(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best soccer books

I'll also suggest Inverting the Pyramid and Soccernomics. Both are good reads.

The Secret Footballer's books are light and fun, if a little repetitive and a bit of a tease. I've found that he's always suggesting that he's going to reveal more than he ends up revealing, especially in the more recent books.

Das Reboot covers the recent history of German football and has some interesting stuff about Klopp in it.

And The Sun Shines Now is an excellent dive into the changes in English football post-Hillsborough, including looks at the media landscape and some investigation of German football as an alternative model for how clubs could be structured and relate to their supporters. It's a bit dry sometimes, but it's very, very good.

Far Foreign Land is about the 2005 Champions League final (and getting there), but it also covers Rome, Heysel, and Hillsborough. I think the long form really suits Tony Evans's writing style.

If you like oral history, check out Simon Hughes's books. I've only read Ring of Fire and Red Machine, but some of the interviews are top notch. Personally, I found the less famous players were usually more interesting than the more famous players.

Red Men is a stellar history of the club, particularly if you want to get familiar with LFC before Shankly.

Finally, if you like Inverting the Pyramid, you might find Talking Tactics interesting, too. I really liked it, but I'm not entirely sure that I got as much out of it as others might — it's kind of dense and dry.

The Official Coaching Book of KNVB is excellent
http://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Soccer-Official-Dutch-Association/dp/1890946044/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395697636&sr=8-1&keywords=KNVB+book

As is both of these books from Horst Wein:
Developing Youth Footballers
http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Youth-Football-Players-Horst/dp/0736069488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395697714&sr=8-1&keywords=developing+youth+football+players

Developing Game Intelligence in Soccer
http://www.amazon.com/Developing-Game-Intelligence-Soccer-Horst/dp/1591640717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395697768&sr=8-1&keywords=developing+game+intelligence+in+soccer

All three offer a great set of coaching guidelines, a solid philosophy and plenty of drills and simplified games for all age levels. The "Developing Youth Footballers" is used by the Spanish football federation.

Might also find The Philosophies of Louis van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches worth a read, as someone else mentioned, Teambuilding by Michels is like reading the Bible.

Also check out zonalmarking.net he has a list of many, many great books on there, most of which I've read.

Guillem Balaque has a few good books that aren't coaching guideline type books but I found both to be worth reading, "A Season on the Brink" about Rafa's Champions League season with Liverpool and his more recent "Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning" is very inspiring, I could not put it down, really, fantastic book makes you want to quit your real job and coach 24/7.

This is not a story. The history and foundations of this club are a fact. You can continue to act ignorant and arrogant about it, but what I've just said is historical truth. If you want to read more about it,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-Football-History-Gary-James/dp/0955812704

Second thing is, is it a community club today? Yes. I come from a working class Mancunian background, and yes it definitely does have strong ties to the community. I won't have some North American tell me otherwise.

The most important thing is that there's thousands of clubs in this country, and over a hundred football league clubs. Even if we were to accept that the top 4-5 clubs in this country no longer is a part of the community or that the culture of these clubs is irrelevant and just a marketing trick, they would still form the massive exception to the rule.

i've ordered Herr Pep and Boquita. really pumped to read those. on the internet, Marti Perarnau has interesting guides to various European leagues.

the best soccer book of ALL time though is by Eduardo Galeano, El futbol a sol y sombra, also known as Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Inverting the Pyramid is Great, How Soccer Explains the World is awesome, and Alex Bellos' book, Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life is also really, really great.

Pride in Travel

A blue from the Toronto supporting club travelled around the world visiting other supporting clubs and watching matches. It's an easy, quick read, but pretty interesting and will inspire you to want to do some touring around.

Ten Men Won the League

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ten-Men-League-Stephen-Murray/dp/1503109747

>Ten Men Won The League tells the story of Celtic’s epic 1978/79 league title success when they beat Rangers 4-2 in their final game to win the championship – and all this whilst being 0-1 down with only ten men on the field after Johnny Doyle was sent off.
>
>All the big stories of the season are told; the departure of Jock Stein and the arrival of Billy McNeill; the record signing of Davie Provan from Kilmarnock; the debacle in Burnley; the horrendous winter weather which prevented Celtic playing a league game for ten weeks; and the lead up and background of the legendary game itself.
>
>There are interviews with Celtic players of the period – Davie Provan, Danny McGrain, Peter Latchford, Mike Conroy and Joe Filippi.

If you want to become a coach the best route imho is to take certification courses and volunteer coaching (or assistant coach) kids in one of your local clubs.

There's also /r/bootroom for your questions, I think it's more active.

If you like reading, the best intro overall coaching books that I know are:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Coaching-Soccer-Systems-Tactics-ebook/dp/B0054RJSAC/

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Soccer-Coach-2014-Dimensional-ebook/dp/B00GCEBBOM/

It's pretty difficult to show evidence when they have no transparency, I mean, it's almost like a mafia organization, but there's a few books on the subject, like Foul!: The Secret World of Fifa: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals, Badfellas: FIFA Family at War and probably the best one (and most up-to-date) is written by an UK journalist recently but I forgot the name, "FIFA: How the game was won/lost" or something like that.

If you start reading up on this subject there's no question that bribery was involved during this Qatar deal, especially not since Blatter's whole campaign to rise to power in FIFA from out of nowhere was paid by Qatar in the first place.

The best evidence to support bribery is probably that FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam got a lifetime ban for it recently although he was only Blatter's scapegoat.

Simon Kuper is one of the best writers in football. Anybody who likes this should read The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game, Soccernomics or Football Against The Enemy.

Also I hate when footballers are labelled idiots. It requires extreme intelligence to be a top class player. Not "book learning" intelligence or even basic common sense, but extreme intelligence nonetheless. It's no different to how a top tier Physics academic might not be able to book a hotel room online. They are brilliant in their field, bit sometimes dim in other areas.

If you're interested in an old school read, the former NASL stalwart Clive Toye wrote a book called A Kick in the Grass about the original NASL.

And then there's Once in a Lifetime, the amazing story of the original New York Cosmos. It was written concurrently with the film.

Those are two old favorites of mine.

The Soccer Book is a decent all in one guide to the sport and the international game.

Get a subscription to Soccer America, sign up for their TV newsletter. Join r/MLS

Sign up for a Beginners Soccer PE class at your local community college. (But spend a month or so getting into decent shape beforehand).

And while some may crack jokes, playing a bit of FIFA 11 and Football Manager 11 will give you a better understanding of some aspects of the sport.

Also, some have suggested you attend a game at Sporting KC's new stadium. I HIGHLY recommend this... I used to casually watch EPL and World Cup and didn't care too much about MLS... then I went to a Timbers game and I watch far more MLS than anything now.

Why is your example that England sucks centring around their solitary World Cup win yet may I ask how many times have Spain won the World Cup?

It's centered on the fact that England haven't won in the last 50 years. Spain have won in the last ummm 3.


It's also centering around how many English players have won the Champions League golden boot in the last 30 years, zero.



Now as far as your links go:

• http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Football%3a+English+football+in+crisis+-+We've+got+rid+of+Mr+Sleaze+and...-a060393587
  
  
• http://www.ftbpro.com/posts/harry.brissenden/48711/the-great-english-football-crisis
  
  
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-65521/Football-England-crisis.html
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Game-without-Vision-English-Football/dp/1872452744
  
  
• http://worldsport.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/07/why-are-england-team-always-in-a-crisis/
  
  
• http://www.onenewspage.com/n/Sports/74vr1nrzz/Is-there-crisis-in-English-football.htm
  
  
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/28/england-identity-national-football
  
  
• http://worldsport.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/is-the-english-premier-league-in-crisis/
  
  
  Yes. Spain is a 2 horse raise with maybe a 3rd contender, but England is the same, and then it's got all the other problems listed in these articles, not to mention a lack of a World Cup victory in half a century, and a lack of a consistent top footballer in over a decade, whether it be a European golden boot, CL golden boot, Ballon D'Or winner, or anything of the sort. The point is, on a quality level, Spain right now is so far above England, it's not even funny.

If you haven't read "Up Pohnpei" then that's a must read! So funny, and a great insight into football mangament! Find it here

She Stood There Laughing is my favourite. It's a really great and thoroughly entertaining read imo. All about Stoke City and their rise into the Premier League. There's a sequel "And She Laughed No More" but i don't think it's as good
edit: Title

They wrote an excellent book called Pay as You Play.

They read Soccernomics and says Kuper and Szymanski's work on wage data and thought that it was overly simplistic, so came up with a better system based around something called the TTV. They also looked at travsfer spending using something called the Transfer Price Index which they played with a bit using absolute reams of data.

Here's a post on their blog explaining the concept

This is the annual from last year:

The Official Liverpool FC Annual 2019 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912595125/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QztEDb6PB5S8B

It's aimed at younger fans, but it'd be a good primer for new fans.

Welcome to the club.

[From Darkness into White] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leeds-United-Darkness-White-Resurrection/dp/1845963938) by our favourite YEP sports writer Phil Hay details the -15 season, pretty good read.

One Northern Soul is not entirely football driven but a good read nonetheless.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spain-Inside-Story-Historic-Treble/dp/1909430102

Is a brilliant book about Spains journey to winning 3 in a row. Aragones laid the foundations.

If you have an interest, this is a great book on the history of soccer in New Orleans.

If you're looking for a book on the cross between soccer and politics, your best bet is Soccer vs. the State, by Gabriel Kuhn (Amazon link). I highly recommend that book, though it can be a little on the dry side.

The closest is perhaps Those Feet but it tells a story more about how the archetype of 'English' football came to be, rather than what the Premier League is about.

A couple of others might include Pay as You Play and There's A Golden Sky, but I have yet to read those, so I can't really give any honest opinion on it.

I strongly recommend reading Paul Tomkins' Pay as You Play:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-As-You-Play-Success/dp/0955925339/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318780912&sr=8-1

Suggest you make this a very worthwhile purchase. It'll help prevent you from sounding completely out of touch again in future.

I similarly love reading up on football in tiny, far flung places. Recently read Up Pohnpei which is about a journalist and his mate flying out to the remote Micronesian Island of Pohnpei in order to try and manage their football team.
I've since picked up to read on my holiday Thirty-One Nil: On the Road With Football's Outsiders which apparently offers an insight in to a bunch of the most obscure football playing places from "San Marino to lowly Haiti; from war-torn Lebanon to the oppressed and fleet-footed players of Eritrea"

for anyone else who's interested in the politics of football soccer vs the state is a decent book mostly about left wing politics in football but also touches on the right. also talks about fan owned clubs, football as a stage for protest etc. interesting read but does get dull at times.