Why England Lose: And Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained

One of the best listens I've had in ages. If you like football stats or are interested in economics & how that effects football (not as boring as it sounds) get this book now.
The title of the book over emphisises the first chapter of it (it is attention grabbing though & as a Scot, quite comforting!) It covers a whole range of things from attendances per capita, judging European Cup winners on population size & type of government & how surprisingly little effect team managers have on the game! Very enjoyale & really got me thinking long after it finished.

The authors are probably right, many soccer followers are also stat nuts and table lovers. I know I am. This book delivers big time - yes the high number of detailed tables narrated can be a bit of a drag, I guess you get what you pay for and one is more than adequately compensated by the depth and variety of research that has gone into this book. If you love the counter-intuitive again the book delivers; surprising examples of who is best and worst and why. The world of soccer is covered here not just england and it is bang up to date being released just before the world cup. Best of all - the author's narrative of how England would exit the competition was spot on.

The reading was very good

I thought this was excellent. A statistician's view of football might put you off but this is in the same vein as Freakonomics - often counter-intuitive findings on football based on statistics. It has to be said that some of the findings in Freakonomics were subsequently hotly contested and the same may well be true for this book but it is certainly thought provoking. One word of warning (okay many words) - the book contains many tables of data which do not lend themselves to the audio book format. They do have a certain hypnotic quality, like listening to the weather station reports late in the evening. They should really have supplied a pdf with the audiobook containing the data.

A very thorough look at how football success has waxed and waned with the economic backdrop. Backed up with compelling statistics (although far too many lists read out for my liking), it is slightly saddening to see the magic disappear. I was better off in my naive ignorance.

This is a terrific analysis of football making some serious and clever points in a very likeable dry-witted style. The great thing about it as an audiobook is that it will bear several listens to take in the many salient points. Thoroughly recommended.

Any serious student of football should listen to this. This book explains why modern football is the way it is, wittily and intelligently.

The only drawback is that there are, as might be expected, lots & lots of lists, which can make for difficult listening.

A very entertaining and insightful exposition of the economic dynamics of football. Not being a big footie fan, on the strength of this listen I was able to hold my own with great comments that generated fierce debate as we watched the debacle that was England's world cup attempt. I also noticed that the author was called upon to comment on several post match discussions I heard on the radio, so he's clearly established himself as a major pundit. As per my title - this is good for fans and non-fans alike and will give a brilliant understanding of where we fit into the football world ... and why we lose!

This was an interesting although subjective book. The narrative was engrossing but not all the 'facts' were presented in a balanced way, for example Spain during the Franco years is described as isolationist and this is seen as a negative factor in football evolution yet the amazing Real Madrid side of the late fifties and early sixties didn't get a mention. I also doubt that having fewer English players in the Premier league would improve the situation of Englands poor record in world football since Spain use mainly spanish-based players in their world conquering team. Overall it was an interesting book but not really one I would pay attention to.