87 days ago
Review: Capello - Portrait Of A Winner
By Rowan Farnham-Long
Is Capello the man to bring home the World Cup? Marcotti will have you believing that Capello has already got one hand on the trophy with this well-researched and attractively written book.
272 days ago
Review: Ingerland – Travels With A Football Nation
By Claire Gibson
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.
277 days ago
Review: Chapped Legs and Punctured Balls
By Rowan Farnham-Long
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?
330 days ago
Review: Englischer Fussball - A German’s View Of Our Beautiful Game
By Andrew Fitchett
English football’s myths and folklore are deeply engrained in the nation’s collective sporting psyche. However, it is occasionally necessary to get a look at yourself through the eyes of others to really get the true picture. Aside from a few dalliances with over-ambition, Honigstein has done this and for that, Rafa, dankeschön.
382 days ago
Review: The Italian Job by Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti
By Rowan Farnham-Long
You will want to read every page twice in order to fully acquire the information presented before you. It’s not just a simple comparison between football in England and Calcio in Italy; it’s much, much more than that. If you are deeply interested in football culture and its dissemination into everyday life – and you as true lovers of the game really should be – then this book is an ideal resource.
382 days ago
Review: Graeme Le Saux: Left Field – A Footballer Apart
By Rowan Farnham-Long
...during a Chelsea-Liverpool match in 1999. The epitome of the late 1990’s footballer Robbie Fowler – one of the infamous ‘Spice Boys’ of Anfield – and Le Saux were involved in a running battle which ended with Fowler resorting to homophobic abuse to ‘win’ the argument
382 days ago
Review: The F.A. Cup: The Complete Story by Guy Lloyd and Nick Holt
By Rowan Farnham-Long
Over 134 FA Cup campaigns squeezed into one book. What more could the football fanatic want?
382 days ago
Review: Perfect Pitch; Home Ground edited by Simon Kuper
By Rowan Farnham-Long
Perfect Pitch; Home Ground sets out to be ‘essential reading for anyone who likes either football or great writing or both,’ and it gathers together football writers, authors and story-tellers to do just this.
382 days ago
Review: The Guardian Book of Football edited by Mike Herd
By Rowan Farnham-Long
Reading every copy of The Guardian from the last fifty years is both impractical and possibly just a little time-consuming. Reading this book featuring ‘fifty years of classic reporting’ makes much more sense.
384 days ago
Review: Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football
By Richard Hurley
Diagnoses of the England football team tend to rely on some form of class cliché, 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, often enough, on the football field … but they do it so well!