In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with silver title on the spine.

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Sir Alex Ferguson is without doubt the most controversial and compelling figure in football today. For many he ranks as the greatest manager of all time. He is certainly the most successful. His reign at Manchester United has seen him win every major footballing honour. And then win them again. It’s been over ten years since that unforgettable night in Barcelona when Ferguson’s embattled players triumphed over Bayern Munich in the dying seconds of the Champions League final. Since then Ferguson has presided over the rise and fall and rise again of José ourinho, the arrival and departure of the world’s best player, Ronaldo, the removal of one English talisman – Beckham – and the irresistible instalment of another – Rooney.He has been instrumental in making the Premier League the most successful competition in football, and he has endured while the mountains of cash have turned to valleys of debt.

It is only now, as Ferguson nears the end of his career, that conclusions can be drawn about this fascinating man. From Ferguson’s combative working class youth in Govan to his role in ushering in the debt-laden Glazer era, award-winning journalist Patrick Barclay has been pitch-side and spoken to all those who know Ferguson best: fellow managers, former players, colleagues and commentators. Barclay reveals Ferguson to be a relentless character whose ability to intimidate, control, cajole and encourage has driven his unparalleled success. In the pages of Football – Bloody Hell! the game’s biggest living legend is finally laid bare.

Reviews:

• Barclay has written a wonderful book. Football — Bloody Hell! captures the contradictions and battery-acid sourness of this complex personality just as eloquently as it elucidates his genius. ― Irish Independent

• Firm but fair. A book in which thoroughness of research, richness of detail and proper celebration of achievement are never allowed to occlude the author’s unsentimental view of his compatriot. — Richard Williams ― Guardian

Book of the Week ― Guardian

The Author, Patrick Barclay began his career in football writing with the Guardian in Manchester in the mid-1970s, a few years after Sir Matt Busby had relinquished management and joined the Manchester United board. Barclay became one of Sir Matt’s many acquaintances in the newspaper world and in 1994, having moved to the Observer by way of the Independent, attended the unforgettable match against Everton at Old Trafford that swiftly followed the great man’s death. In that year Barclay was voted Britain’s leading sports writer.

He later worked for the Sunday Telegraph, The Times and the Evening Standard in London before retiring from regular journalism at the end of his tenth European Championship in 2016. He covered nine World Cups. Barclay has written acclaimed biographies of Sir Matt’s successors Sir Alex Ferguson (Football – Bloody Hell!) and Jose Mourinho (Further Anatomy of a Winner) and is also the author of The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman.