Giles Metcalfe makes his GNG columnist debut with a look at The Soccer Tribe…

There has been a plethora of books about football, but one book stands out in the limited academic (football) field of the psychological, sociological and anthropological study of the game of football and the humble fan – Desmond Morris’ The Soccer Tribe (Jonathan Cape, 1981).

Now out of print, I was lucky enough to pick up a hardback copy for a couple of quid from the Oxfam book shop in Nottingham about 10 years ago. Although a very dated read these days, written long before Hillsborough and Euro 96 with the resultant advent of family-friendly stadiums and gentrification of the sport, it really is an interesting book, both interms of the written content and the excellent images of football days gone by inside it.

Sammy Nelson of Arsenal commits a ‘Tribal Taboo’

The premise was…

Did you ever get sent a Christmas Card from your club? Send them in to us…

Did you ever get sent a Christmas Card from your club? Send them in to us…

Does anyone know what this fearful looking blighter is?

And can you tell us what part it played in our game in the late 1980s?

These were associated with several clubs, but this one comes from one in particular, so extra points if you can name them.

One of the few things we don’t want to bring back…

The answer can be found in ‘The Lost World of Football’ which you can buy HERE and in Waterstones and WH Smiths. 

We asked you to name your favourite ever football shirt to be in the hat for a grand prize of a copy of our latest book: ‘Shirt Tales & Short Stories.’…

This is what you chose – scroll down to find the winner, picked out at random from the big blue and white ‘Got, Not Got’ bobble hat.

“My favourite kit has to be the one as featured on the cover of your new book, Ipswich’s 1984-86 shirt based on France’s Euro 84 shirt.  For some reason though, it didn’t make Gleghorn and Brennan play like Platini and Giresse…”
John O’Leary
“My fave shirt is Denmark’s 1986 away shirt by Hummel, the reason is that it started my addiction to football shirts, just a fantastic timeless design…”
Gavin Hope

‘Tis almost the season of stocking fillers and Secret Santas, so to kick of the preparations here’s our Strictly Impartial Book of the Month Club: guaranteed no celeb player biogs here!

As the definitive story of the genius concept/trainwreck of the North American Soccer League, Ian Plenderleith’s Rock ‘n Roll Soccer is obsessively detailed, hilarious and subtly mindblowing – a revolutionary revision of history based entirely on original research and interviews with a litany of movers, shakers and ex-players.

This is obviously one of the best football books for years, moving way beyond the standard jokey cliches of the NASL – the fat old pros in cowboy-fringed shirts, the rule-tampering, the cheerleaders – to reveal the nascent American league of the 70s and 80s as nothing less than a blueprint for our own ‘modern’ game.

That’s right: everything we sniggered about back then is now pushed into our cheery upturned…

Retro-football fans the nation over are receiving their latest ‘Got, Not Got’ titles through the post… 

“Arrived today! The latest books from @GotNotGot featuring lots of Rich’s Cov memorabilia.”

Facebook page: Those Were The Days AMF said: “More treasure, I love Fridays, brill.”

To get hold of a copy of ‘Got, Not Got: The Lost World of Coventry City’ and
‘Shirt Tales and Short Stories’ from Amazon click on the covers below…

The latest title in the ‘Got, Not Got’ series, on the subject of football kits, is now available on Amazon…

Join us on a trip through the golden age of football strips, in the days before kits were routinely changed every year and you had time to love them…

Click on the cover to order from Amazon…

It’s that time of year when the best football writers are acclaimed for their work. The Football Blogging Awards does a fantastic job in highlighting and rewarding those who write, not for money or recognition but because they enjoy writing about the sport they love. As the blogging world has grown so have this year’s awards. Prizes will be handed for 11 categories including, Best New Football Blog, Best Established Football Blog, Best Young Football Blog and Best Female Football Blog. However one award which has been dropped this year is the Best Male Football Blog.

Last year some people believe the Best Female Blog category to be sexist as it implies women aren’t capable of competing for a singular award. Others thought the categories shouldn’t be divided, however the fact that there was a category for both men and women meant that both genders were positively recognised, and neither…