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Which fitness innovations sustain the modern player’s career?
How does globalisation affect footballing finances?
Are the new rule changes better or worse for players? And how about those huge salaries?
What is crucial to know about attacking – and defending – in today’s game?
Is the transfer market working the way it’s meant to?
What was it like playing in East Germany and Turkey in the 1980s?
What were the greatest strengths of English football’s iconic managers, including Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson?
And what do you do as a manager if your star player is spotted in a nightclub the night before a crucial game?
Answering these questions and so much more, this is without doubt the most entertaining sports book you’ll read this year.
Martin O’Neill started his career in Northern Ireland, but spent most of his playing career with Nottingham Forest, with whom he won the European Cup twice, in 1979 and 1980. He was capped sixty-four times for the Northern Ireland national football team, also captaining the side at the 1982 World Cup. His career as a manager encompassed teams including Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland. He guided Leicester City to the Football League Cup Final three times, winning twice. As Celtic manager between 2000 and 2005, he led that club to seven trophies including three Scottish Premier League titles and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final. After joining Aston Villa, he achieved three consecutive sixth-place finishes in the English Premier League and guided them to the 2010 Football League Cup Final. O’Neill became Republic of Ireland manager in 2013 and led them to qualification for the 2016 UEFA European Championship for the third time in the nation’s history, beating the reigning world champions in the process.
Joey D’Urso is the senior data journalist for The Times and Sunday Times. He was previously investigations writer for The Athletic, owned by the New York Times, and before that he reported on politics for BBC News. He was nominated for Football Journalist of the Year in 2022 by the Football Supporters Association and has been twice nominated in the sports journalism category at the British Journalism Awards.