Many decades before Sky TVs popular 'Football Idol' series Tommy Tynan won a newspaper competition called 'Search for a Soccer-Star'. He was just 16 years old. His reward was an apprenticeship at Bill Shanklys famous Liverpool Football Club, and, at the club, he scored in abundance at every level he had a chance to play at. The problem was the squad was so damn strong that Tommy was unable to get a chance in the first-team. Loan moves to Swansea City (where the great John Charles wanted to sh...

The dugout can be a fearsome place. When the action heats up on the pitch, emotions in the dugout boil over. Grown men lose control. The normally sane turn into irrational agitators. And every decision, no matter how minor, is hotly contested.Tales From The Dugout is a fantastically entertaining collection of incidents and memories gathered from managers, players, referees, linesmen and broadcasters, which encapsulates the unique environment of the technical area and reveals how ev...

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. The game he so loves...

For those of us who came from the Seventies, it should be obligatory reading. But younger folk should take a look too, for it beautifully captures a bygone era... Brian Viner, The IndependentThere is a rough edge to his diary that reinforces its immediacy and credibility...a funny and fascinating document... Michael Parkinson, The Daily TelegraphThe flavour of the club [Notts County] is brilliantly captured... when younger first team players still took the bus to training a...