It’s for anyone who has ever tried to prove that point by taking the hot seat in the management simulation Football Manager. Whilst most Football Manager players feel they possess innate tactical awareness, on point man-management skills and a gift for dealing with the media; even the most hardened fan would have to admit there’s much to be learned from those who ply their trade in the real world. If you want to make an immediate impact on your struggling hometown club, you need to refer back to Sir Bobby Robson. If you want to lay down the law with your young players, you need to take tips from Sir Alex Ferguson. Want to avoid a financial catastrophe? Then learn from Leeds United!So if, at any point in your life, you have imagined yourself in a tracksuit, waving your arms in the air on the touchline, with your perfect XI scribbled on the back of a beer mat and thinking ahead to the press conference, then this book is for you. After all, you’re already a football manager… you just haven’t been appointed yet.

    No passing, running, tackling, or kicking. Hey, there isn't even a field. Yet the draft has become more popular than many other sporting events, including the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) playoff games, against which it goes head-to-head for viewers. In fact, the draft has spawned its own cottage industry in which names such as Gil Brandt, Mel Kiper, Jr., and Mike Mayock become as well-known as any of the first-round selections.In On the Clock, Ken Rappoport and Barry Wilner chronicle the history of the proceedings. The veteran sports writers take you from the first grab bag in 1936, when Philadelphia chose Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago and saw him decline to play in the NFL, to the 2014 draft—considered one of the deepest in talent ever.Along the 78-year journey, learn about the competitions for the top overall spot (Peyton Manning vs. Ryan Leaf), the unhappy No. 1s (John Elway and Tom Cousineau), the big flops (JaMarcus Russell) and the late-rounders-turned-superstars (Tom Brady).Meet the draft wizards, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson. And the draft whiffs that cost personnel executives their jobs.On the Clock takes you behind the scenes at one of pro football’s yearly major events. Barry Wilner has been a sportswriter for the Associated Press since 1975. He has covered virtually every major sporting event, including twelve Olympics, nine World Cups, twenty-six Super Bowls, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup finals, and has written thirty-nine books. He lives in Garnerville, New York.Ken Rappoport is the author of more than sixty sports books for adults and young readers. Working for the Associated Press in New York for thirty years, he has written about every major sport. His assignments included the World Series, the NBA Finals, and, as the AP’s national hockey writer, the Stanley Cup Finals and the Olympics. He lives in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

    In his car were the drugs the team needed if they were to have any chance of playing a competitive part in the 1998 Tour de France. The car was searched, he was immediately arrested and so the story that has been undermining the sport of cycling since the death of Tommy Simpson in 1967, finally broke. Imprisoned for sixteen days, sacked from the Festina team and ostracised from the sport to which he had dedicated his life, Willy Voet at last was able to tell the truth. His sensational story will change cycling forever.Cocaine, amphetamines, EPO, heroin - all these are now considered not optional but necessary, not to win but just to compete in the Tour de France. Details of how these drugs are obtained, mixed together to make cocktails, administered and concealed are all included in this graphic and uninhibited account of how drugs brought cycling to its knees.

    With candor and detail, he talks about his famous contract dispute with Jerry Jones; the stunning transformation of the Cowboys, from a 1-15 team to two-time Super Bowl champs; his feelings about Jimmy Johnson and how Jimmy left the Cowboys; his teammates and friends Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman, and Charles Haley; his opponents around the league, including Lawrence Taylor, Thurman Thomas, and the whole rowdy defense in Philadelphia.

    Built by an eccentric owner, molded by a visionary coach and loaded with hardscrabble miners, college All Americans and the sky's the limit ethos of the Roaring Twentys, the Maroons did the unthinkable and dominated the NFL in their rookie season. (Their improbable rise was chronicled each week in the local paper by a rookie Pottsville sportswriter named John OOHara.)Little Pottsville outscored its first seven opponents 162-6. The boys so thoroughly pummeled one opponent, angry fans shot up their train car as the Maroons rode out of town. In the final game of that first season the Maroons traveled to the Midwest to face the league-leading Chicago Cardinals in what was viewed as the championship game for 1925. The Maroons overcame a Windy City snowstorm and an injury to their best player to defeat the Cardinals 21-7.But the fans wanted more.College ball was still king. And as news of PottsvilleOs success was splashed across the news reels and headlines throughout the country, a movement began to have the Maroons face a team of college All-Stars from the University of Notre Dame, featuring the legendary Four Horsemen, the finest collection of talent the game had ever known. Experts believed the NFL was still decades away from competing with college football. But on a neutral field in Philadelphia, in a battle described as The Greatest Football Game Ever Seen, the Maroons shocked the world and turned the football establishment upside-down, defeating Notre Dame 9-7 on a last-second field goal by their captain Charlie Berry who had his kicking cleat bronzed for eternity.The championship was theirs. The NFL was finally on the map. The Maroons victory over Notre Dame had legitimized the league. It also destroyed the town and the team that made it all possible.Claiming the upstart Maroons had violated the territory of another franchise by playing Notre Dame in Philadelphia, the NFL suspended Pottsville and awarded the 1925 NFL championship to the Chicago Cardinals. The Cardinals refused to accept the bogus title and the 1925 crown was never officially awarded. For more than 80 years, fans of the Pottsville MaroonsNthe team Red Grange said was the greatest he ever facedNhave fought to have the 1925 title returned to its rightful owners.With Breaker Boys their remarkable story is told at last.

    From its late-Victorian flowering in the mill towns of the northwest of England, football spread around the world with great speed. It was helped on its way by a series of missionaries who showed the rest of the planet the simple joys of the game. Even now, in many countries, the colloquial word for a football manager is not 'coach' or 'boss' but 'mister', as that is how the early teachers were known, because they had come from the home of the sport to help it develop in new territories.       In Rory Smith's stunning new book Mister, he looks at the stories of these pioneers of the game, men who left this country to take football across the globe. Sometimes, they had been spurned in their own land, as coaching was often frowned upon in England in those days, when players were starved of the ball during the week to make them hungry for it on matchday. So it was that the inspirations behind the 'Mighty Magyars' of the 1950s, the Dutch of the 1970s or top clubs such as Barcelona came from these shores.       England, without realising it, fired the very revolution that would remove its crown, changing football's history, thanks to a handful of men who sowed the seeds of the inversion of football's natural order. This is the story of the men who taught the world to play and shaped its destiny. This is the story of the Misters.

    He is the sixth-highest goal scorer in the history of the Premier League and notched 183 goals for Liverpool alone.But before all of that, he was a Liverpool lad who loved the game, the Kop and everything that came with it. My Life In Football is the story of a boy who became a legend.Born in Liverpool in 1975, Robbie Fowler became a club icon by the time he was 18. Now, he takes us through the games that have shaped his life and football philosophy, over 25 years after he first signed as a professional for Liverpool.Engaging, personal and revealing, Robbie opens up about his astounding achievements, the price of fame and the regrets and struggles of being a professional footballer. From Hillsborough to Madrid, via the cup treble, that goal line celebration, hundreds of goals, Houllier, Benítez, Klopp and more, Robbie explains his thinking about the modern game. Inviting readers inside the dressing room, he shares stories of legendary teammates like Rush, Owen and Gerrard, as well as his rise to football's top table. How did he get back up so many times after the injuries that blighted his career? What gave him the drive to keep going and pursue his dreams?Robbie's My Life In Football harks back to a simpler time when fans and players shared the same story, and when the local boy really could dream of scoring a hat-trick for his home club when Saturday came.

    Here, he recalls the glorious memories of his record-breaking career at Manchester United, as well as highlights from his international career with Wales. Giggsy's words bring 20 seasons of pictures to life, as the most decorated player in English football history relives 11 Premier League wins, four FA Cup successes, three League Cup winner's medals, and two Champions League victories, and remembers the people who have helped to make him a true sporting great.

    Out on the pitch a lone brass player sounds the haunting Post Horn Gallop, for 80 years the home players' entrance tune. Spines tingle. Air is gulped into opposition lungs. Game time, time to begin the chase. Burning fox eyes peer down from between the decks of one of the stands. On the stadium's outside wall a royal blue LCD display says #Fearless.Welcome to Leicester City. They were always a club with a difference but in 2015-16 they created a story that in modern football stands unique. Who could believe it: from relegation certainties to champions of England? It was when, on behalf of every small club, dreams were hunted at the King Power, a season where the impossible became merely quarry.5,000-1 shots when the campaign started, Leicester's transformation has been remarkable. This is the most incredible cast of written-offs, grafters, misfits and journeymen, coming together in a special time and place to simultaneously have the season of their lives. Fearless will document Leicester's hunt of their impossible dream. It will tell the greatest football tale of the Premier League era, in loving detail, with the inside track. Now that Leicester have gone all the way and won the title, it is the best story in world sports - for years.Premier League champions. The side who'd been adrift at the bottom 12 months previously, who's started the season as relegation favourites, whose manager was favourite to be the first one sacked once the campaign got underway. A League One side only seven seasons previously. A squad of �500,000 and �1m men. Leicester. Ridiculous. Miraculous. Fearless.

    Enchanted with effortlessly stylish bars and colourful buildings, this is a charismatic metropolis doused in the endless sun of southern Spain. The city is also home to two historic institutions of Spanish football - Real Betis and Sevilla - and when they go head-to-head to contest El Gran Derbi, the rest of Spain can only watch in awe. This is a pulsating and arresting experience which encapsulates the beautiful game in all its raw, spellbinding brilliance. Spanish football is more than Barcelona and Real Madrid. Much more. The city contrasts uptown Sevilla with downtown Betis. Los Rojiblancos pitted against Los Verdiblancos. Sevillistas and Beticos. Nothing can compare to this beautiful city and the crazy passion for football that it produces, either in Spain or Europe. Colin Millar - who made the city his home - charts the illustrious histories of football in the city and explores how both clubs represent a way of life for Sevillanos.

    While The Damned United was a fictional account of Clough’s short-lived but controversial reign at the club, this book reveals the true story, as told by the players he managed at the time. Vividly recreating the atmosphere of the era, the book features candid contributions from legendary names such as Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray, and Norman Hunter. They reveal what it was like to make the transition from the relatively smooth management style of former manager Don Revie, who helped the club achieve success in Europe, to a constant crossing of swords with the outspoken Brian Clough, who left the club flailing at the foot of the league upon his premature departure. This explosive account covers all the drama that ensued from the moment Clough was earmarked by the club directors as the favorite to succeed Revie to his exit less than two months later, saddled with the knowledge that he had been the club’s most unsuccessful manager ever. Told from the perspective of those who experienced Clough’s dictatorial managerial methods at Leeds at first hand, We are the Damned United tells it how it really was rather than how it might have been.

    As a youth soccer coach for more than twenty years, Coach Andrew Latham sets kids up for success in Soccer Smarts for Kids with his no-fluff, easy-to-understand strategies and cover-to-cover tips—from goal setting and staying fit to pre-game prep and mental motivation. Coach Latham preps young players to be their best by sharing soccer secrets, exercises, and tricks for kids to develop their skills on the field, with: Basic to advanced techniques so kids can move at their own pace Player profiles highlighting six superstar soccer players (including Lionel Messi and Alex Morgan) Playbook essentials featuring color photos and custom diagrams Need-to-know terms to crack the code of fundamental soccer definitions Soccer fans will improve their game, play smarter, and have more fun with Soccer Smarts for Kids.

    In the subsequent twenty years as manager he has transformed the club. English football's longest serving manager has overseen a period of radical change. His experience spans across the spectrum from complex challenges to historic success.The Wenger Revolution chronicles this fascinating era through the combination of distinctive photographs taken from the inner sanctum, and words from Amy Lawrence.This is a stunning photographic journey, based on the images captured by official club photographer Stuart MacFarlane, who has had exclusive access for many years. Publication coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Wenger's arrival in England.The Arsenal he joined bears little resemblance to what the club looks like as we approach 2016. A total renovation in terms of training, stadium, style, economics and a global audience has taken place under Wenger's instruction.His successes illustrate what a sensation he created in English football. He is regarded as a guru of new football methods, getting a club with a traditional English culture to give up drinking, modernize diet, embrace new training methods, and play with a panache that ripped up the stereotype of Boring Arsenal. The Wenger Revolution is worth commemorating, and this book will do so in style.

    But what has never been written before is the equally remarkable history of Arsenal's rebels, both on and off the pitch. Spanning almost 120 years, and set against a backdrop of turbulent social and political change, Rebels for the Cause assesses the legacy and impact of Arsenal's most controversial players, officials and matches. From hard men like '30s player Wilf Copping to the reformed wild ones of recent years such as Tony Adams, Jon Spurling highlights the infamous figures whose refusal to conform has made them terrace legends. Mavericks such as '80s star Charlie Nicholas and the 'King of Highbury' Charlie George are here, as are '70s lads Alan Hudson and Malcolm Macdonald. The book also focuses on the club's revolutionary founding fathers, David Danskin and Jack Humble, the terrifying '20s 'soccer Tsar' Sir Henry Norris and David Dein's controversial introduction of free-market economics to Highbury in the regressive '80s. Also investigated are the stories behind Arsenal's most infamous tabloid exposés. Featuring extensive interviews with 15 former players, Rebels for the Cause is an indispensable guide to the alternative history of Arsenal Football Club, shedding new light on the origins of the rivalry with Tottenham, on many of Highbury's cult heroes and on the struggle of several players to adapt to life outside the game.

    In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to being one of the foremost teams of the twentieth century.With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the matches themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluating and reassessing, and going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to discover why what happened happened. It is in this way, as far as possible, a football history of a great club.And because this is Manchester United, there is additional resonance. From the completion of Old Trafford in 1910, United have had a significant financial advantage. Yet their past has not been one of sustained success. As such, their history is also, to an extent, a history of English football, with all of its possibilities and frustrations.