Football - Bloody Hell!

The Biography of Alex Ferguson

Patrick Barclay

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Patrick Barclay's bestselling biography of Sir Alex Ferguson - one of the greatest football managers of all time.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS

Sir Alex Ferguson is the most controversial and compelling figure in football. For many he ranks as the greatest manager of all time. He is certainly the most successful.

It's been more than ten years since Ferguson's Manchester United triumphed over Bayern Munich in the dying seconds of the Champions League final. Since then he has presided over the rise and fall and rise again of José Mourinho; 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. Ferguson 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.

Throughout, 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. The result is Football - Bloody Hell!: the definitive work on the game's greatest living legend.

Published: 1 December 2010
ISBN: 9781407084718
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 544

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Biography

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About the author

Patrick Barclay

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.

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Praise for Football - Bloody Hell!

Patrick Barclay traces the arc of the Scot's Govan youth to his Old Trafford supremacy with insight, sensitivity and poise
Sports Book of the Year, Sunday Telegraph

Thorough of research, rich of detail
Book of the Week, Richard Williams, Guardian

Stylishly written, admirably well-researched
Scotsman

Wonderful. Captures the contradictions of this complex personality as eloquently as it elucidates his genius
Irish Independent

Barclay tells his story and in doing so describes the way the game has changed over the years. We see the famous temper in action, but also a more reflective, generous side.
Colin Waters, Glasgow Herald