Biographies and autobiographies

Biographies and Autobiographies

Mark Noble autobiography

A modern footballing legend, Mark Noble is the embodiment of what it means to be a Hammer, pouring his heart and soul into the club he supported as a boy. Born and raised in Canning Town, Mark joined the West Ham youth squad in 2000 and made his senior-team debut aged just 17.


Now, after over 20 years, with a wealth of memories and more than 500 appearances for his boyhood club under his belt, Mark finally looks back at his remarkable career, reflecting on his journey from boot boy to club captain, bossing the midfield, scoring pressure penalties and becoming an inspirational figurehead on and off the pitch.


This book is not just for Hammers fans it is a must for football plans who still value loyality and passion for the club you supported as a boy.


Ian Wright: autobiography

This is the autobiography of Arsenal legend, England striker and TV pundit Ian Wright.  This book is not a chronicle of his rise from a South London council estate to Crystal Palace, via Sunday morning football, and his goal scoring exploits at Arsenal. It is, as the title suggests, an insiders opinion of how retirement affects footballers, the rise of agences, racism in the game, and his opinion of key figures such as George Graham, Aresne Wenger and Dennis Bergkamp among others. Thoughful and entertaining, this is a great read for those interested in the joys and pressures inherent in the modern game. He is also forthright on his private life: 'I've got eight kids with four different women, two I married and two I dodn't'.  Wright's characteristic honesty means this is a far more interesting book than most football memoirs.


Peter Crouch, How to Be A footballer

You become a footballer because you love football. And then you are a footballer, and you're suddenly in the strangest, most baffling world of all. A world where one team-mate comes to training in a bright red suit with matching top-hat, cane and glasses, without any actual glass in them, and another has so many sports cars they forget they have left a Porsche at the train station. Even when their surname is incorporated in the registration plate.


So walk with Peter Crouch into the dressing-room, to find out which players refuse to touch a football before a game, to discover why a load of millionaires never have any shower-gel, and to hear what Cristiano Ronaldo says when he looks at himself in the mirror.


Peter Crouch takes you into the world of post-match interviews, £250 haircuts and the trials and tribulations of social media.  He provides an insider's guide to being coached and cajoled by Harry Redknapp,  upsetting Rafa Benitez and being soothed by the sound of an accordion played by Sven-Goran Eriksson's assistant Tord Grip. 


As you would expect, this is a very funny and entertaining book of anedotes written in a self-deprecating style by  a professor footballer who spent over 20 years at the highest level of the sport. 

Glenn Hoddle Playmaker autobiography

Glenn Hoddle was one of the most celebrated footballers of his generation. A wonderfully talented No. 10 – he formed part of the great Spurs teams of the early 1980s and cut his teeth in the blood and thunder of an England team that prioritised aggression over creativity.


Often seen as a player ‘out of time’, Glenn was a playmaker in the purest sense. A creator and a goal scorer, he rose through the Tottenham youth academy – playing under Keith Burkinshaw and crossing paths with the likes of club legends Bill Nicholson and Danny Blanchflower – before going on to play in Monaco under the tutelage of Arsène Wenger. In Playmaker, he looks back on his rise as a prodigious young footballer and talks at length about his career that took him from cleaning the cockerel at White Hart Lane to managing the England football team at a World Cup.


From scoring in an FA Cup final to winning the league in France; from revitalising Chelsea in the early 1990s, to managing the fall-out after David Beckham’s infamous sending off at the 1998 World Cup; from surviving a near fatal cardiac arrest at the age of 61, to continuing to work within the game he loves – Playmaker is a life lead through football, and an autobiography of one of the game’s most admired, thoughtful and respected personalities.

Robbie Folwer: My Life in Football

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, and revelaing, it is shot through with Fowler's sense of humour which makes it an enteraining read for all football fans. From Hillsborough to UEFA Cup glory, the infamous goal line celebration, hundreds of goals and insights into Houllier, Benitez and Liverpool teammates like Owen, Gerrard and Rush.  But this is not simply a history of the early days of the Premier League. Fowler also shares his views on the modern game which make this a fascinating read to more than Liverpool fans.



Martin O'Neill On Days Like These

For the first time, Martin O’Neill reflects on one of the most varied and successful football careers in the British Isles. He made his breakthrough playing for Distillery in Northern Ireland before joining Brian Clough’s legendary Nottingham Forest team, becoming one of the few players who made the epic journey from the Second Division to the glory years: winning the First Division championship, two League Cups and back-to-back European Cups. O’Neill represented Northern Ireland over sixty times, playing alongside George Best and captaining the side at the 1982 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals.

As a manager, O’Neill’s celebrated leadership of Celtic saw them win seven trophies, including three Scottish Premier League titles; and in England he successfully led Leicester City to two League Cups and Aston Villa to an unprecedented three consecutive top six Premier League finishes. He oversaw the Republic of Ireland reaching the Euros in 2016, when they made it to the second round for the first time in their history.With a career spanning over fifty years, Martin tells of his exhilarating highs and painful lows; from the joys of winning trophies, promotion and fighting for World Cups to being harangued by fans, boardroom drama, relegation scraps and being fired. Written with his trademark honesty and humour, On Days Like These is one of the most insightful and captivating autobiographies and a must-read for any fans of the beautiful game.



Pat Nevin autobiography The Accidental Footballer

Pat Nevin never wanted to be a professional footballer.


His future was clear, he'd become a teacher like his brothers. There was only one problem with this - Pat was far too good to avoid attention.


Raised in Glasgow's East End, Pat loved the game, playing for hours and obsessively following Celtic. But as he grew up, he also loved Joy Division, wearing his Indie 'gloom boom' coat and going on marches - hardly typical footballer behaviour!


Placed firmly in the 80s and 90s, before the advent of the Premier League, and often with racism and violence present, Pat Nevin writes with honesty, insight and wry humour. We are transported vividly to Chelsea and Everton, and colourfully diverted by John Peel, Morrissey and nights out at the Hacienda.


The Accidental Footballer is a different kind of football memoir. Capturing all the joys of professional football as well as its contradictions and conflicts, it's about being defined by your actions, not your job, and is the perfect reminder of how life can throw you the most extraordinary surprises, when you least expect it.

In It Shouldn’t Happen to a Manager, Harry Rednapp talks about how different the job is now from what it was like when he used to play. In those days managers used to drive up and down motorways all day to scout for players – now there’s so much analysis and global scouting. In this book, Harry shares what he has learnt from a lifetime of both wins and losses, and wisdom from greats like Cloughie and Ferguson. It provides a fascinating insight into what  happens in the dressing room, including when Clough smashed the door off its hinges; the bust-ups at full-time,  when Harry kicked a tray of sandwiches at Don Hutchinson’s head; it provides Harry's advice on when to put an arm round a player’s shoulder or boot them up the arse! Management Rednapp style, told with verve and humour.



Silversmoth: Biography of Walter Smith by Neil Drysdale

Walter Smith was one of the most respected managers in British football. This insightful biography casts a reflective and analytical eye over his life and career, examining this shrewd professional through the many highs and lows that he has experienced as a player and manager. He enjoyed an illustrious career in management at Rangers, joining the Souness revolution in 1987, winning nine successive league titles, a domestic treble in the 1992-93 season and winning both the Scottish Cup and League Cup three times. In 1998, Smith accepted a position in England with Everton, where he was the manager until 2002, before being reunited with Ferguson at Old Trafford in 2004. In December of that year, Smith was appointed as Scotland manager and his effort subsequently earned him the title of 'Scot of the Year' at the prestigious Glenfiddich 'Spirit of Scotland' awards in 2006. Midway through the qualifying rounds for Euro 2008, however, and with the Scots leading their group, he controversially accepted an offer to return to Ibrox in January 2007. Upon returning to Glasgow, Smith led Rangers to the UEFA Cup Final and triumph in the Scottish Cup in 2008, a domestic League and Cup double in 2009 and another double - this time in the domestic League and League Cup - in 2010.  An ejouable  read which reveals the true managerial greatness of the man faced with huge financial problems of the club but still able to guide and inspire players to some of Rangers most memorable triumphs.



Paul Merson Hooked

For twenty-one years Paul Merson played professional football. He won two First Division titles with Arsenal and was one of the finest players of his generation. But for thirty years Paul Merson has also been an addict. Alcohol, drugs, gambling: a desperately unenviable cocktail of addictions and depression which has plagued his entire adult life and driven him to the verge of suicide. 'I've come to realise that I'm powerless over alcohol ... I'm an alcoholic. My drinking and gambling have left a lot of wreckage.' 

Until recently the drinking and gambling were still raging. 'I wanted to kill myself. I couldn't go on anymore. I just couldn't see a way out.' Then something clicked. 'One day, I was walking home from the pub late on a Sunday evening, and I thought to myself: I've had enough of feeling like this, every day of my life. I rang up Alcoholics Anonymous the next day, and since then I haven't had a drink.' Hooked is Merson's wonderfully moving and brutally honest memoir of battling addiction, searingly charting his journey over three decades. It is absolutely unflinching in detailing his emotional and psychological troughs and in raking over the painful embers of an adult life blighted by such debilitating issues. Hooked will kick-start a crucial national conversation about addiction, depression and the damage they wreak.



Jordan Henderson Autobiography

Jordan Henderson is a world-class midfielder and one of the most widely respected players of his generation.  In this tell-all autobiography, Jordan reveals how his early love for the game as a kid became an all-consuming passion that led him to follow his dream - to play for his home club of Sunderland. Transferred to Liverpool in June 2011, Jordan's early years at the club saw him struggle to settle under Sir Kenny Dalglish then Brendan Rodgers before eventually establishing himself at Anfield as a force of nature in midfield.


In 2015, Jordan took the reins from Steven Gerrard. Under his captaincy, Liverpool have reached monumental heights - winning six trophies headed by the Champions League and the Premier League, bringing the club its first league title in 30 years.  In this book, Jordan charts his decade-long journey with the Reds, and a behind-the-scenes look at his life both on and off the pitch.


A must-read not only for Liverpool fans but for football lovers everywhere, this is the candid behind-the-scenes look into the lire of a top-flight footballer as you've never seen it before.

Lofty Nat Lofthouse by Nigel Clough

NAT LOFTHOUSE is a name that rings through the annals of English football history like few others. He was a pivotal figure in one of the true golden ages of the beautiful game, ending his career as the leading goal scorer for both his club and his country, with a reputation as one of the game's true greats. His retirement coincided almost exactly with the abolition of the maximum wage, and ensured that his name would forever be identified with a time before money flooded the game and changed it inexorably.


Lofty explores not only Lofthouse's life and career in detail never done before, but also delves into his personality and motivation through various key points of his life. Matt Clough uses interviews with those who knew him best and played alongside him, extensive research into newspaper archives and, of course, the words of the man himself to breathe life into one of football's most legendary figures.


Brilliantly writte, this book is a must for any fan interested in the history of the beautiful game viewed from the perspective of one of its greatest players.



Stanley Matthews

Stanley Matthews was the most popular footballer of his era, the man who epitomised a generation of legendary players: Tom Finney, Nat Lofthouse, Billy Wright and many more. He was the first footballer ever to be knighted, the first European Footballer of the Year (at 41), and he played in the top division until he was 50 - and he will be forever remembered for his performance in the Matthews FA Cup final of 1953, when he inspired Blackpool to victory over Bolton. 


Matthews provide a facinating insight into football in the 1940s and 1950s when you could be European Footballer of the Year, and still earn no more than £12 a week.  Told with characteristic modesty, it is book that would make the most cynical reader fall back in love with foobtall.


THE WAY IT WAS is a the fascinating memoir of a great footballer and the remarkable story of an extraordinary life, written in the last months of his life.


Kevin Keegan My Life In Football autobiography

In My Life in Football Keegan tells the story of his remarkable rise through the sport, from the Peglers Brass Works reserve team in Doncaster to helping Liverpool become the kings of Europe, winning a Bundesliga title with Hamburg and captaining England. Keegan was recognized around the world as one of the sport's genuine superstars and remains the only Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or twice.


As a manager, Keegan's five-year spell in charge at Newcastle is now legendary; he led the club from the depths of the old Second Division to the brink of the Premier League title with a breathtaking vision and flamboyant style that saw his team dubbed 'The Entertainers'.


Fifty years since making his professional debut, Keegan tells the full story of the exhilarating highs and excruciating lows, from that epic battle with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United in the 1995-6 season, as well as the pain of managing England and, finally, the shattering truth about his unhappy return to Newcastle in the controversial Mike Ashley era.


Brilliant, funny, passionate, deeply moving and incredibly honest, My Life in Football is the story of the miner's son from Doncaster who became a superstar and was known to his adoring fans as 'King Kev'.

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