How to Be a Footballer

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Whereas the first book was all about his playing career and his off the field troubles, Sober focuses on the difficulties Adams has faced not only staying off the demon drink but also the problems he has encountered starting out as a new coach.

Refreshing in its honesty, ‘Big Sam’, is a real earthy kind of book which is not pretentious in any way and gives readers a real insight into the trials and tribulations of a Premier League manager. A goal-scoring machine in the 1980’s for Chelsea, Kerry Dixon’s book which was released in September 2016, is a fascinating look at the rise and subsequent fall of a Chelsea legend.His aim? “To investigate precisely how politics and football intertwined throughout the world. It was a subject that always fascinated me, and I was conscious that such a book hadn’t been written before.” With a foreword from Arsene Wenger, Ray Parlour’s book is extremely well-written, easy to read and gives a great account of life as a Premier League footballer in the 1990’s. Hamilton recalls, “I stayed well into the autumn afternoon and left hopelessly drunk on Bell’s Whisky. We never got to the champagne. My notebook was choked with stories.”

Barton comes across in the book as a man who has a huge desire to win football matches at all costs, even at the expense of personal relationships, and he goes into detail about many of the scrapes he has been involved in over the years on and off the pitch. This book was written before he resigned as England’s manager after the Telegraph’s well-publicised sting operation.One of the most eagerly awaited football books from one of the most respected pundits at the moment, Danny Higginbotham’s engrossing read hit the shelves in April 2015. There are problems. When Bellos wrote this, he was Brazil correspondent for The Guardian, and like many daily journalists he has trouble structuring a book. At times it descends into a parade of cameo football obsessives. Secondly, he is shorter on theory than on fact. This is something of a relief after the many half-baked football-as-national-character arguments, but since Bellos knows so much, and seems so comfortable with Brazil’s history, language and music (like all good football books, Futebol is about much more than football), we want more of his insights. However, it’s an irreplaceable book. Simon Kuper In September 2016, Ruud Gullit released his book How to Watch Football his masterclass on how to ‘read’ the game. The book is also quite humourous in parts especially when he talks about his career in non-league football – a world away from the money and adulation he receives in the Premier League. The only negative point of the book in our opinion is that he doesn’t talk as much about his 20 year playing career as maybe he should have, considering that he made over 400 first-team appearances.

If you like Jamie Carragher’s punditry style then you will like his book as it’s written in the same kind of tone but it won’t be everybody’s cup of tea purely because of this football book’s age.A warm, intelligent and revealing biography which fuses history and politics with the study of genius to produce a unique portrait of the great Hungarian, Ferenc Puskas. A labour of love, it was born of Taylor’s urge to know his boyhood hero. Written in more of a conversational style rather than a classic literacy style, Alex Ferguson’s book will not entertain you but also educate you. Naturally the book is bursting with anecdotes, and unlike the after-dinner exaggerations shared by some of Clough’s former colleagues, they’re diverse, heartfelt and true. An intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate man, who uses his status to achieve goodness in the world, this book is a very enjoyable read. But Hamilton doesn’t just tell stories. He presents an enduring character study of a man who cared deeply about other people while being driven by a need to prove them wrong; a man “obsessed with money, as if he feared he might wake up one morning and find himself a pauper again”; a man just as proud of reaching cup finals with a patchwork Forest side and no facilities as he was of winning two European Cups during richer times.

Instead, each chapter contains his thoughts on either a period of his distinguished career or opinions on modern-day questions such as the Messi or Ronaldo debate.

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The main focus of the book is on his time at Liverpool which included the glory years of the mid 2000’s but this book will definitely appeal to fans of other clubs. He talks in detail about his highs and lows at Sunderland, regrets of taking on the manager’s job at Ipswich Town when he realised the training kit was blue and also why he refused to sign Robbie Savage. He obviously talks about his early-life and his journey to become a professional footballer in this book but he also talks openly for a whole chapter about racism and even airs his opinions on Brexit. Savage’s second book, which was released in June 2016, gives the reader his thoughts on all aspects of the modern game with opinions on players, managers, cup competitions and even kids football. This book can be compared to how Steven Gerrard led his footballing career, no-nonsense, straight-laced and relatively drama free – this is not one of those football books which lift the lid on scandal and secrets.