Jimmy Armfield was one of the great figures of English football - captain of the national team before Bobby Moore, member of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad, one-club man with Blackpool. Gentleman Jim went on to enjoy a wonderfully rich life and career as a manager with Leeds United, before becoming a broadcaster of warmth and insight, then consultant with the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association. In Pantomime Hero, award-winning football writer and author Ian Ridley tells the remarkable tale of when Armfield took over at Leeds after Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days and came up with a novel and unique idea to restore the morale of a club in turmoil. Around that amazing tale, Ridley also describes a friendship forged through the bonds of cancer with a giant of a man who was already long established as a national footballing treasure at the time of his death in January 2018. This is the first book in the innovative Football Shorts series.

SHORTLISTED, WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK of the YEAR, 2020. When Ian Ridley's wife, the trailblazing sports reporter Vikki Orvice, died of cancer at the age of 56, he found himself plunged deep into a sadness that he expected and a world of madness that he did not. In an attempt to make sense of it all and seek some solace from the brutality of his grief and anxiety, he embarks on a summer of watching county cricket. Reliving bitter-sweet memories in places he and Vikki had visited together, he is alternately unnerved and consoled by the ebbs and flows of his mourning. But gradually, against a backdrop of the County Championship's peace and solitude - with the sun on his back and tea, cake and crossword at his side - he finds a way to survive the rhythms and cadences of his grief. The Breath of Sadness is an unflinching account of how we carry on when we are left behind, and a poignant, tender and candid exploration of love and loss.

At Liverpool in the early 1970s Kevin Keegan won three First Division titles, two EUFA Cups, two FA Cups and the European Cup. At Hamburg he was crowned Footballer of the Year two years running, won the Bundeslinga title in 1978-79 and reached the European Cup Final. At Southampton he was voted PFA Player of the Year and was awarded an OBE for his services to Association Football. In his debut season with Newcastle United he helped the club to promotion and he captained the England team for six years from 1976-1982. As a manager his career has been no less newsworthy, although not always for the right reasons. Five heady and successful years at Newcastle from 1992-1997 were followed by more controversial spells with Fulham, England and Manchester City. In 2005, Keegan announced his retirement. Then, in 2008, he made headlines by returning to Newcastle United, the scene of his greatest triumphs -- an announcement which was greeted ecstatically by Newcastle supporters -- and no less sensationally resigned in acrimonious circumstances only nine months later. A revered sports journalist with unparalleled access to insider exclusives, Ian Ridley is the perfect man for the task of understanding what it is that makes Kevin Keegan tick. Training his brilliantly incisive and penetrating gaze on Keegan, Ridley offers an unprecedented insight into the mind of this most enigmatic of men.