Items related to England Expects: A History of the England Football...
The story of the England football team is much more than the tale of eleven men and a succession of 90-minute international matches. It is the story of how a nation - perhaps more than any other in the world - vests its hopes and dreams to a quite colossal - and colossally unfair - degree in a small group of individuals, and sees their - almost inevitably disappointing - fortunes as somehow symbolic of national weakness, amateurishness and decline. It is a tale of how particular individuals - usually England managers, from Alf Ramsey through Bobby Robson and Graham Taylor to Kevin Keegan - are crucified merely for failing to repeat England's single greatest sporting triumph, of winning the World Cup in 1966. James Corbett's book is the first to tell the history of the England football team, from the first international matches at the end of the nineteenth century to the current shenanigans with Sven-Goran Ericsson's private life and David James's "lack of preparation" against Denmark. Not a drybones chronicle, it is a fabulously engrossing narrative full of graphic and compelling games, intricate football politics, social history and astringent and trenchant commentary - Aurum's prizewinning "Social History of English Cricket" is the best analogue. It will certainly be a William Hill contender.
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From the Publisher:
A fascinating and opinionated study of the fortunes of a nation's hopes and disappointments
From the Author:
The story of the England football team is the story of football. Created by the founding fathers of the Football Association as a vehicle with which to spread their gospel to all corners of Britain and beyond, from England’s first match (in 1872, against Scotland, in Partick) all the way through to the agonising quarter final defeat in Euro 2004, the history of the England team is one tinged with high drama, controversy, pain and occasional glory. From Steve Bloomer to Dixie Dean, Stanley Matthews to Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan to Wayne Rooney, all the great icons of the English game have worn the famous three lions of their country. As representatives of football’s founding nation, the burden of success has always been heavy, and matches involving England have been amongst the hardest fought and most highly anticipated on the football calendar.
England Expects is the definitive history of the England team. From the first encounters at Kennington Oval in 1870, hosted unofficially between enthusiastic amateurs and Scots resident in London, through the development of Home Internationals, early encounters with foreign nations and the creation of a national home for football at Wembley, the early chapters are as much about the development of football as they are a tale of the national side itself.
The book charts the stories of the men who made English football. Footballing greats such as Dean, Matthews, Tom Finney, Billy Wright, Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, Peter Shilton, Gary Lineker, through to present day legends like David Beckham and Wayne Rooney are obvious heroes; but England Expects also pays tribute to the lives of the nation’s unsung legends, from Ebenezer Cobb Morley and Charles Alcock to Walter Winterbottom and Stanley Rous. It charts the early, unsuccessful bids for World Cup glory; reveals how Alf Ramsey’s quiet genius put England on top of the world; and details subsequent failures – both relative and total – in sometimes agonising detail.
Amidst the highs and lows, the tale of the England team is also tinged with individual and collective tragedy. England Expects re-evaluates the Munich Air Disaster, the Heysel Stadium riot and Hillsborough through the prism of the national team, and how, in little ways and large, they impacted on the nation’s football. It considers the unfulfilled potential of the likes of Tommy Lawton, Duncan Edwards, John Barnes and Paul Gascoigne; unlocks hitherto little told stories (what happened when England’s star centre half, Neil Franklin, defected to Colombia on the eve of the 1950 World Cup Finals?); and unveils the truth behind some of football’s great mysteries (why, for instance, did Brian Clough never become England manager?). England Expects also places the game’s great political importance into context. Read in horror at how the British Government used the England team as an instrument of appeasement; discover the Prime Minister whose fortunes rose and fell with Alf Ramsey’s England; and about the premier whose war on the game almost led to football’s downfall in its home country.
Perhaps above all else, though, England Expects is about expectation and the way in which we vest our colossal – and colossally unfair – hopes in our sportsmen and women. Maybe more than any other nation on earth, the England football team shoulder the insatiable hopes, dreams and delusions of its people. Whether we have Michael Owen or Michael Ricketts leading the attack and regardless of whether we’re playing Argentina or Andorra, deep down we still believe that it is our right, maybe even our birthright, to come out on top.
As a distinguished, detailed and readable history there is no real comparison to England Expects and as a book of record, there is no equivalent. England Expects is a must read for football fans of all ages and persuasions and a vital addition to book shelves from Penzance to Penrith.
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- PublisherAurum Press
- Publication date2007
- ISBN 10 1845132246
- ISBN 13 9781845132248
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages400
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