Non LCFC football books

Any recommendations,
Personal favourites of mine are,
The Glory Game/Hunter Davies
A season With Verona/Tim Parks
Left foot forward/Garry Nelson.
The Secret Footballer.

I've given loads away over the years so no doubt forgotten a few.

Gary Neville's autobiography was good, I remember Ian Wrights being awful.
 
Both Harry Pearson books, 'The Far Corner' and 'The Farther Corner' both brilliant.
 
I enjoyed a book about England at Italia 90 – might have been called All Played Out?
 
The miracle of castel di Sangro, An American follows a lower league Italian side around for a whole season, brilliant insight and superbly written.
 
The Tony Cascarino book was a good read, very honest. A life to short, the tragedy of Robert Enke (German keeper) is a great but very moving read. Football against the enemy. The Paul Lake, Man City-is supposed to be excellent not read it yet though.
 
Another vote for "All Played Out " & "The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro".

Also...

"Parklife" by Nick Varley
"Back Home - England & the 1970 World Cup" by Jeff Dawson
"Hillsborough - The Truth" by Phil Scraton
 
I haven't read a football book (apart from Fossils and Foxes) since I was about 10 when I read an old secondhand copy of John Charles' King of Soccer. I thought it was great but then again I didn't have much to compare it to.
 
May I recommend "Angels With Dirty Faces" by Jonathan Wilson. A wonderful history of Argentinian football, both club and international , a book which also lays bare the modern history of Argentina , the country, it`s people and politics.

On the downside, reading the late Robin Marwick`s "The Boys from the Brig, The Life and Times of Albion Rovers" was very hard going. I had the pleasure of meeting the author , at that time a director of the The Wee Rovers, at his home . A wonderful gentleman who put so much work into keeping the club afloat in Scottish senior football.
I suppose Albion Rovers is my home town club, but only for the first 6 months of my life. The experience of following Leicester City on pre season tours around Scotland was always enriched by meeting such characters as Robin. Living in a sporting world light years from the riches of the Premier League.
 
No surprises that the two Italian books Miracle of Castel del Sangro and A Season with Verona are mentioned, I would add The Best Footballer you never saw - Robin Friday of Reading.
 
My mind is clearly going, because The Mixer by Michael Cox is fantastic. No other idea why it wasn't my immediate reply. It does have a chapter about us in 15-16, but I think it counts as a general PL football book
 
I was at Maine Road when Paul Lake swallowed his tongue playing against us. He went down at the Leicester end in front of about 300 of us. It was a truly frightening few minutes watching it all unfold,with their club doctor working on him. We were the closest to him and first to cheer and applaud when they finally put him on the stretcher and took him to safety. We got heaps of praise from Manchester for our reactions afterwards!
 
The miracle of castel di Sangro, An American follows a lower league Italian side around for a whole season, brilliant insight and superbly written.
I listened to a podcast with the authors wife explaining how it all happened. ( he’d sadly died). It’s a mind blowing story which reads as total fabrication until you realise it’s all true.
The Tim Parks one is wonderful too. I love the bit where Napoli visited Hellas in Seria A. All 10000 ultras in the Curva Sud works face masks like we all wear now as an insult to the Neapolitans who they believe smell a lot!!
 
I was at Maine Road when Paul Lake swallowed his tongue playing against us. He went down at the Leicester end in front of about 300 of us. It was a truly frightening few minutes watching it all unfold,with their club doctor working on him. We were the closest to him and first to cheer and applaud when they finally put him on the stretcher and took him to safety. We got heaps of praise from Manchester for our reactions afterwards!

I was at that game too. The match continued while he was convulsing on the ground and we were all shouting to get attention to it.
 
Back
Top