa. Yet, amid his years of football fame, Robertson has known moments of deep personal tragedy, with the death of his daughter, who had cerebral palsy, at the age of 13 and the loss of his elder brother in a car crash. 
 
In John Robertson: Super Tramp, the footballing legend reveals all in a humorous and touching memoir that switches engagingly between footballing glory and personal heartache.

John Robertson: Super Tramp

My Autobiography

Becky Tallentire

Do you still curse yourself over the day you met your hero; when instead of asking him the one question that's been nagging you for years, you couldn't utter a word because you were suddenly (and uncharacteristically) struck dumb? Well, curse no more. Still Talking Blue is a unique collection of interviews that will answer everything you wanted to know about your Everton heroes and with none of the unnecessary waffle - because it only asks the relevant questions, as submitted by the fans. 
 
Collated via the Internet, disenfranchised Evertonions scattered across the globe proudly display their astounding recall of bygone events and trivia. From Iceland to South Africa, Australia to Israel, long-suffering Bluenoses are finally given the opportunity to ask questions of their heroes and they do so with panache. 
 
The book contains in-depth interviews spanning the decades from the '50s, when shorts were long and Dave Hickson's quiff was the envy of Hollywood, right through to Dave Watson's final days at the club. Join us as we endeavour to track down John Bailey's 'big hat' and Gordon West's handbag, and move seamlessly on to more pressing topics such as Kevin Ratcliffe's biggest regret, Mick Lyon's worst injury and Alan Harper's favourite goal. 
 
So, if you lie awake at night wondering just what went wrong in the '68 Cup Final, whether Jimmy Gabriel still has his white trench coat, if Barry Horne really does like The Cocteau Twins or how Dave Hickson has managed to hang on to his hair, then unfurrow your brow because the answers all lie within these pages. 
 
No Evertonion should be expected to survive without this book.

Still Talking Blue

A Collection of Candid Interviews with Everton Heroes

Peter Storey

True Storey is the compelling autobiography of notorious 1970s football legend Peter Storey, dubbed 'the bastard's bastard', who gained a reputation for ultra-violence on the pitch and had a capacity to find even greater trouble off it - a fact borne out by a string of criminal convictions and several jail sentences. 
 
 A key member, as their midfield enforcer, of the resilient Arsenal team that won the European Fairs Cup followed by the cherished Double in 1970-71, Storey was a confirmed ladies' man who loved a drink. In the mid-'70s, Storey's pub, the Jolly Farmers in Islington, became a magnet for north London villains and he rubbed shoulders with Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey and Howard 'Mr Nice' Marks, Britain's biggest drug smuggler. 
 
 Storey talks candidly about the crimes he committed and the spells in prison that blighted his life. He reveals the truth about his feud with George Best and relays an astonishing account of how Bertie Mee tried to make him miss the 1971 FA Cup final against Bill Shankly's Liverpool side because the Arsenal manager wanted Eddie Kelly to start instead. 
 
 Today, Peter is an elusive character but a man transformed and at ease with life. Only now does he feel the circumstances are right to set the record straight and tell his side of a remarkable True Storey.

True Storey

My Life and Crimes as a Football Hatchet Man

Bernard Azulay

The 2003-04 football season was a landmark in the Gunners' already illustrious history. Consolation for the Arsenal's costly Cup exits could come in the form of an achievement the like of which might never again be repeated. as they remained undefeated in the Premiership right to the end of a triumphant red-and-white roller-coaster ride. 
 
Once again, Arsène Wenger's side have raised the bar to a point beyond anything that has ever been seen before in British football. Sport lovers everywhere have been regularly left absolutely agog in admiration of the sublime skills and athletic grace that have brought some much-needed beauty back into our not-so-beautiful game. 
 
Aresenal All 4-1 is a week-by-breathtaking-week account of the Gunners undefeated exploits. A blow-by-blow description of the season's legion of snakes and ladders; sending offs and resultant suspensions; mad refereeing decisions (both misjudged and misappropriated!); gobsmacking game-changing goals; and heart-stopping howlers. It is a tale of ten tantalising months of trains, planes and automobiles, over land and sea (and Leicester), from one of the privileged few Gooners who witnessed every game in this wonderful odyssey from the terraces. 
 
Relive this scintillating season of total football as revealed in the sort of charismatic reports that could have only come from a Gooner who cut his teeth on the tedious triumphs of the Arsenal's infamous flat back four.

Arsenal All 4-1

A Guidebook to an Historic Season Straight from Highbury's Gooner Grapevine

R Hutchinson

This is the full story, unofficial and uncensored, of one of the greatest football clubs in the country. From its birth in the 1890s to its rebirth in the 1990s and up to season 2003-4, The Toon tells of a small soccer club, long in the shadow of an enormous rival, which grew to eclipse that rival - and every other club in Great Britain. Roger Hutchinson brings to life the sensational early successes of Newcastle United, recreating the great Anglo-Scottish team which dominated the Football League before the First World War. He vividly describes the helter-skelter attacking sides of the 1930s and the Cup giants of the 1950s, and gives us the European conquerors of the 1960s and the squads of the 1970s and '80s, before showing us how today's cosmopolitan side of title-chasing internationals was built.This lively, hard-hitting book portrays the brilliant management of such legends as Frank Watt and takes us down through the thrilling decades right up to the reign of Sir Bobby Robson. In its pages we see the educated play of Andy Aitken and Colin Veitch; we watch as the fast and furious centre-forward play of Jock Peddie paves the way for the era of the great Hughie Gallacher and the unique Jackie Milburn. It assesses the merits of all of their heirs, from Keegan to Beardsley, from Macdonald to Shearer, from Moncur to Dyer. Exploring and explaining the lean years as well as the successful decades, The Toon exposes the bad managers, incompetent directors and players who were unworthy of the black and white stripes. It takes an unflinching look at the lost opportunities and the Geordie footballers who went missing. But it also offers us the geniuses, the household names, the men who have lit up Tyneside and the world beyond in a hundred-year sequence of unforgettable League and Cup campaigns. Most of all, The Toon looks from the past towards a glorious future.

The Toon

A Complete History of Newcastle United Football Club

George Wilkie

Dundee. To football fans, it has been the subject of great curiosity for as long as the game has been played professionally. How does a relatively small and economically challenged city manage to sustain two senior clubs which, perversely, play across the road from one another? And why has this rivalry not suffered the scourge of sectarianism which has blighted football elsewhere in Scotland? 
 
When Dundee United reached the semi-final of the 1983-84 European Cup it meant that, with the exception of Glasgow, Dundee was the only British city to have provided two semi-finalists in that great competition. Since then Dundee United have gone on to reach a UEFA Cup final and to win the Scottish Cup. 
 
For Dundee FC, things have been slightly different. There are many fans with long enough memories to recall their glory days, and the silence of their suffering has been punctuated only by boardroom upheaval and the threat of closure. It is only recently that the club's fortunes have taken an upturn, with an influx of exciting, tenacious foreigners. 
 
Things are changing. The economic, cultural and academic life of the City of Dundee has flourished in recent years. Meanwhile, as revolution sweeps the international footballing world, the scales of success - which determine the balance of soccer power on Tayside - are showing faltering signs of movement. The Jim McLean era has ended, but will Dundee's Italian risorgimento succeed? Should there be only one team? First published in 1984, Across the Great Divide has been revised to update the historical perspective on professional football in the City of Discovery.

Across The Great Divide

A History of Professional Football in Dundee

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