Jonathan Wilson

The first-ever cultural, tactical and historical history of the goalkeeper, from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid

'EPIC' Financial Times 'PERCEPTIVE' The Sunday Times 'BLISSFUL' Daily Telegraph 'FASCINATING' Independent on Sunday 'TERRIFIC' Henry Winter 'EXCELLENT' Simon Kuper The fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid From the war-ravaged streets of Sarajevo, where turning up for training involved dodging snipers' bullets, to the crumbling splendour of Budapest's Bozsik Stadium, where the likes of Puskás and Kocsis masterminded the fall of England, the landscape of Eastern Europe has changed immeasurably since the collapse of communism. Jonathan Wilson has travelled extensively behind the old Iron Curtain, viewing life beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall through the lens of football. Where once the state-controlled teams of the Eastern bloc passed their way with crisp efficiency - a sort of communist version of total football - to considerable success on the European and international stages, today the beautiful game in the East has been opened up to the free market, and throughout the region a sense of chaos pervades. The threat of totalitarian interference no longer remains; but in its place mafia control is generally accompanied with a crippling lack of funds. Jonathan Wilson goes in search of the spirit of Hungary's 'Golden Squad', charts the disintegration of the footballing superpower Yugoslavia, follows a sorry tale of corruption, mismanagement and Armenian cognac through the Caucasuses, reopens the case of Russia's greatest footballer, Eduard Streltsov, and talks to Jan Tomaszewski about an autumn night at Wembley in 1973... BEHIND THE CURTAIN is the definitive story of football in Eastern Europe.

A true guide to the essentials, this book takes you through the whole research process from start to finish. Whether you’re conducting a report, literature review, proposal, project or dissertation, this book concentrates on what you need to succeed in your assessment. Fresh and focussed, it covers the nuts and bolts of research methods, grounding concepts and terminology in business and management contexts to help you get to grips with topics that can seem daunting at first. This third edition offers: New chapters on quantitative and qualitative data collection. New and updated case studies of real-world business research from sectors as diverse as transportation and the dairy industry to social media platforms and charities. Updated learning features, such as annotated further reading, that help you make the best use of your time. This book is the perfect companion for undergraduate business and management students looking to tackle their research project with confidence.

A true guide to the essentials, this book takes you through the whole research process from start to finish. Whether you’re conducting a report, literature review, proposal, project or dissertation, this book concentrates on what you need to succeed in your assessment. Fresh and focussed, it covers the nuts and bolts of research methods, grounding concepts and terminology in business and management contexts to help you get to grips with topics that can seem daunting at first. This third edition offers: New chapters on quantitative and qualitative data collection. New and updated case studies of real-world business research from sectors as diverse as transportation and the dairy industry to social media platforms and charities. Updated learning features, such as annotated further reading, that help you make the best use of your time. This book is the perfect companion for undergraduate business and management students looking to tackle their research project with confidence.

Is it football any more? 'Fascinating and persuasive' The Herald ‘Everyone involved in the VAR controversy should read this short, beautifully-written book and think again’ Sir Michael Barber In 2019, the English Premier League introduced the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), a way of using technology to review and correct the on-field referee’s decisions. It’s been a disaster: players hate it, managers hate it, pundits line up to pour scorn on its decisions, and fans have coined the chant ‘it’s not football any more’ to describe its effect on the game. Almost every other sport in the world has managed to integrate technology into its decision-making process. Why is football failing so badly? Is it a special case, or have the game’s authorities got something wrong? And what does the controversy about VAR tell us about the nature of authority, rationality and technology in the 21st century?

The definitive history of the World Cup, for the first time exploring the tournament's socio-political impact across the globe as well as the goals and scandals that keep us all gripped

A definitive new history of the world's most watched sporting event--just in time for the 2026 tournament​ Since 1930, the World Cup has become a truly global obsession. It is the most watched sporting event on the planet, and 211 teams competed to make it into the 2022 tournament. From its inception, it has also been a vehicle for far more than soccer. A tool for self-mythologizing and influence-peddling, The World Cup has played a crucial role in nation-building, and continues to, as countries negotiate their positions in a globalized world. The Power and the Glory is a comprehensive history of the matches and goals, the tales of scandal and triumph, the haggling and skulduggery of the bidding process, and the political and cultural tides behind every tournament. Jonathan Wilson details not merely what happened but why, based on fresh interviews and meticulous research. The book is as much about the legends of the sport, from Pel to Messi, as it is about the nations that made them, from Mussolini's Italy to partitioned Germany to controversy-ridden Qatar. Brimming with politics, heart, and drama, on and off the pitch, The Power and the Glory is the definitive story of the greatest cultural event of our time.

Is it football any more? 'Fascinating and persuasive' The Herald ‘Everyone involved in the VAR controversy should read this short, beautifully-written book and think again’ Sir Michael Barber In 2019, the English Premier League introduced the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), a way of using technology to review and correct the on-field referee’s decisions. It’s been a disaster: players hate it, managers hate it, pundits line up to pour scorn on its decisions, and fans have coined the chant ‘it’s not football any more’ to describe its effect on the game. Almost every other sport in the world has managed to integrate technology into its decision-making process. Why is football failing so badly? Is it a special case, or have the game’s authorities got something wrong? And what does the controversy about VAR tell us about the nature of authority, rationality and technology in the 21st century?

'COMPREHENSIVE' The Sunday Times'BEAUTIFULLY DETAILED' The Guardian'UTTERLY COMPELLING' Nottingham Forest News'WONDERFUL' Forbes'INTIMATE' FourFourTwo20th Anniversary Edition - Fully revised and updated. In this authoritative, critical biography, Jonathan Wilson draws an intimate and powerful portrait of one of England's greatest football managers, Brian Clough. It was in the unforgiving world of post-war football where his identity and reputation was made - a world where, as Clough's mentor Harry Storer once said, 'Nobody ever says thank you.'Nonetheless, Clough brought the gleam of silverware to the depressed East Midlands of the 1970s. Initial triumph at Derby was followed by a sudden departure and a traumatic 44 days at Leeds. By the end of a frazzled 1974, Clough was set up for life financially, but also hardened to the realities of football. By the time he was at Forest, Clough's mask was almost permanently donned: a persona based on brashness and conflict. Drink fuelled the controversies and the colourful character; it heightened the razor-sharp wit and was a salve for the highs of football that never lasted long enough, and for the lows that inevitably followed. Wilson's account is the definitive portrait of this complex and enduring man, whose legacy in football remains untouched to the present day.

Based on actual events, a gripping novel of sex, love, history and justice in the tinderbox of British Mandatory Palestine, by the acclaimed author of A Palestine Affair "The story of what is arguably Israel's foundational murder trial--a tale of multiple identities and loyalties." --Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of The Netanyahus "Pleases on several levels: as an adventure tale, a star-crossed romance and a detailed period piece." --The Wall Street Journal It's 1933, and Ivor Castle, Oxford-educated and Jewish, arrives in Palestine to take up a position as assistant to the defense counsel in the trial of the two men accused of murdering Haim Arlosoroff, a leader of the Jewish community in Palestine whose efforts to get Jews out of Hitler's Germany and into Palestine may have been controversial enough to get him killed. While preparing for the trial, Ivor, an innocent to the politics of the case, falls into bed and deeply in love with Tsiona, a free-spirited artist who happened to sketch the accused men in a Jerusalem caf on the night of the murder and may be a key witness. As Ivor learns the hard way about the violence simmering just beneath the surface of British colonial rule, Jonathan Wilson dazzles with his mastery of the sun-drenched landscape and the subtleties of the warring agendas among the Jews, Arabs, and British. And as he travels between the crime scene in Tel Aviv and the mazelike streets of Jerusalem, between the mounting mysteries surrounding this notorious case and clandestine lovemaking in Tsiona's studio, Ivor must discover where his heart lies: whether he cares more for the law or the truth, whether he is more an Englishman or a Jew, and where and with whom he truly belongs.

'ABSORBING' Guardian'ENTHRALLING' New Statesman'EPIC' Evening Standard'INESCAPABLE' The Sunday Times'MAGISTERIAL' Irish ExaminerFully revised and updated, the definitive history of Argentinian football from the award-winning author of Inverting the PyramidAlfredo Di Stefano, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistua, Juan Roman Riquelme, Lionel Messi... Argentina has produced some of the greatest footballers of all time. But the rich, volatile history of Argentinian football is made up of both the sublime and the ruthlessly pragmatic. Jonathan Wilson, having lived in Buenos Aires, is ideally placed to chart the sport's development in a country that, perhaps more than any other, lives and breathes football, its theories and its myths. Fully revised and updated, this new edition looks at the contrasting evolution of Argentinian football over the last ten years; from the chaos and violence of the abandoned 2018 Copa Libertadores final between River Plate and Boca Juniors to the revitalised national side under manager Lionel Scaloni, which triumphed at the 2019 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup. ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES is the definitive history of a great footballing nation and its many paradoxes.