Tony Adams

Ian Ridley

Adams writes what it's like playing with the best players in the game, from Gazza to Dennis Bergkamp; and working with some of the most successful managers, including George Graham, Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Arsene Wenger. But above all, his story is that of a winner, a man who has brought the intense determination he has shown on the field to his recovery from illnesses off it.

Addicted

On Love, Grief and Cricket

The Breath of Sadness

With 2011 celebrating the Premier League's 20th anniversary, it's time to take stock of a phenomenon that has changed English football - and English society - forever. Ian Ridley took a long hard look at the game back in the 1980s against a backdrop of recession, strikes and football hooliganism. In this new book he examines just how far the game has come, sucking in players and money from around the globe and providing fame, fortune and hours of pleasure in return. It includes: - Interviews with major players such as the chairman of the FA, top-flight managers, and the broker who sold Chelsea to Abramovich. - A behind-the-scenes look at clubs such as Fulham and Manchester United, as well as roles within football like refereeing. - An exploration of the finances of the game, its changing profile and the growing gap between the Premier League and the rest of the game. As he examines the changes that have occurred over the last twenty years, Ridley seeks to discover if the soul of the game still exists. With his eye for detail, his knack for voices and his incisive intelligence, he has woven together a rich and fascinating story of football's metamorphosis from social outcast to favourite child.

How Twenty Years of the Premier League Have Changed Football Forever

There's a Golden Sky

Paul Merson

Paul Merson's career reached its peak as he gained selection for Glenn Hoddle's England squad for the 1998 World Cup. Four years had elapsed since he openly admitted his alcoholism and addictions to gambling and drugs, and France 98 heralded the start of an incident-packed year for the former Highbury hero.

Hero and Villain

Darren Barker

The Darren Barker Story

A Dazzling Darkness

Steve Claridge

'Claridge is not just a character...it's his utter inability to take football, or life, even remotely seriously which makes his book so entertaining' TOTAL SPORT 'Ranks among the best football books of recent years' DAILY TELEGRAPH The biography of Steve Claridge, as much a story of a Midlands cult hero as a vivid portrait of life in the lower divisions of English football. Away from the glamour and wall-to-wall coverage of the Premiership lies the reality, for the majority of fans and players, of British football. From Claridge's early days with non-league Weymouth, to the Premiership with Leicester, and back to First-Division Portsmouth, TALES FROM THE BOOT CAMPS spans the lows of irregular salary payments and training sessions on dog-fouled carparks at Aldershot, and the highs of the last-minute win in a First Division play-off at Wembley, and on to the Premiership. Controversial, itinerant, but popular wherever he has played, Claridge also talks frankly about his addiction to gambling. Part biography, part autobiography, it is full of insight and dry wit, a unique portrait of British football.

Tales From The Boot Camps

It is Monday August 13th 2012, the morning after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. The city is relaxed as rarely before, delighted with itself at how spectacularly - and how securely - it has hosted the uplifting event. The capital, however, will be rudely and brutally awoken from its self-congratulation by a horrific attack perpetrated by a young man who enters unchallenged the London Central Mosque in Regent's Park and burns to death with a flamethrower five Muslims in the prayer hall. How could it happen? Why did it happen? Is the atrocity political, religious or personal? THE OUTER CIRCLE - which has at its core a focus on relationships amid the cultural concerns of modern Britain - follows five people caught up in the event and its aftermath of anxiety and reprisal as the story unravels over the next five days. They are: Saul Bradstock, a 59-year-old semi-retired book editor, living alone in Primrose Hill and undergoing radiotherapy treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital for prostate cancer. Tom Judd, 25, a musician and languages graduate from Birmingham. How did he get to Regent's Park, why does he look so lost and what is he doing sleeping rough in the undergrowth? Rashid Johnson, a 23-year-old working in the Mosque's bookshop. Raised a Jew in Stanmore, North London, and secretive about his recent past, he has not long 'reverted' to Islam. Deena Campbell, 19, a policewoman based at Paddington Green and native of South London, where she lives with her parents, whose own parents came to England on the SS Windrush. Jan Mason, 42 years old, single, living in a flat in Maida Vale and just about clinging on to her job as a news reporter for a mid-market national tabloid newspaper. As the hottest week of the year unfolds, fate will throw the five together, along with a strong supporting cast of family members, police and the media, until a dramatic Friday denouement in Regent's Park

The Outer Circle

At Liverpool in the early 1970s Kevin Keegan won three First Division titles, two EUFA Cups, two FA Cups and the European Cup. At Hamburg he was crowned Footballer of the Year two years running, won the Bundeslinga title in 1978-79 and reached the European Cup Final. At Southampton he was voted PFA Player of the Year and was awarded an OBE for his services to Association Football. In his debut season with Newcastle United he helped the club to promotion and he captained the England team for six years from 1976-1982. As a manager his career has been no less newsworthy, although not always for the right reasons. Five heady and successful years at Newcastle from 1992-1997 were followed by more controversial spells with Fulham, England and Manchester City. In 2005, Keegan announced his retirement. Then, in 2008, he made headlines by returning to Newcastle United, the scene of his greatest triumphs -- an announcement which was greeted ecstatically by Newcastle supporters -- and no less sensationally resigned in acrimonious circumstances only nine months later. A revered sports journalist with unparalleled access to insider exclusives, Ian Ridley is the perfect man for the task of understanding what it is that makes Kevin Keegan tick. Training his brilliantly incisive and penetrating gaze on Keegan, Ridley offers an unprecedented insight into the mind of this most enigmatic of men.

Ian Ridley

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