Football Programmes Centre

Baltimore · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 371 Location: France

Okay I thought I would share my favourite football book.

This is Famous Footballers: 1895-6
By C.W.Alcock & Roland Hill

The book itself measures 15”x10” and has 225 pages of beautiful gloss plates of Football & Rugby players and teams.

I occasionally see individual pages being sold individually, which seem sacrilege when you have handled the full book

Pure indulgence....

I look forward to other seeing your favourites and why?

It doesn’t matter what you paid for it.

Cheers, Ian

Baltimore · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 371 Location: France

My other recent favourite ( by complete contrast) is :

A Coast of Soccer Memories 1894-1994
Edited & compiled by Gareth M Davies

The centenary book of the North Wales Football Association.

A superb collection of articles about Welsh Non League football, picked up in a junk shop in Barmouth.

A great read, and reference.

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grantham · Joined: 20 Mar 2009 Posts: 1025

Not old, not special, not rare. But the book that got me interested in football statistics. My copy is 'well thumbed' and takes pride of place amongst my now 300 strong football book archive

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Flaming Pie · Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Posts: 931

Baltimore,, Read so many over the years. Recent ones that stand out Leo Mckinstrys 2010 biography of Sir Alf Ramsey,,’ Sir Alf’ . You came away from it feeling quite sorry for the great England manager. He had a sad end . Paddy Crerand 2014 ‘ Never Turn The Other Cheek’ . A lot of autobiographies can be dull. This one isn’t. He knocks out more people than Mike Tyson in this book! ‘ Shankly From Glenbuck To Wembley ‘ 2004 Phil Thompson and Steve Hale . A good account of a great manager and a special man. I even still enjoy ‘Roy Of The Rovers ‘ annuals, pre 1966 before Roy grew his hair long! Are you watching the Spurs v City game over in France? What do you make of that vandalised pitch?

Baltimore · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 371 Location: France

Thanks Flaming Pie,

I like your suggestions, I think I will look out for them.

I am following the Spurs match updates on the BBC football website.

Getting geared up for the big one on Friday Night:

USBCO ( Boulogne ) v Villefranche Ligue 3 French

sellsell39 · Joined: 19 Nov 2011 Posts: 807 Location: Needham market

Hi Baltimore, hi everyone.

My favourite football books as a kid were a gift from my Grandparents and they were the Napper McCann series.

I think there were 3 books, and I could relate to them as I was at school at that time.

Napper managed to galvanise his dud school mates into regional school champions with a bit of organsiation and a desire to succeed.

foxes1 · Joined: 30 Nov 2008 Posts: 1224 Location: Leicester

Any book from 2016 telling the story of our Premiership win mainly because we know it will never happen again.

Grumpypants · Joined: 09 Feb 2012 Posts: 473

My favourite book when I was a child, was the 1970-71 edition of The Rothmans Year Book. From this I was able to learn all the FA Cup winners and Finalists, club ground names, club colours, nicknames and a whole host of other facts to set me well and truly onto becoming knowledgably in football. It was very well and truly read and eventually fell apart on me, over the years though, I have managed to get a replacement copy.
Another favourite book is Crap Teams. Surprisingly does not cover my team Torquay United!!!!!

Flaming Pie · Joined: 26 Nov 2016 Posts: 931

Foxes,, l remember Bill Shankly being asked how he would like to be remembered? He simply replied that he would like to be remembered as a man who made the people happy. If anyone puts together a book about this special club owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the title of the book should be ‘ He Made The People Happy’

dereksuffolk · Joined: 12 Oct 2018 Posts: 30

The boys book of soccer which originally belonged to my Dad. We use to play the spot the ball game together. Some great articles on football at the time Derek

Baltimore · Joined: 08 Feb 2013 Posts: 371 Location: France

Thanks for sharing!

Check out the soccer oddities. Hilarious!

cribsie · Joined: 29 Oct 2011 Posts: 36

I was given 'Biscuits & Royals' by David Downs as a gift in 1984, and it really got me into the history of Reading. Never one of the big clubs, but luckily one of the oldest, so there's some fantastic memorabilia out there. Sadly, the biscuits seem to be crumbling at the moment...

overlap · Joined: 10 Sep 2010 Posts: 426

"Steak Diana Ross" by Notts County journeyman David McVay remains vividly in my mind years after reading it.
As does "Passovotchka", the story of Moscow Dynamo's postwar visit to the UK.

Brickies · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:22 pm Post subject:

"The Bromley Boys" by Dave Roberts a truly funny book about following a very poor team. How many of us have been there?

derby1884 · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:24 am Post subject:

Grumpypants wrote:

My favourite book when I was a child, was the 1970-71 edition of The Rothmans Year Book. From this I was able to learn all the FA Cup winners and Finalists, club ground names, club colours, nicknames and a whole host of other facts to set me well and truly onto becoming knowledgably in football. It was very well and truly read and eventually fell apart on me, over the years though, I have managed to get a replacement copy.
Another favourite book is Crap Teams. Surprisingly does not cover my team Torquay United!!!!!

Switch 1970/71 for 1973/74 and that could be me talking.
Well remember getting the belt in a Geography class for being caught reading the Yearbook when I should have been listening to the teacher gabbling on about sedimentary rocks or something.

I'd still rather teams lined up in shirts numbered 1 to 11 - made keeping records a lot easier (and more meaningful).
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rubbafish · Joined: 14 Oct 2018 Posts: 28

Grumpypants wrote:

My favourite book when I was a child, was the 1970-71 edition of The Rothmans Year Book. From this I was able to learn all the FA Cup winners and Finalists, club ground names, club colours, nicknames and a whole host of other facts to set me well and truly onto becoming knowledgably in football. It was very well and truly read and eventually fell apart on me, over the years though, I have managed to get a replacement copy.
Another favourite book is Crap Teams. Surprisingly does not cover my team Torquay United!!!!!

I think everyone remembers their first Rothmans. My granddad had all of them up until the late 80's but I was a late starter getting in to the game as a fan so my first book that got me in to that side of the game was the Official Football Association yearbook 1989-90 with Spurs & Arsenal on the cover. I must have read that from cover to cover at least a hundred times.

My favourite football book is probably The Miracle of Castel di Sangro although I am currently working through 'Wildling' which is the Michael McIndoe bio and that is quite eye opening too.

TartanTyneArmy · Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:46 pm Post subject:

Grumpypants wrote:

My favourite football book is probably The Miracle of Castel di Sangro

A cult classic that Clap

Any of the books by Daniel Gray are very good. Though his newest release isn’t quite on same standing as ‘Saturday, 3PM’.

‘All with smiling faces’ is an exceptional account of the Newcastle United formation, early FA Cup win and prewar years.
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Tynie Topics · Joined: 26 Nov 2009 Posts: 3509

Thirty One Nil: On The Road With Football's Outsiders, a World Cup Odyssey by James Montague is a great read, taking you to corners of the footballing planet you never knew existed and the politics and culture that lie behind. Thoroughly recommended.

Same with an earlier book by him When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone
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yachtsmun · Joined: 27 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Vectis

In 1994 I wrote my college dissertation about football fanzines. While researching, amongst some much drier material, I massively enjoyed these Steve Redhead books (Sing When You're Winning, Football With Attitude and The Passion and the Fashion). Written from a popular culture perspective but not overly academic in any sense, and great reading during a time of significant change in football-going culture.

As a teen I also loved the below book, charting an F.A. Cup campaign from qualifying rounds to Wembley, following the winner of each match in the next round. A great snapshot of football at all levels when the cup was still 'magic'.

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