Books

Secret Diary of a Liverpool Scout: Simon Hughes

Twentyman’s notable signings are almost too multitudinous to list but include the likes of Kevin Keegan, Ian Rush, Graeme Souness and Bruce Grobbelaar – if there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that Twentyman had an eye for a snazzy ‘tache.

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Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

Diagnoses of the England football team tend to rely on some form of class cliche, or call to mind images of the Battle of Britain and Agincourt to support why the English consistently fall short in major tournaments. Brilliant Orange works, largely because it is under no illusions; the Dutch are the architects of their own downfall

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Behind The Curtain by Jonathan Wilson

Wilson’s tales travelling behind the old Iron Curtain – often meeting cartoonish people or prising himself from a freezing press seat with a wallpaper scraper – are never mawkish and always pitched at the right level

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Football Against The Enemy by Simon Kuper

One quote sums up the charm of the book perfectly, on a Lithuania v Latvia match, Kuper remarks – “The fans were wandering around in shirts with Western logos, any Western logos: one man’s shirt said: ‘Royal Mail – Stoke-on-Trent – MLO.”

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Ingerland – Travels With A Football Nation

As England fans prepare to pack their bags for South Africa, Claire Gibson reviews ‘Ingerland’ as Mark Perryman taps into the psyche of England fans in the lead-up to Euro 2004, focusing on what it means to be an ‘Ingerland’ fan.


 

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Chapped Legs and Punctured Balls

The FIFA computer game include a feature for modern-day children to create themselves as a player and earn a place in the starting XI of a Premier League football team, but is this even close to creating your own, real-life team?

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