Jonathan Wilson – författare

WINNER OF THE SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2026'A master at telling football's greatest ever stories... Breathtaking. Wilson's eye for detail and his elegant writing brings the World Cup to life like no other book on the topic I have ever read' ELIS JAMES'Epic in scope, awesomely rich in detail, and compulsively entertaining' TOM HOLLAND'So much of what we know of football's history we know thanks to Wilson' SIMON KUPERThe football World Cup is the most watched sporting event on the planet. It has become a global obsession: 211 nations initially entered the 2022 edition. It has been running for almost a century. Yet there has never been a comprehensive history of the World Cup that has considered not only the matches and goals, the players and coaches, the tales of scandal and genius, the haggling and skulduggery of the bidding process, but has also placed the tournaments within a socio-political framework. The story of the World Cup is also the story of the world; this book tells its definitive history.

'MASTERFUL' Time Out'REVELATORY' Scotland on Sunday'GLORIOUSLY READABLE' Metro'FASCINATING' Independent 'EXCELLENT' Telegraph'ABSORBING' GuardianWinner of the British Sports Book AwardsFootball Book of the YearThe fifteenth anniversary edition, fully revised and updated, of Jonathan Wilson's modern classic.In the modern classic, Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the finer details of the world's game, tracing the global history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning, when chaos reigned. Along the way, he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the sport, and probes why the English, in particular, have proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract.Fully revised and updated, this fifteenth-anniversary edition analyses the evolution of modern international football, including the 2022 World Cup, charting the influence of the great Spanish, German and Portuguese tacticians of the last decade, whilst pondering the effects of football's increased globalisation and commercialisation.

'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.

'A master at telling football's greatest ever stories... Breathtaking. Wilson's eye for detail and his elegant writing brings the World Cup to life like no other book on the topic I have ever read' ELIS JAMES'Epic in scope, awesomely rich in detail, and compulsively entertaining' TOM HOLLANDThe football World Cup is the most watched sporting event on the planet. It has become a global obsession: 211 nations initially entered the 2022 edition. It has been running for almost a century. Yet there is no comprehensive history of the tournament: based on fresh interviews and meticulously researched this book will change that. By 1930, football had outgrown the Olympic Games. A new competition, run by Fifa, would take international football to the next level. After a shambolic start to the first cup in Uruguay - an incomplete stadium, shoddy refereeing and physios accidentally injuring players - the thrilling final saw Uruguay take on Argentina, beating them 4-2. From those chaotic beginnings grew the modern World Cup, a cultural phenomenon that draws the world together like nothing else, and that gives it a profound importance. Ask a random person on a random street to name a moment in the history of Senegal and they may well say Pape Bouba Diop's winner against France in the 2002 World Cup, a goal not only against the defending champions but against the former colonial masters.The World Cup has political significance. West Germany's success in 1954 was a moment of reintegration into global society. Progress to the semi-finals in 1998 gave a huge boost to Croatia's sense of national self. But football is an unpredictable sport. In the so-called Soccer War of 1969 tensions between El Salvador and Honduras were ignited by a World Cup qualifier. More recently, the focus for governments seeking to political gain has been hosting the tournament, with the World Cups in Russia and Qatar clear examples of sportswashing, staging a tournament to project an image of a thriving society.There has never been a comprehensive history of the World Cup that has considered not only the matches and goals, the players and coaches, the tales of scandal and genius, the haggling and skulduggery of the bidding process, but has also placed the tournaments within a socio-political framework. The story of the World Cup is also the story of the world; this book tells its definitive history.

'A powerful chronicle of the transformation of English football and society through the prism of two very different characters' Irish TimesJack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. Jack was a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. Yet the Charlton brothers both enjoyed great success as football players and together, for England, they won the World Cup. Two Brothers is both the story of the most famous football players of their generation and an account of late-twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home. 'Wilson is meticulous in providing all manner of nuggets' Sports Books of the Year, The Times'Gripping' Daily Mail'Moving... chronicles two remarkable lives' Guardian

Achieved at the height of the Crusades, the Christian conquests of Santarém in 1147 by King Afonso I, and of Alcácer do Sal in 1217 by Portuguese forces and northern European warriors on their way by sea to Palestine, were crucial events in the creation of the independent kingdom of Portugal. The two texts presented here survive in their unique, thirteenth-century manuscript copies appended to a codex belonging to one of Europe’s most important monastic library collections accumulated in the Cistercian abbey of Alcobaça, founded c. 1153 by Bernard of Clairvaux. Accompanied by comprehensive introductions and here translated into English for the first time, these extraordinary texts are based on eyewitness testimony of the conquests. They contain much detail for the military historian, including data on operational tactics and the ideology of Christian holy war in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Literary historians too will be delighted by the astonishing styles deployed, demonstrating considerable authorial flamboyance, flair and innovation. While they are likely written by Goswin of Bossut, the search for authorship yields an impressive array of literary friends and associates, including James of Vitry, Thomas of Cantimpré, Oliver of Paderborn and Caesarius of Heisterbach.

Achieved at the height of the Crusades, the Christian conquests of Santarém in 1147 by King Afonso I, and of Alcácer do Sal in 1217 by Portuguese forces and northern European warriors on their way by sea to Palestine, were crucial events in the creation of the independent kingdom of Portugal. The two texts presented here survive in their unique, thirteenth-century manuscript copies appended to a codex belonging to one of Europe’s most important monastic library collections accumulated in the Cistercian abbey of Alcobaça, founded c. 1153 by Bernard of Clairvaux. Accompanied by comprehensive introductions and here translated into English for the first time, these extraordinary texts are based on eyewitness testimony of the conquests. They contain much detail for the military historian, including data on operational tactics and the ideology of Christian holy war in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Literary historians too will be delighted by the astonishing styles deployed, demonstrating considerable authorial flamboyance, flair and innovation. While they are likely written by Goswin of Bossut, the search for authorship yields an impressive array of literary friends and associates, including James of Vitry, Thomas of Cantimpré, Oliver of Paderborn and Caesarius of Heisterbach.

'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.

'EPIC' Financial Times'PERCEPTIVE' The Sunday Times'BLISSFUL' Daily Telegraph'FASCINATING' Independent on Sunday'TERRIFIC' Henry Winter'EXCELLENT' Simon KuperThe fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of Inverting the PyramidFrom 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.

Shortlisted for Football Book of the Year (Sports Book Awards)'Gripping' Daily Mail'Moving... chronicles two remarkable lives' Guardian'Razor-sharp tactical analysis' Irish Independent'Wilson is a fine, nuanced writer' Times Literary SupplementThe story of Jack and Bobby Charlton, and a family that characterised English football for decadesIn later life Jack and Bobby didn't get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home.Jack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. They were very different footballers: Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches, the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other.Both enjoyed great success as players: Jack won a league, a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds; Bobby won a league title, survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich, and then at enormous emotional cost, won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup. Together, for England, they won the World Cup.Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths, Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously un-imagined heights. Both were financially very successful, but Jack remained staunchly left-wing while Bobby tended to conservatism. In the end, Jack returned to Northumberland; Bobby remained in the North-West.Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation.

Two Brothers tells the story of a great sporting family, uncovering new details, exposing myths and placing Jack and Bobby Charlton in their historical context. It's a book about two English footballers but also about English football and England itself.In later life Jack and Bobby didn't get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home.Jack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. They were very different footballers: Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches, the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other.Both enjoyed great success as players: Jack won a league, a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds; Bobby won a league title, survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich, and then at enormous emotional cost, won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup. Together, for England, they won the World Cup.Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths, Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously un-imagined heights. Both were financially very successful, but Jack remained staunchly left-wing while Bobby tended to conservatism. In the end, Jack returned to Northumberland; Bobby remained in the North-West.Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation.Praise for Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics'If Jonathan Wilson's first book Behind the Curtain, marked him as the rising star of Sports literature, Inverting the Pyramid confirms his place among our very best sports writers''Simply one of the best books ever written about the world's game'Dominic SandbrookPraise for Nobody Ever Says Thank You: The Biography of Brian Clough'In separating the man from the myth, Jonathan Wilson's biography of Brian Clough is the first to do him justice' Barney Ronay The Observer'Jonathan Wilson's mighty new biography' Harry Pearson When Saturday Comes

'MASTERFUL' TimeOut'GREAT' Financial Times'ABSORBING' FourFourTwo'THOUGHT-PROVOKING' Independent on Sunday'ENTERTAINING' When Saturday ComesHaving invented the game, everything that has followed for England and its national football team has been something of an anti-climax. There was, of course, the golden summer of 1966, and the great period of English dominance on the world stage, which fell roughly between 1886 and 1900, when England won 35 of their 40 international fixtures. But before long foreign teams, with their insistence on progressive 'tactics', began to pose a few questions. And much of what followed for England constituted a series of false dawns... In THE ANATOMY OF ENGLAND, Jonathan Wilson seeks to place the bright spots in context. Taking ten key England fixtures, Wilson explores how what actually happened on the pitch shaped the future of the English game. Bursting with insight and critical detail, yet imbued with a wry affection, this is a history of England like none before.

'INSIGHTFUL' When Saturday Comes'EXCELLENT' ESPN'SUPERB' The ObserverA definitive history of Liverpool FC told through the 10 key football matches that have shaped the clubJonathan Wilson has crafted a compellingly forensic analysis of Liverpool's history through the ten key matches that have shaped the club's fortunes - from the long-lost triumphs of manager Tom Watson and the 1977 European Cup triumph over Borussia Mönchengladbach, to the astonishing Champions League Final comeback against AC Milan, 'The Miracle of Istanbul', in 2005. Legendary players and managers such as Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish populate these pages, which highlight both their the genius and their flaws.THE ANATOMY OF LIVERPOOL tells the story of a great club through a detailed examination of ten key matches looking, as a football history must, first and foremost at the football.

Praise for Jonathan WIlson:'SUPERB' The Observer'EXCELLENT' ESPN'INSIGHTFUL' When Saturday Comes'EPIC' Evening Standard'FASCINATING' IndependentA definitive history of Manchester United told through the 10 key football matches that have shaped the clubAward-winning football writer Jonathan Wilson has crafted a compelling analysis of Manchester United's history through the ten landmark games that have shaped the club's fortunes - from the first time they lifted the FA Cup in 1909, beating Bristol City, to the FA Cup victory of 2016 that proved to be Louis van Gaal's last match in charge. In doing so, he identifies the pivotal moments in the club's rise to becoming one of the foremost teams in world football.With his trademark tactical acumen, Wilson goes back to the games themselves and subjects them to forensic examination, re-evaluation and reassessment, going beyond the white noise of banal player quotes and instant judgements to uncover what really happened. The result is a unique football history of one of England's greatest and most famous clubs.

'SPLENDID' Daily Telegraph'THOUGHT-PROVOKING' Independent on Sunday'INSATIABLE' David Goldblatt'METICULOUS' When Saturday Comes'SUPERB' Readers DigestIn this first-ever cultural history of the 'loner' between the posts, Jonathan Wilson traces the sometimes dangerous intellectual and literary preoccupations of the keeper, and looks at how the position has secured a certain existential cool. He travels to the Bassa region of Cameroon, which has produced two of Africa's greatest keepers, and also to Romania to talk to Helmuth Duckadam, who saved four penalties for Steaua Bucharest in the 1986 European Cup final. His absorbing tactical and technical insights into football history even take us back to the days when matches were contested without a man between the sticks.THE OUTSIDER is the definitive account of the most mysterious of footballing personalities - the goalkeeper.

Written specifically for business students, this best-selling, jargon-free textbook highlights each stage of the research process, guiding the reader through actionable steps and explicitly setting out how best to meet a supervisor's expectations.

Easy to navigate and full of practical advice, it shows you how to choose a topic and write a proposal, with easy to follow tips and detailed screenshots and diagrams.

Key student features include:

'You're the Supervisor' sections - helps students to meet learning objectives 'Common questions and answers' - real-world advice on how to tackle common challenges Examples from different types of international businesses Detailed guidance on software packages such as SPSS Student case studies Annotated further reading

Accompanied by a fully integrated companion website designed to support learning. Free to access, it includes author podcasts, guides to online tools, links to downloadable journal articles, examples of completed projects, PowerPoint slides and students' multiple choice questions to test progress.

A must-have title for all business and management students; this is the ideal companion for achieving success in your research project.

Written specifically for business students, this best-selling, jargon-free textbook highlights each stage of the research process, guiding the reader through actionable steps and explicitly setting out how best to meet a supervisor's expectations.

Easy to navigate and full of practical advice, it shows you how to choose a topic and write a proposal, with easy to follow tips and detailed screenshots and diagrams.

Key student features include:

'You're the Supervisor' sections - helps students to meet learning objectives 'Common questions and answers' - real-world advice on how to tackle common challenges Examples from different types of international businesses Detailed guidance on software packages such as SPSS Student case studies Annotated further reading

Accompanied by a fully integrated companion website designed to support learning. Free to access, it includes author podcasts, guides to online tools, links to downloadable journal articles, examples of completed projects, PowerPoint slides and students' multiple choice questions to test progress.

A must-have title for all business and management students; this is the ideal companion for achieving success in your research project.

Kick and Run is a gripping, funny, sometimes heartbreaking account of a life well lived and a game played, if not always masterfully, then certainly with the utmost passion.'Jonathan Wilson is an intellectual hooligan: Kick and Run is a book of brilliant anecdotes and fantastic wit, nostalgia and twisted love. This memoir is full of sharp insights, a sort of Speak Memory centered on the mysteries of soccer and fandom and revealing an amazing world of Jewish culture and history.' Josip Novakovich, Man Booker International Prize finalistGrowing up Jewish in London with a difficult home life, Jonathan Wilson had plenty of reasons to feel he didn't belong, and one reason to feel certain he did: football. Wilson discovered his love for the game as a young boy; through his adolescence and adulthood and well into his later years it remained an important part of his life. Football became Wilson's international passport, helping him find friends and community and solace all over the globe, from England to Israel to the US. Whether working on a kibbutz or teaching literature to young Americans, traveling through Russia or raising children, the sport remained a constant in his life. Kick and Run is a gripping, funny, sometimes heartbreaking account of a life well lived and a game played, if not always masterfully, then certainly with the utmost passion.

Are you conducting business research for the first time and aren't sure where to begin? This book gives you everything you need to successfully complete your research project.

 

From choosing a direction for your research and considering ethics to data collection and presenting your results, it offers straightforward guidance on every step of the research process. Covering topics such as social media research, group working and how to research your own organisation, it provides a thorough view of research for business and management students.

 

The book:

Enables you visualise how each stage of research links to the next, and makes sure you don't miss a step with a handy 'Research Project Wheel' Empowers you to increase your employability and develop transferable skills, such as proposal writing and data analysis Provides student research examples that show common challenges you might face - and how to address them.

Key features include research snapshots, offering short how-to examples for doing real research, and concept cartoons, which put forward different views about research so you can broaden your knowledge. It also has end-of-chapter questions, online multiple choice questions and Kahoot! questions so you can test your understanding.  Guiding you through working with and understanding both primary and secondary data, this book is the perfect companion for any undergraduate conducting a business and management research project.

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.

Are you conducting business research for the first time and aren't sure where to begin? This book gives you everything you need to successfully complete your research project.

 

From choosing a direction for your research and considering ethics to data collection and presenting your results, it offers straightforward guidance on every step of the research process. Covering topics such as social media research, group working and how to research your own organisation, it provides a thorough view of research for business and management students.

 

The book:

Enables you visualise how each stage of research links to the next, and makes sure you don't miss a step with a handy 'Research Project Wheel' Empowers you to increase your employability and develop transferable skills, such as proposal writing and data analysis Provides student research examples that show common challenges you might face - and how to address them.

Key features include research snapshots, offering short how-to examples for doing real research, and concept cartoons, which put forward different views about research so you can broaden your knowledge. It also has end-of-chapter questions, online multiple choice questions and Kahoot! questions so you can test your understanding.  Guiding you through working with and understanding both primary and secondary data, this book is the perfect companion for any undergraduate conducting a business and management research project.