Showing results by publisher "Headline" in Sports

Neil 'Razor' Ruddock tells the inspiring and uplifting story of how he faced the battle of his life: to become a different person. In this inspiring and uplifting memoir, Neil Ruddock charts his toxic journey of self-destruction, a path littered with food addiction, plummeting self-confidence and a dangerous relationship with drink which took him to the brink of death.

Football fans will love this insight into the life and mind of Big Sam. With nearly 20 years as a player - plus almost 25 years as a coach and manager - under his belt, Sam Allardyce is one of the most recognisable figures in British football. 'Big Sam' has been a robust defensive general throughout the seventies and eighties, and an imposing touchline presence as a gaffer since 1994. Over the last four decades, Allardyce has seen it all.

Kieron Dyer's memoir, Old Too Soon, Smart Too Late, is the first intimate and unsparing portrait of the failures and excesses of the generation of English footballers made rich beyond their wildest dreams by the post-1990 World Cup boom in the game and the explosion of the Premier League. It shares the same brutal honesty and self-awareness of the best-selling No Nonsense by Joey Barton and GoodFella by Craig Bellamy.

Ben Stokes is not cast in the same mould as the vast majority of English cricketers. Fiery, combative, gladiatorial - he plays the game hard and with great gusto. He is an all-rounder who bats, bowls and fields at full throttle. Some opponents feel threatened by his physical stature and aggressive brand of cricket. Stokes simply doesn't back down, smashing the next ball for six, bowling his 90 mph 'chin music' or taking a breathtakingly full-stretch catch at backward point.

For 21 years, Paul Merson played professional football. He won two First Division titles with Arsenal and was one of the finest players of his generation. But for 30 years, Paul Merson has also been an addict. Alcohol, drugs, gambling: a desperately unenviable cocktail of addictions and depression which has plagued his entire adult life and driven him to the verge of suicide.

At the epicentre of England's historic triumph was Ben Stokes, the talismanic all-rounder with an insatiable appetite for The Big Occasion. He contributed an absolutely critical 84 runs off 98 balls when England batted, a seemingly nerveless innings of discipline and maturity. Thrillingly, it was enough to tie the scores at 241 runs each, so the match reverted to a Super Over - just six balls for each side to bat in the ultimate in sporting sudden death. Stokes and his batting partner, Jos Buttler, saw England to 15 runs off their over.

Forthright and frank, Read's well-respected views on the game and its future are a must-listen for rugby fans, and his take on the myriad personalities and the peccadilloes of his teammates, coaches and opponents will be sure to surprise and delight. From the playing fields of Papakura to the summit of the sport, Read has faced every challenge head on. His life story is no exception.

Jimmy Bullard may not have had the perfect hair-do, his Granada Ghia may not have been the flashiest of cars, and he definitely didn't have a string of Page 3 girls trying to sell kiss and tell stories about him to the tabloids. But what he has in spades is a genuine love for The Beautiful Game that few of his peers can match. One of the last graduates from football's old school, Jimmy actually worked in the real world - including as a painter and decorator - before turning pro. Maybe that's why he played football with a smile on his face, always says what's on his mind, and is no stranger to a spot of mischief.

It was one of the most extraordinary takeovers British football has known. In February 2021, Ryan Reynolds joined with Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham AFC, a non-league team in North Wales. Wrexham, a former coal and steel town dealing with its post-industrial legacy, suddenly found itself at the centre of global attention, with broadcast networks around the world descending to discover what was going on. Tinseltown tells the story of this extraordinary, unpredictable and often surreal football takeover and the remarkable events that followed.

A profoundly personal, warmly nostalgic and deliciously funny memoir by the legendary Sky Sports anchorman Jeff Stelling, chronicling a life spent obsessing about 'The Beautiful Game' ever since he was a little boy, and underpinned by a deeply rooted love of football and of people. Saturday Afternoon Fever is Stelling's moving and fascinating memoir: a love letter to the game that has shaped and defined him, as it has millions of other football fans across the UK.

For the Redknapp clan, football is a family concern; it's the family business. Me, Family and the Making of a Footballer is a deeply moving, heartfelt and beautifully personal account of growing up as the second son of Harry Redknapp, and also an enchanting love letter to football.

Mark Clattenburg found himself in the centre circle, whistle in hand, at the start of 450 Premier League matches during a highly eventful 13-year career in football's top flight. He has shaken hands with, issued red and yellow cards to, and been sworn at by hundreds of players. He has been screamed at and shared jokes with dozens and dozens of managers. And he's felt the wrath of thousands upon thousands of irate fans. His autobiography is the ultimate guide to what it's really like to be in the referee's spotlight.

The Champ: Terry Downes - known as 'The Paddington Express' - was a world champion boxer, US Marine, gangsters' favourite and latter-day film star and businessman. The Chump: James McNicholas' PE teacher once told him he was so unfit he'd be dead by the time he was 23. James has spent his life pursuing a career in acting and comedy. In reality, that has meant spells working as a painter-decorator and river cruise salesperson. After Terry's death, James finds himself in reflective mood, comparing how he's doing in life to how his grandad was at that age.

The definitive autobiography of the legendary rugby coach who has led Wales to three Grand Slams and four Six Nations titles and masterminded two hugely successful Southern Hemisphere tours at the helm of the British and Irish Lions.

Dan Hardy's first book is much more than a straightforward MMA autobiography. Taking the key fights from his career, Hardy explores the sport with the unparalleled insight that has made him the best analyst working today, from training in China with Shaolin monks to how MMA helped him channel his rage, to psychedelics and the ceremony in Peru that changed his life, to tapping in to his 'reptilian brain' and the psychological warfare of UFC, to his epic title fight with Georges St-Pierre.

Football changes everything. It changes how we feel, how we think, how we behave. It turns us into someone else. You love your team first. It's tribal. Except I did love something else. I loved the idea of commentating on my team, on every team. I loved it even more than my team. I ditched the girl next door for the diva on the silver screen. Like all true romances, it was irrational and intoxicating, it was tangled and foolish, it became addictive and occasionally heartbreaking and it kept on changing.

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at 11 years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. This is Reilly's valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.

Reilly has been with Trump on the fairways, on the greens and in the rough; he has seen how the President plays - and it's not pretty. Based on his personal experiences and interviews with dozens of golf pros, amateurs, developers, partners, opponents and even caddies who have firsthand involvement with Trump out on the course, Reilly takes a deep and often hilarious look at how Trump shamelessly cheats at golf, lies about it, sues over it, bullies with it and profits from it.

Goals is a very personal and deeply moving collection of life-affirming and inspirational real-life stories from which Chelsea and Italy football legend Gianluca Vialli has drawn great strength and resolve during his battle with pancreatic cancer. The stories and the individuals involved have been selected by Vialli because they have offered him comfort and inspiration at the time of his greatest challenge and he feels that they can do the same for many of us, whatever it might be that we are facing.

An autobiographical white-knuckle ride around the global fight game by the legendary Steve Bunce: the voice of the sport who is celebrating four decades of writing and talking about boxers and boxing. Around the World in 80 Fights vividly reveals the simple, wonderful and truly awful business of boxing. It is Buncey's business and this is his story.