Here’s my recommendations of the best football books of recent months for reading on the beach or by the pool. Kick off the summer with one of these great reads.

Review: How To Watch Football – 52 Rules for Understanding the Beautiful Game, On and Off the Pitch by Tifo

This handy football primer, produced by Tifo the YouTube channel, is designed to help everyone understand what is happening both on and off the pitch. From ‘don’t watch the ball’ and ‘why corners are less effective than you think’, to ‘how transfer fees can be misleading’ and ‘how to spot sportswashing’, these are Tifo’s fifty-two rules.

Review – Inshallah United: A Story of Faith and Football by Nooruddean Choudry

Inshallah United is an unusual and entertaining memoir about a football loving British-born Pakistani living in North Manchester. Nooruddean Choudry is a Muslim, Manchester United supporting, Morrissey-loving, Maggie Thatcher-hating, working-class Mancunian. Growing up in the late 1980s and 90s as a devout Muslim and Stretford Ender Nooruddean has many out-of-the-ordinary experiences. He is praying five times a day while also worshipping his heroes such as Andrei Kanchelskis, Norman Whiteside, and Eric Cantona at Old Trafford.

Review – Pantomime Hero Jimmy Armfield: Memories of the man who lifted Leeds after Brian Clough by Ian Ridley.

Pantomime hero is the first book in the Football Shorts series, which is a new collaboration between Pitch Publishing and Ian Ridley’s Floodlit Dreams Company. Journalist and author Ridley provides us with some charming, nostalgic, and heart-warming stories about Jimmy Armfield the former Blackpool and England full back who became an acclaimed broadcaster.

Review – The Game: Player. Pundit. Fan by Micah Richards

The former Manchester City and England defender-turned-broadcaster Micah Richards has produced an upbeat and entertaining read. Richards’ career highlights include winning the FA Cup and the Premier League title, as well as becoming the youngest ever defender to represent England, but after a career-ending injury he had to create a new life for himself.

Review: The Longest Winter – A Season with England’s Worst Ever Football Team by Mark Hodkinson

Mark Hodkinson returns to the familiar territory of his previous books with the story of Rochdale’s worst ever season. This time he contextualises the football club’s struggles with the economic and social turmoil of the early 1970’s. In 1973/74 Rochdale were in the Third Division (now League One) and under a new manager Walter Joyce. Joyce’s plan was to use only young players during the season, but it massively backfired with the club winning only twice in 46 league matches.

Review: The Silence of the Stands – Finding Joy in Football’s Lost Season by Daniel Gray

Daniel Gray already has a collection of critically acclaimed football books, but this is another gem worthy of your attention. ‘The Silence of the Stands’ is partly football during lockdown, part travelogue, part social and economic history of Northern England and Scotland. Gray’s travels provide a snapshot of our national game during Covid, the period from September 2020 to May 2021. He once again enthralls with his football centred lyrical prose. ‘Football was available again, but it had become hard to track down, a kind of prohibition pursuit where football grounds were speakeasies and Bovril was our Moonshine.’

Review: Two Brothers – The Life and Times of Bobby and Jackie Charlton by Jonathan Wilson

‘Two Brothers’ is not only an inspiring story about two of the most famous footballing brothers, but it is also about late twentieth-century English football and the changes that were taking place. Jonathan Wilson traces the incredible lives of Bobby and Jackie Charlton from their childhood working class roots through to their battles with dementia.