On 30th May 1984 Joe Fagan made football history – he became the first English manager to win the Treble. After just one season as coach he had led Liverpool to victory in the League Cup, the League Championship and finally the European Cup, beating AS Roma on home soil after a gripping penalty shootout. It was an unprecedented triumph, the culmination of a twenty-five year career at the very heart of the Liverpool machine, and the end of a golden age. Unassuming, down-to-earth, and never one to court publicity, little is known about Joe Fagan – a man who played a pivotal part in Liverpool’s domination of the game in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, but whose achievements were later obscured by disaster. A Scouser born and bred, he joined the Anfield coaching staff in 1958, after a playing career at Manchester City and years learning his craft in the lower leagues. At the time Liverpool were in the stranglehold of Second Division mediocrity – but then, a year later, Bill Shankly arrived, and everything changed. With a knack for nurturing the talents of precocious youngsters, Fagan quickly became part of Shankly’s trusted inner circle. Indeed, not only was Fagan one of the original members of the fabled Boot Room, he is widely credited with its creation. Under Bob Paisley Fagan was appointed second-in-command. So when Paisley stepped down, the reluctant Fagan was the obvious and only choice to succeed him – and what followed surpassed the dreams of even the most success-spoilt Kopites. However, just one year after Liverpool’s European triumph in Rome, the death of 39 fans at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels saw the club’s glittering record tarnished by tragedy, and English football exiled from Europe. Fagan announced his retirement just hours later – and stepped back into the anonymity he craved. Now, drawing for the first time on Joe Fagan’s own diaries, as well as a raft of new interviews with players, colleagues and contemporaries, this biography celebrates the record of one of football’s least celebrated greats, and reveals the inner workings of Liverpool’s golden age.

A comprehensive look into early professional football, this biography of Everton and Liverpool’s founding father John Houlding breaks new ground by addressing the important role of football club ownership in the early history of the game. Football supporters the world over are aware of the great rivalry that exists between the two giants of Merseyside football, Everton and Liverpool. This rivalry was created out of a split within Everton FC that gave rise, in 1892, to Liverpool FC. The two clubs subsequently went on to dominate the English game, amassing twenty-seven English top flight titles between them, more than any other city in the country. What isn’t as well known is that one man was responsible for the rise of both clubs: former Lord Mayor of Liverpool, John Houlding. In The Man Who Created Merseyside Football: John Houlding, Founding Father of Liverpool and Everton, David Kennedy recounts the sporting legacy of Houlding. A brewer and Conservative politician, Houlding was a polarising yet fascinating figure. His financial input, first at Everton Football Club and then at Liverpool Football Club, provided the launch pad for the establishment of two nationally and internationally known sporting organizations. By the time of his death in 1902, both clubs had reached the pinnacle of the English game and Houlding’s place as the founding father of professional football in Merseyside was assured. More than just a football biography, The Man Who Created Merseyside Football also details the many other aspects of Houlding’s life—a family man, businessman, and local politician with parliamentary aspirations. His business and political life, in fact, became entangled in dramatic fashion with the Liverpool football scene on more than one occasion. The complete story of this captivating and influential individual is finally told for the first time in this book, in full and wonderful detail.

Peppered throughout with more than 200 images from Ibrox's official archives - many of them never before published - this sumptious publication captures the club's rich heritage and proud pedigree of great managers and players, devoted fans, and an almost endless list of trophies. Rangers FC has experienced the highs and lows of everything that the sport can throw at it, yet the passion and faith of its enormous fan base continues to endure as the club enters a brave new era. This evocative new publication seeks to pay testament to the Ibrox spirit and everything it stands for.

The Untouchables: Anfield's Band of Brothers chronicles the rise and fall of one of the greatest Liverpool teams ever. In 1918 an enlisted man, Tom Bromilow, stepped off the streets of Liverpool and straight into the team. Still in uniform, he was one of tens of thousands of Liverpudlians who fought in World War One. His signing completed a jigsaw that eventually revealed an image of footballing perfection, a team so great they were called 'The Untouchables'. The book brings to life a host of incredible characters, uncovers friendships and rivalries and reveals amazing backstories. Meet men like Bootle-born Walter Wadsworth, tough-talking Irishman Elisha Scott, champion boxer Jock McNab and many other fascinating figures. The Untouchables reveals previously unknown detail and sheds new light on old controversies, including the real reason behind the departure of the club's manager, Dave Ashworth. Meticulously researched and lovingly told, the book breathes new life into a fascinating and long-forgotten story.

Liverpool Football Club, in stark contrast to its competitors, remains locally owned, not a conglomerate or media business. Unlike its main rivals, the Liverpool club has been loathe to pursue global markets for merchandizing - though it attracts a huge fandom around the world - and its ambitions remain resolutely fixed on footballing success. No football club has ever had such an extended period of dominance inthe English game, nor extended that dominance to Europe so effectively.Many of the current crop of top young players are locally born and are a central feature of the city's nightlife, as well as national icons in pop/football/youth culture. But there are fears that the Club's great days have now passed. At the height of its powers in the 1980s, Liverpool FC was the site of two catastrophic crowd disasters, which effectively transformed the sport and added to wounding perceptions about the city's alleged sentimentality, fatalism and irreversible decline. The legacy of the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies continues to shape the self-image of the Club and those who support it. A seething rivalry with nearby corporate giant Manchester United is a constant reminder of football's new order.Addressing all of these concerns, as well as Liverpool's global reputation as the home of the Beatles and the 'Mersey sound', this book takes an original approach to the study of football by examining its links with other important popular culture forms, especially pop music, but also television and youth styles. In particular, however, it looks at the very special meaning of football in Liverpool.

Volume three of a bibliography documenting all that has been written in the English language on the history of sport and physical education in Britain. It lists all secondary source material including reference works, in a classified order to meet the needs of the sports historian.

‘A fresh look at the beautiful game’ - NME Welcome back to the inimitable work of illustrator David Squires. Most football fans can only dream of pulling on the shirt of their favourite team and running out in front of thousands of adoring fans. Pitch invaders aside, few of us get to experience that adrenalin rush. Of those who do make it as a professional footballer, even fewer realise the giddy heights of success. In the Illustrated History of Football: Hall of Fame, cartoonist David Squires returns to celebrate those who straddle the game like giants; those talented, determined souls who were juggling tennis balls in the back streets before they could talk. There’s more than one way to attain football immortality though, and Squires also turns his comic eye to the mavericks, the pioneers, the forgotten legends and the anti-heroes. From Pele to Meazza, Maradona to Socrates, you will be taken on an unforgettable journey through the good, the bad and the Hagi.

Skilful and aggressive, Gerrard has a knack of scoring spectacular goals for club and country. A boyhood Liverpool fan, growing up on Merseyside, Gerrard is living the dream of playing for his team. Having emerged through the club's youth academy he made his debut for the Reds in November 1998 at the age of eighteen. Now captain of Liverpool FC, Gerrard has led his team to glory in both the European Cup and FA Cup. A key player for England, he will always be remembered for his goal in the famous World Cup qualifying game against Germany in September 2001. This is unique insight into a man who remains one of Europe's top talents.