For three extraordinary seasons at Bayern Munich, Martin Perarnau was given total access around the German super club - to its players, its backroom staff, its board members and, above all, to its manager, Pep Guardiola. In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed account of Guardiola's first full season at Bayern, Pep Confidential, Perarnau now lifts the lid on the Catalan's whole tenure in Bavaria. Pep Guardiola: The Evolution takes the reader on a journey through three action packed seasons as Bayern smashed domestic records yet struggled to emulate that dominance in Europe, analysing Guardiola's management style through key moments on and off the field. Perarnau reveals how Guardiola improved as a manager at Bayern despite failing to land the ultimate prize in European football, examines his decision to leave Germany to take up the challenge at Manchester City and how his managerial style will continue to evolve in the Premier League. This is more than the story of three seasons with one of the biggest clubs in the game. It is a portrait and analysis of a manager and the footballing philosophies that have beguiled the world.

Well-known blogger Stuart Fuller is a member of a growing band of thousands of football fans who, growing tired of watching an over-hyped and over-priced Premier League, and taking advantage of cut-price travel, enjoys watching his favourite game in different countries.?This is not simply a reference guide, more a travelogue - a book that traces the journeys Fuller takes for football, whether with England, where he has been a far from successful manager of the England Fans senior team, or on a whim.?He has watched matches in places as diverse as Moscow, Macedonia, Tallinn, Palermo, Zagreb, Florida, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Andorra, Zurich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Stockholm, Monaco, Salzburg, Istanbul, Bremen, Paris, Krakow, Minsk, Sofia, Naples, Skopje and Barcelona.?Anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps will be able to use the book as a guide but will also enjoy Fuller's account of dealing with Easyjet and Ryanair, sorting out the purchase of tickets in foreign lands and 'collecting' football stadiums.?You will meet Fuller's list of fellow travellers, including Football Jo, Dagenham Dan, Big Ben and Rob the Red.?The result is a hugely entertaining travelogue in which Fuller reckons he drank two hundred pints of beer, ate thirty-seven sausages and had nine travelling companions. ?On a serious note he also tells fellow fans about the stadiums he visited, how to get there and how to buy a ticket.

Promotion-Winning Canaries gives fans the opportunity to relive all the good times at Carrow Road as Norwich City progressed through the leagues. Detailing the post-war seasons when City went up as champions, runners-up, in third place or via play-off drama, every promotion-winning player is profiled, with insight from many at the heart of the action. Spanning contrasting eras, from the late 1950s to the Premier League, here are all the facts and figures, characters and stories behind some classic Canaries campaigns. Exclusive star interviews reveal the atmosphere in the dressing rooms, and what it was like to play in the club's most important historical matches. Learn how the famous 1959 FA Cup team used the disappointment of their semi-final replay defeat to spur them on to promotion. Discover the influence of Martin O'Neill in 1981/82 and the impact of Darren Huckerby in 2003/04. Looking back on the greatest seasons of all, Promotion-Winning Canaries offers a trip on the Norwich City rollercoaster - with all of the ups, minus the downs!

Letters from Bishopsbourne is a collective biography of three of the most distinguished stylists writing in the English language, who lived and died in the small village of Bishopsbourne just south of Canterbury in Kent: Richard Hooker (1554-1600), the theologian whose major work. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, provided the philosophical underpinning of the Elizabethan Anglican settlement; the celebrated author Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) who wrote his last novels there; and Jocelyn Brooke (1908-1966), the Proustian author of the 'orchid' trilogy which shot him to fame in the late 1940s. The book recounts their life of action before coming to the village in search of rural peace, and the challenges they faced after settling there. All three died in the village relatively young, frustrated by life and literature: Hooker because the last three books of his great work were politically controversial and his friends would not allow him to publish; Conrad because he was completely written out and struggled to produce even sub-standard work; and Brooke, after his short-lived success, because the publishing world had turned against him, refusing to handle his final works. The book provides a completely novel topographical context for each of the writers. Other celebrated inhabitants appear upon the scene, including the film director, Michael Powell, born nearby, the writer Alec Waugh, a cricket and golf enthusiast, and the eccentric cricketing patron, Sir Horace Mann, who for 25 years of the 18th century turned the village's great house into the fulcrum of English cricket.

The unconventional and surprisingly uplifting real-life account of football fan Michael Heinicke's experience with cancer. Interspersed with 25 years of exhilarating and heartening memories of life as a Burnley FC supporter, the book kicks off with his first match, as seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy. The depth of detail woven into Michael's accounts of Burnley matches through the decades - from the old, decaying terraces of Division 4 to the euphoria of a Wembley promotion to the Premier League - will strike a chord with football fans everywhere. Back in the present day, his descriptions of medical appointments and chemotherapy treatment will unexpectedly have you laughing out loud. Michael was 32 and the father of three young children when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2014. His story breaks down conventional cancer myths and shows us that sometimes, for a lucky few, life's curveballs can be more positive than negative, bringing a tale of hope to that unfathomable and unbearable cancer diagnosis.

In April 2016, as they slumped to their lowest finish since 1983 and anger turned to apathy, Sheffield United was a club on the floor. A year later, they were reborn; champions of the division, history-makers on the rise again. And the man who dragged out of the doldrums was boyhood fan, former ballboy and player and now manager, Chris Wilder. His story is probably as close to a fairytale as modern football allows. Fifteen years after managing in a Sheffield Sunday League, Wilder has established a reputation as one of English football's brightest talents after tasting success, often against a destabilising backdrop of financial difficulty, at every club he has worked at; including one which had no footballs. Featuring contributions from players, friends and acquaintances who know him well, this book explores that apprenticeship and then how Wilder turned around a sleeping giant, transformed their fortunes on and off the field and reconnected club and supporters. Fans hail him as 'one of their own' and under Wilder, United are united again.

Perhaps no NBA player today is as exciting and yet enigmatic as Kyrie Irving. Martin Gitlin's biography chronicles Irving's brilliance on the court as a devastating one-on-one talent, examines the influence of his father, the untimely death of his mother, his growth as a basketball player in high school and college, and his journey in the NBA. Nicknamed the "Isolation Assassin," Irving has earned the distinction as the most incredible isolation player in the league, outperforming rivals such as Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook with his crossover dribble, drives to the basket, stop-and-go moves, and smooth, feathery jumpers, a distinction borne out, moreover, by his championship-clinching shot against Curry's Golden State Warriors in 2016. Yet while he speaks of maximizing his talent, he has shown reluctance to maximize the production of his teammates by passing the ball, as well as his overall defense. Irving expresses his desire to win championships yet demanded a trade away from the franchise best suited to deliver him a second. Off the court there is no one like Irving either. An educated individual who claims that the earth could be flat and that dinosaurs perhaps never existed, Irving is a man of puzzling contradictions who seeks self-actualization and contentment through a variety of pursuits, including reflection, music, and acting.

When Argentinian World Cup winners Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles were unveiled as Tottenham Hotspur's new signings in the summer of 1978 it was one of the most sensational transfer coups English football had ever seen. The pair were an instant success. Ossie claimed the limelight with his wonderful control and comedy English, but when Ricky dribbled his way round half the Manchester City team to score the greatest FA Cup final goal ever in 1981 he swerved his way into the hearts of the nation and a permanent place in English football folklore. Never truly comfortable speaking in English, for the first time - with the help of co-author and translator Federico Ardiles (Ossie's son) - Ricky Villa is able to tell his story. From his childhood growing up on a farm in rural Argentina, playing alongside teenage sensation Diego Maradona for Argentina, to the dark early days after arriving in London when he was unable to communicate and suffered serious depression, through to the elation of scoring that wonder goal at Wembley. Ricky also talks about the pain of being caught between two countries he loved during the Falklands conflict as well as his experiences as a member of Argentina's 1978 World Cup squad which won a tournament tainted ever since with allegations of bribery and intimidation by Argentina's ruling military Junta.

Ken Jones was a former British Lions, Wales and Newport wing as well as a sprinter good enough to win an Olympic silver medal. He died at the age of 84 in 2006. Jones started his rugby career with local side Blaenavon and Pontypool before joining Newport in time for the 1946-47 season. He won 44 caps for Wales - 43 of them in consecutive matches - which was a Welsh record until overtaken by Gareth Edwards. Jones scored 17 tries for Wales. He also played three Tests for the British and Irish Lions during the 1950 tour to New Zealand. An all-round athlete, Jones represented Britain at the 1948 Olympics in London and won silver in the 4x100m relay. He and his teammates were actually presented with gold medals because the USA were disqualified. But three days later, once home in Newport, he received a message to return the medal because the USA had been reinstated! Jones captained Britain at the European Games in Berne in 1954 and represented Wales at the Empire Games in 1954 in Vancouver. He was the Welsh sprint champion for seven consecutive years, using that pace on the rugby field to score 146 tries in 293 games for Newport, captaining the side in 1950-51 and 1953-54.

An important and forgotten chapter in sports and African American history. Here is the first in-depth account of the birth of black baseball and its dramatic passage from grass-roots venture to commercial enterprise. In the late nineteenth century resourceful black businessmen founded ball teams that became the Negro Leagues. Racial bias aside, they faced vast odds, from the need to court white sponsors to negotiating ball parks. With no blacks in cities, they barnstormed small towns to attract fans, employing all manner of gimmickry to rouse attention. Drawing on major newspapers and obscure African-American journals, the author explores the diverse forces that shaped minority baseball. He looks unflinchingly at prejudice in amateur and pro circles and constant inadequate press coverage. He assesses the impact of urbanization, migration, and the rise of northern ghettoes, and he applauds those bold innovators who forged black baseball into a parallel club that appealed to whites yet nurtured a uniquely African American playing style. This was black baseball's finest hour: at once a source of great ethnic pride and a hardwon pathway for integration into the mainstream.

This title features 270 photographs selected from the Offside Sports Photography collection by a leading sports photographer. Football evokes passion on the scale of religious fanaticism and this book captures the essence of football club loyalty. The Beautiful Game evokes passion on the scale of religious fanaticism and this book oozes the essence of football club loyalty and hero worship, captures and replays breathtaking and memorable goals and witnesses dastardly fouls and controversial send-offs. It's also a celebration of the football ephemera - colourful scarves, treasured programmes, proudly worn rosettes - that identifies teams and supporters. Archive photographs present a gallery of the game's best-loved players, iconic managers and the fervour of their adorning fans. "50 Years of Football in Focus" is a fascinating, quirky, idiosyncratic and intimate snapshot of the past 50 years of British football, selected from the Offside Sports Photography collection by a leading sports photographer.

The summer of 2018: England sweltered in the most sustained heatwave for 42 years, the government tore itself apart over deals and no deals, and hundreds of miles away, in a taciturn and strange state, the national football team did the unthinkable in the World Cup: they didn't screw it up. The England team that touched down in Russia for the 2018 World Cup was a new-look outfit: there were no real stars, no overblown egos, and no dickheads. Still reeling from the wincing exit to Iceland in the 2016 Euros, expectations were at an all-time low. Qualification had been smooth if not spectacular, and pundits and fans alike were lukewarm about the team's chances. Just avoiding embarrassment would have counted as some kind of success. As the tournament kicked off, a stunningly stage-managed occasion by Putin and his cronies at FIFA, we all took a deep inhale of breath and waited for the inevitable: technical ineptitude and crap penalties. How wrong we were. Over the next three weeks, as back home we dissolved in the heat, our football team gave us reason to believe. We squeaked a win against Tunisia, trounced Panama and had a great tactical defeat to Belgium to open up the draw to the final. We all bought waistcoats and eulogised Southgate's calm, fatherly manner. We all fell in love with `Slabhead', aka Harry Maguire. And we did it all to the tune of `It's Coming Home'. Barney Ronay was there through the whole tournament, criss-crossing over Russia as he followed the England team, and the rest, on their quest for glory. Here, he captures the sights and sounds, the twists and turns, the bad food and the great football that contributed into making this World Cup one of the greatest of all time.

In a rare memoir about the Negro Leagues and its celebrated players, Frazier "Slow" Robinson offers an inspiring and often entertaining view of the black baseball diamond through a catcher's mask. In 1939, at the age of 29--after playing professional baseball for twelve years--Frazier Robinson caught the legendary Satchel Paige in barnstorming games from New Orleans to Walla Walla. Robinson played several more seasons in the Negro Leagues before finishing his career in Canada. While his career was a solid one, it was less spectacular than that of his friend and Hall-of-Famer, Satchel Paige, and so more typical of the experience of most Negro Leaguers. Richly embroidered with the threads of black society and of life as a black athlete in a racially divided nation, Robinson recounts his long career with the skill and ease of a natural storyteller. He covers, in remarkable detail, the personal perspective of the men, the teams, and the times that shaped this uniquely American subculture. From playing catcher for obscure industrial teams to barnstorming with Satchel Paige, he chronologically traces his nationwide path through the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and early '50s. The Foreword by John "Buck" O'Neil and Introduction by Gerald Early place Robinson squarely in the world of sports, African American culture, and American history.

Nick Davidson and Shaun Hunt were hoping that their first book Modern Football is Rubbish would put right all the ills of the present day game. But, amazingly the administrators at club and national level took no notice and the putrification of the beautiful game continued. So they are hoping that Modern Football is Still Rubbish will do what the first one coudn't.

Austin Healy is one of English rugby's best-known characters. His extraordinary career has seen him with 50 England caps, star on two British Lions tours and play a leading role in England's most successful club ever - Leicester Tigers. He's rightly regarded as perhaps the most versatile and skilful English player ever and has won fans the world over. But his outspoken nature means he's courted controversy along the way. In "Me and My Mouth", he lays bare the backstage wrangling that bedevilled England's World Cup winners and wrecked those Lions tours - and lifts the lid on the hilarious behind-the-scenes escapades fans rarely get to hear about. Now with a new career as a BBC TV presenter ahead of him, Austin's sure to stay in the public eye...and this book will ensure he keeps on ruffling feathers.

One minute before 7pm on Tuesday, May 22, 1945 a packed Lord's roared as Australia beat England in the last over of the first Victory Test. A fortnight after Victory in Europe, the result did not matter - only the cricket. The five matches between a near full-strength England and Australian servicemen, at least one of whom had just been released from a PoW camp, drew huge crowds. Great cricketers played on both sides: Len Hutton, Wally Hammond, Keith Miller, Lindsay Hassett. Everyone hailed the spirit of sportsmanship. Even the result - a 2-2 draw - was satisfying. Yet this story is forgotten today. The only history of the series is a limited-edition Australian book on the subject. The story has characters - besides the stars, men such as the Australian Dambusters Squadron pilot Ross Stanford; the quiet un-Australian Australian spin bowler Reg Ellis; and the English teenagers Donald Carr and John Dewes, who were on the wrong end of Keith Miller discovering that he was the fastest bowler in the world. By using the available sources to the full - newspapers of the time, memoirs, deposited records in England and Australia, recollections of surviving players The Victory Tests details what made the dressing rooms tick - in England's case, the class system of amateurs and professionals; and the tensions inside the Australian team too. Two controversies not aired before but covered in The Victory Tests are the war records of the charismatic Keith Miller - not the war hero his admirers have assumed; and of Sir Donald Bradman, absent in 1945 - and accused of being a war-dodger. Besides the see-sawing games - the largely unknown Australians playing beyond themselves - it's a story of players and sports lovers alike emerging joyously after years of war. Cricket mirrored wider society - people hoped for brighter cricket, just as they hoped for a better post-war world. Their hopes, inevitably, were disappointed. The Australians, wearied by a colourful tour of India, did poorly in matches on their return home and largely returned to obscurity. Even the bomber men's war efforts were later derided. And yet while the Victory Tests were not officially for the Ashes, they offer a refreshing change from the commercial and cynical cricket of the 21st century. The 1945 series brought sporting competition with goodwill - something more than the Ashes.

This text explains how football has ended up where it is today. From the formation of the very first football club to the creation of Arsenal's Emirates stadium, it tells the story of the commercialisation of the game, in a tone and language the fans will welcome.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A "thoroughly captivating biography" (The San Francisco Chronicle) of American icon Arthur Ashe-the Jackie Robinson of men's tennis-a pioneering athlete who, after breaking the color barrier, went on to become an influential civil rights activist and public intellectual. Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, by the age of eleven, Arthur Ashe was one of the state's most talented black tennis players. He became the first African American to play for the US Davis Cup team in 1963, and two years later he won the NCAA singles championship. In 1968, he rose to a number one national ranking. Turning professional in 1969, he soon became one of the world's most successful tennis stars, winning the Australian Open in 1970 and Wimbledon in 1975. After retiring in 1980, he served four years as the US Davis Cup captain and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. In this "deep, detailed, thoughtful chronicle" (The New York Times Book Review), Raymond Arsenault chronicles Ashe's rise to stardom on the court. But much of the book explores his off-court career as a human rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman, and celebrity. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality, and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was forced to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which left him HIV-positive. After devoting the last ten months of his life to AIDS activism, Ashe died in February 1993 at the age of forty-nine, leaving an inspiring legacy of dignity, integrity, and active citizenship. Based on prodigious research, including more than one hundred interviews, Arthur Ashe puts Ashe in the context of both his time and the long struggle of African-American athletes seeking equal opportunity and respect, and "will serve as the standard work on Ashe for some time" (Library Journal, starred review).