Martin O'Neill is one of the most fascinating and respected figures in football. On Days Like These tells the story of his remarkable career. For the first time, Martin O'Neill reflects on one of the most varied and successful football careers in the British Isles. He made his breakthrough playing for Distillery in Northern Ireland before joining Brian Clough's legendary Nottingham Forest team, becoming one of the few players who made the epic journey from the Second Division to the glory years: winning the First Division championship, two League Cups and back-to-back European Cups. O'Neill represented Northern Ireland over sixty times, playing alongside George Best and captaining the side at the 1982 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals. As a manager, O'Neill's celebrated leadership of Celtic saw them win seven trophies, including three Scottish Premier League titles; and in England he successfully led Leicester City to two League Cups and Aston Villa to an unprecedented three consecutive top six Premier League finishes. He oversaw the Republic of Ireland reaching the Euros in 2016, when they made it to the second round for the first time in their history. With a career spanning over fifty years, Martin tells of his exhilarating highs and painful lows; from the joys of winning trophies, promotion and fighting for World Cups to being harangued by fans, boardroom drama, relegation scraps and being fired. Written with his trademark honesty and humour, On Days Like These is one of the most insightful and captivating autobiographies and a must-read for any fans of the beautiful game.

Football clubs across the world continue to embody many of the collective symbols, identifications and processes of connectivity which have long been associated with the notion of 'community'. In recent years, however, the very term 'community' has become the focus of renewed interest within popular discourse and amongst academics, politicians and policy makers. It has become something of a 'buzz' word, wheeled out as both a lament to more certain times and as an appeal to a better future: a term imbued with all the richness associated with human interaction. 'Community' has also been employed increasingly within football, for instrumental reasons concerned with policy and stadium redevelopment, and in broader rhetoric about clubs, their localities and fans. This book brings together a range of key debates around contemporary understandings of 'community' in world football. Split into four sections, it considers political and theoretical debates around football and its connection with community; different national and ethnic football communities; instrumental uses of football to bridge gaps within and between groups; future directions in the football and community debate. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

This book presents a synthesis of the work on early football undertaken by the authors over the past two decades. It explores aspects of a figurational approach to sociology to examine the early development of football rules in the middle part of the nineteenth century. The book tests Dunning's status rivalry hypothesis to contest Harvey's view of football's development which stresses an influential sub-culture outside the public schools. Status Rivalry re-states the primacy of these latter institutions in the growth of football and without it the sport's story would remain skewed and unbalanced for future generations.

When Peter Minto first discovered the name of F N S Creek, he began to unravel a forgotten legend of British football. He soon found that there was far more to this man than it seemed...When the First World War broke out, F N S Creek found himself battling in the squalid trenches of Flanders and soon transferred into the Royal Flying Corps performing dangerous aerial reconnaissance and bombing missions behind enemy lines, eventually earning a military cross for his contributions. Despite the short life expectancy of aircrew, Creek returned to England to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and there he first discovered his talent for football. F N S Creek quickly grew to celebrity status with his spectacular scoring ability, earning caps for England and later going on to coach the Olympic team for sixteen years. Throughout his career he revolutionised the coaching of football throughout the nation whilst also becoming a successful cricketer, writer, journalist and broadcaster. In this extensively-researched biography of a forgotten legend of English football, Peter Minto presents the remarkable life of F N S Creek.

The Sunshine Kids is no ordinary autobiography. Twins Fabio and Rafael Da Silva have seen it all in football - from the favelas of Brazil to the height of the European game with Manchester United. Their performances and contribution to one of the most glittering periods in the club's history cemented their place in the heart of every United fan. Theirs is an incredible journey and story - and, with Wayne Barton ('The pre-eminent writer on Manchester United' - Martin Edwards) the pair tell all. The sheer personality pours from the pages as Rafael's energy shines through in tales of fierce rivalries with Liverpool and Manchester City, and Fabio reveals his battle with anxiety as he sought to establish himself at Old Trafford. From the experience of joining the best team in Europe, to the human aspect and difficulty that comes with it, their familial relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson and their careers since leaving United - you'll discover just why the twins have been adored wherever their football careers have taken them.

In this follow-up to 'Soccer in a Football World', Wangerin details several of the people, places and events that shaped American soccer. He profiles Tom Cahill, the almost-forgotten 'father of American soccer' and writes about the 1979 North American Soccer League season, the high-water mark of the game in the 20th century.

Spanish soccer is on top of the world, at international and club level, with the best teams and a seemingly endless supply of exciting and stylish players. While the Spanish economy struggles, its soccer flourishes, deeply embedded throughout Spanish social and cultural life. But the relationship between soccer, culture and national identity in Spain is complex. This fascinating, in-depth study shines new light on Spanish soccer by examining the role this sport plays in Basque identity, consolidated in Athletic Club of Bilbao, the century-old soccer club located in the birthplace of Basque nationalism. Athletic Bilbao has a unique player recruitment policy, allowing only Basque-born players or those developed at the youth academies of Basque clubs to play for the team, a policy that rejects the internationalism of contemporary globalised soccer. Despite this, the club has never been relegated from the top division of Spanish football. A particularly tight bond exists between fans, their club and the players, with Athletic representing a beacon of Basque national identity. This book is an ethnography of a soccer culture where origins, nationalism, gender relations, power and passion, lifecycle events and death rituals gain new meanings as they become, below and beyond the playing field, a matter of creative contention and communal affirmation. Based on unique, in-depth ethnographic research, this book investigates how a soccer club and soccer fandom affect the life of a community, interweaving empirical research material with key contemporary themes in the social sciences, and placing the study in the wider context of Spanish political and sporting cultures. Filling a key gap in the literature on contemporary Spain, and on wider soccer cultures, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, anthropology, sociology, political science, or cultural and gender studies.

All Crazee Now is the story of English football and its footballers in the 1970s, a decade that saw the start of the move from the 'old-fashioned' game towards the modern Premier League era; a transition that accelerated throughout the decade. Much of what we recognise in today's game is rooted in the seventies - including diverse ethnicity and multi-nationalism in club teams; the rise of commercialism; the cult of the manager; the end of the player-next-door; and the demand for victory ahead of individualism. The beginning of the decade remains the period in English football that supporters felt more connected than anytime previous or since. By the time the Thatcherite 1980s were dawning, the way had been paved for a rapid evolution towards 21st-century football. More than just a chronicle of trophy winners, star players and personalities, it offers a study of the tactical, philosophical, social, cultural, economic and political landscape that shaped football throughout a turbulent period for a nation and its favourite sport.

'Sunny' Jim Young is reckoned by some Celtic historians to be the greatest Celt of them all, winning nine League Championships (three as captain) and six Scottish Cups. Amazingly, he was only capped once for Scotland, and his tragic death aged only forty plunged the whole of Scottish football into sadness. This book profiles the life and career of a Parkhead legend.

The football industry has long been the subject of theoretical and empirical analysis by economists. A study of the economics of football throws up a range of intriguing questions - from what determines the level of attendance at football matches to how efficient football managers are in producing team performance, given the playing resources available. This important collection considers these and other questions - such as: What drives the transfer value of players? How has the changing structure of football's labour market affected sporting and financial outcomes? How effective have football leagues been in maintaining competitive balance? Do football clubs seek to maximise profits? How predictable are football matches? Is the football betting market efficient? This authoritative two volume collection pulls together the work of leading sports economists over the last five decades to answer these and other questions using consumer theory, labour economics, industrial organisation and a range of other theoretical insights combined with econometric analysis. These innovative volumes bring together a careful synthesis of applied economics that will be of interest to all those concerned with analysing the real world.

The identification and development of talented young players has become a central concern of football clubs at all levels of the professional game, as well as for national and international governing bodies. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive survey and assessment of youth development programmes in football around the world, to highlight best practice, and to offer clear recommendations for improvement. The book draws on original, in-depth research at eight elite professional football clubs, including Barcelona, Ajax and Bayern Munich, as well as the French national football academy at Clairefontaine. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, including psychology, coaching and management studies, and covers every key topic from organisational structures, talent recruitment and performance analysis to player education and welfare. Written by two authors with extensive experience in English professional football, including five Premiership clubs, this book is important reading for any student, researcher, coach, administrator or academy director with an interest in football, youth sport, sports development, sports coaching or sport management.

The identification and development of talented young players has become a central concern of football clubs at all levels of the professional game, as well as for national and international governing bodies. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive survey and assessment of youth development programmes in football around the world, to highlight best practice, and to offer clear recommendations for improvement. The book draws on original, in-depth research at eight elite professional football clubs, including Barcelona, Ajax and Bayern Munich, as well as the French national football academy at Clairefontaine. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, including psychology, coaching and management studies, and covers every key topic from organisational structures, talent recruitment and performance analysis to player education and welfare. Written by two authors with extensive experience in English professional football, including five Premiership clubs, this book is important reading for any student, researcher, coach, administrator or academy director with an interest in football, youth sport, sports development, sports coaching or sport management.

Delves into the history of Reading FC - one of the oldest clubs in the Football League. This title focuses on the various quirky tales and incidents that have befallen the club throughout the years. It features various weird and obscure sports staged by the club, the numerous (world) records set by Reading and some very strange pitch invaders.