Football Clichés

“Delightfully offbeat.”
-Ross Atkin, The Christian Science Monitor

“Great fun for fans.”
-Keir Graff, Booklist

“A must-have … This book, intelligent and sharp but still affectionate, is a spiritual heir to the best of the printed fanzines, to Danny Baker and Danny Kelly’s gleeful radio shows, to the irreverent delight in the game’s quirks celebrated by websites such as Football365.”
-The Telegraph (UK)

“Book of the Week. This affectionate dissection of the game’s well-worn phrases mildly mocks a few of the more tired ones, for instance ‘slide rule pass’ – who uses a slide rule these days? – but points out that new ones are still being coined; apparently, Jose Mourinho first used the now-ubiquitous ‘parking the bus’ as recently as 2004. As for TV pundits, what, according to Alan Hansen, do defenders fear most? All together now: ‘pace’, be it searing, blistering, lightning, explosive, in abundance, bags of, to burn, genuine and on occasion even deceptive. For me, this is a top, top effort by the boy Hurrey, and at the end of the day you can’t say fairer than that.”
-The Independent (UK)

“An entertaining, hilarious dissection of the language of football, complete with diagrams and illustrations. Open your chequebook for a last-ditch transfer swoop.”
-Sport Magazine (UK)

“An ideal Christmas gift for anyone who enjoys reading about or watching football.”
-Sport English (UK)

“Adam Hurrey’s Football Clichés takes an often extremely funny look at football’s peculiar language.”    -www.sportsbookofthemonth.com