Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320992 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Adrian Chiles, The Independent, October 9, 2004
'absolutely brilliant'

Tom Dart, The Times, October 18, 2004
'reminds the reader just how ubiquitous and comical some of the game's common jargon really is'

Adrian Chiles, The Independent, October 9, 2004
Absolutely brilliant

Customer Reviews

Perfect present for football lovers
I've just read this, mainly on the back of the recent reviews in The Independent and The Times, and I loved it.

The authors have assembled a phenomenal collection of football cliches and explained them with scholarly detachment and considerable wit throughout.

This is a perfect read for any football fan (who can read). It's typically the sort of reading material one likes to dip into whilst on the toilet, rather than cover to cover, but it is laugh out loud funny and totally vindicated in what it sets out to achieve.

The sheer breadth of examples used to illustrate the terms, often featuring lower division clubs with players you have never heard of, demonstrate the authors' vast knowledge of, and love for, football as a whole. I hesitate to call it the 'Beautiful game', which is described in the book in typical fashion as:

"Phrase used by the sort of people who talk of 'the fair sex'. That is, very few people, though some journalists are given to describing football routinely with these words."

I note with sadness that the authors seem to have killed off Ron Atkinson and his 'Big Ron-isms', which are always referred to in the past tense. Have these beautifully constructed phrases ("Early doors", "Eyebrows", etc.) really died with Ron's TV commentating career?

It's a cliche in itself, but buy, beg, borrow a steal a copy.

This book had me crying with laughter
I was bought this book as a present recently and cannot recommend it highly enough. Within minutes of picking it up I had tears of laughter streaming down my face. It is fantastically well observed and fabulously written. It reminds me of Douglas Adams' "Meaning of Liff" in that one instantly recognises every situation described. The frightening thing is that I didn't realize until reading this quite the extent of the language that football has inspired. Buy this book (unless you know me, in which case wait till your next birthday - I think I'll be buying a fair few copies).

One for beginners
This is excellent. It's a book that should be taken to matches by beginners so they can understand what's going on around them, as it includes every conceivable phrase used by fans, commentators, players and managers.