Manchester United and Liverpool were born to be enemies.Both emerged in the cultural battlefield of the north-west of England in the late nineteenth century. One a team of railway workers, the other the plaything of a wealthy freemason, the two clubs emerged blinking into a period where the two great civic centres of the north-west were at each others throats over the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal, and whatever else they could find.When, in the late 1970s, the c...

Few leaders will admit it, but again and again the growth of their organizations outruns their skills. If you're one of those leaders, you know the result: as the job grows bigger than you are, you get disoriented by a world of unfamiliar challenges. You then hit a wall of ineffectiveness, a stall point. Why won't doubling down on the managerial and technical building blocks that have worked before help you out of a stall? Because you invariably neglect the new political, personal, strateg...

Few leaders will admit it, but again and again the growth of their organizations outruns their skills. If you're one of those leaders, you know the result: as the job grows bigger than you are, you get disoriented by a world of unfamiliar challenges. You then hit a wall of ineffectiveness, a stall point. Why won't doubling down on the managerial and technical building blocks that have worked before help you out of a stall? Because you invariably neglect the new political, personal, strateg...

Harry Redknapp is one of the biggest and best-loved characters in English football. From West Ham to Bournemouth, Portsmouth to Tottenham, legions of fans regard him as one of the game's true legends.• Harry's long career has been packed with twists and turns and plenty of controversy. Signing for West Ham as a 17 year-old, Harry Redknapp made 149 appearances before moving to Bournemouth where he stayed until 1982, leaving to take up his first coaching position with the club. After a major...

The best football autobiography I have ever read The Sunday TimesAlex Ferguson is a legend in his lifetime, universally respected for his tough, but caring managerial style. This book covers the beginning of his football career, including his triumphant 1999 run to the treble and a Knighthood from the Queen.Covering his tough Govan upbringing through to his playing days and onto his shift into management, Managing My Life is told with the ...

75 MILLION FANS.AN ANNUAL INCOME OF MORE THAN £500 MILLION.AND A STORY THAT HAS NEVER FULLY BEEN TOLD - UNTIL NOW.'A wonderfully entertaining history' Sunday Telegraph'When historians 1,000 years from now try to fathom the cult of Manchester United Football Club, White will be a good place to start' Financial Times

The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of soccer and contemporary Britain. Soccer in the United Kingdom has evolved from a jaded, working-class tradition to a sport at the heart of popular culture, from an economic mess to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. The changes in the game, David Goldblatt shows, uncannily mirror the evolution of British society.In the 1980s, soccer was described as a slum game played by slum people in slum stadium...

The Beautiful Game -- we all love it, but it can sometimes leave us scratching our heads in disbelief or open-mouthed in wonderment. Football Extreme is a collection of the craziest, funniest and most extreme things ever to have happened in the world of football. From the FA Cup to the World Cup, Football Extreme is packed with bizarre facts and figures, amazing stories and incredible footballing feats. Discover how a bald 57-year-old ended up playing for Doncaster Rovers, how a remote isl...

‘Seeing Red’ is an exclusive extract from the best-selling ‘Mad For It’, published in association with FourFourTwo magazine. It examines one of the greatest sporting rivalries from the viewpoint of the people that matter; the fans.‘Mad For It’ proves that some football matches are far more than just a game.These short extracts, from the original book published in association with FourFourTwo magazine, provide a fresh and revealing insight into the people that make these mat...

This collection of Russell Brand's columns for The Guardian not only follows the drama and tumult of the domestic and international football season but also a season in the life of one of our most celebrated comic talents.Brand chronicles events both on and off the pitch as he travels between Upton Park and Hollywood. In his literary riffings, football legends and newfound heroes brush shoulders with a pantheon of cultural icons. Matches are won and lost, Brand's faith in his belov...

Nick Hornby, author of the bestselling soccer classic Fever Pitch, offers an insightful account of an extraordinary sports season. Concentrating on a number of significant games in British soccer during the 2011–2012 season, Hornby chronicles the emotional, political, and societal highlights and woes that played out on the field. There were alleged racist clashes, revealing the deep cultural fissures still present in British life. There was a fairy-tale return for the legendary Th...

In Reds, a unique and exhaustively researched history of Liverpool Football Club, John Williams explores the origins and divisive politics of football in the city of Liverpool and profiles the key men behind the emergence of the club and its early successes.The first great Liverpool manager, Tom Watson, piloted the club to its first league championships in 1901 and 1906 before taking his team to the FA Cup final in 1914. Watson and the key members of those early Liverpool ...