Football Books: News and Reviews

Meet Me in the Roker End: A Revealing Look at Sunderland’s Footballing History, by Martin Howey and David Bond (2004)

The writers offer a special insight in to Sunderland’s history, revealing many previously untold stories from the past.

Fascinating stories include those of the long-serving captain who thought his manager was a schizophrenic, the England international who spent the night at Joan Collins’ house and the big-time buy whose afternoons were spent playing one-a-side with the legendary Bill Shankly.

There are also the yarns of the all-time-great who was portrayed on a postage stamp, the wing-half who sparked a diplomatic incident by signing his name as “Eggs and Bread”, the FA Cup winner who was an expert tap dancer and the winger who studied poultry-keeping.

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The South Wales Derbies: A History of Cardiff City Versus Swansea City, by Dean Hayes (2003)

This book was the first written account of the intense rivalry between Cardiff City and Swansea – the Bluebirds and the Swans – two great Welsh clubs that first met in the Southern League in 1912.

The author traces the 90-year history of derby games against a backdrop of local and national events of the past century. Each game has been carefully researched, with a full report on each of the 149 first-team meetings of the clubs – in the League, FA Cup, League Cup, Associate Members Cup, Welsh Cup and Southern League games – plus the lesser-known wartime and friendly encounters. The book also includes details about the clubs’ grounds, player profiles and a statistical section.

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Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America’s Forgotten Game, by David Wangerin (2006)

This book claimed to be the first comprehensive history of the game in the United States, a story of wild swings from brief euphoria to seemingly endless despair over the chances of the world’s game winning over its most powerful country.

In the 1920s the US had a league that robbed Europe of some of its best players. In 1950 it produced the greatest World Cup shock of all. In the the 1970s it persuaded the world’s most famous footballer to help sell the round-ball game to a public that was largely baffled, always sceptical and sometimes downright hostile. And in the 1990s it staged a successful World Cup even though it had no national league. Not until the turn of the 21st century did steady growth at the grassroots get the US off the rollercoaster. Read more…

Soccer at War 1939-45, by Jack Rollin (2005)

This is a revised edition of Jack Rollin’s compelling account of the national game during this defining moment in history, when surprisingly enough football continued to be played and watched.

It was first published 20 years ago and recognised as a classic work on football’s history. This edition contains the one of the most comprehensive collections of statistics on football during the wartime period.

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Roger Byrne: Captain of the Busby Babes, by Iain McCartney (2000)

Manchester United have enjoyed more than their fair share of great players down the years, but none has been more comitted to the cause than Roger Byrne.

Brought up in Gorton, a working-class suburb of Manchester, Byrne was at first a promising wing-half, later even turning out at centre-forward, but he came into his own as a left full-back for United and England. Read more…

The Real Bill Shankly, by Karen Gill (2006)

This book tells the inside story of the man who turned Liverpool FC from a struggling Second Division outfit to one of the bastions of world football.

It provides a fascinating insight into the mind of this unique character through recollections from the fans who idolised him, the players who responded to his inspirational team talks and the family who loved him. The book is compiled by Karen Gill, the great man’s granddaughter, who called him ‘Grandee’ while the fans called him ‘The Messiah’. It features photography from the archive collection of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo and is officially endorsed by Liverpool FC.

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Raich Carter: The Biography – The Story of One of England’s Greatest Footballers, by Frank Garrick (2003)

This is the first full biography of Stanley Matthews’ most famous partner, as well as the only man to win an FA Cup winner’s medal both before and after the Second World War.

The book offers an in-depth exploration of the life and times of this celebrated star, and is of particular interest to all Sunderland, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Mansfield fans. It also includes a 16-page section of black and white photographs.

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Post-fandom and the Millennial Blues: The Transformation of Soccer Culture, by Steve Redhead (1997)

Football fandom has traditionally been seen as an important part of adolescent, generally male, identity-making.

In this timely and important contribution to the field of popular cultural studies, Steve Redhead looks at the way youth culture is being reshaped by media culture in its various aspects at the end of the millennium. Read more…

When Pele Broke Our Hearts: Wales and the 1958 World Cup, by Mario Risoli (1998)

This is the story of Wales’ only appearance in the World Cup Finals; it was later reprinted with a new preface by Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers, who loved the book.

Wales managed to get to Sweden in 1958 through the back door, after hostilities in the Middle East meant that Arab teams refused to play Israel. Wales were picked to play them instead, beat them 4-0 over two legs and were on their way to their first and only World Cup – and what is surprising is that this remarkable story had not been fully told before.

Cardiff journalist Risoli’s book reads like an extended newspaper article, which is not a bad thing: the many interviews with the surviving members of the Welsh team make the book more than just a dry history. Their comments and humorous anecdotes make the book come alive, as do appropriate quotes from newspaper reports of the time.

Risoli also includes a lot about the background surrounding the 1958 World Cup, not least the air disaster in Munich shortly before the finals began, which tragically wiped out most of Busby’s Babes. This had a direct effect on the Welsh team, as their manager Jimmy Murphy was also Matt Busby’s assistant at Manchester United; he had to act as United manager too, and instead of celebrating Wales’ achievement he was mourning United’s loss: “He was doing the job of four men…As a result he was not as well prepared for the World Cup as he could have been”.

The backgrounds of each of the players is also interesting; the point is made that they were worlds apart from the stars of the Brazilian team. They still are: in their retirement, many of them still live in Wales, a good number of them in Swansea. All of this crystallises the strong sense of identity in the Welsh team, due to their close-knit roots and the fact nobody gave them a prayer in the tournament.

But they ground out good results again Sweden, Mexico and Hungary in a punishing schedule, and reached the quarter-finals, where they were to play Brazil. The rest is history, as they say, and the title of the book gives you some clue as to the outcome. But Wales were resilient, and were only just edged out by a team of legends. This meticulously researched book makes this story seem not all that long ago, even when some of the players are long gone and the black and white photographs have faded.

Review by Sam Hawcroft

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The Passion and the Fashion: Football Fandom in the New Europe, edited by Steve Redhead (1993)

This book was one of the first to analyse the changing culture of the soccer terrace.

Commentators are now as likely to refer to the carnival or “party” atmosphere at football matches as violence and disorder. This does not mean that “football hooliganism” – as the media labelled it for the past 30 years – has somehow disappeared. Read more…