State of Play
  • Published: 15 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784756123
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $32.99
Categories:

State of Play

Under the Skin of the Modern Game

Formats & editions
EBook
9 Aug 2018
Paperback
15 Mar 2019
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Award-winning author of The Nowhere Men, Living on the Volcano and No Hunger in Paradise returns with his magnum opus on the state of modern football

'For those of you missing your football fix, anything by Michael Calvin is worth a read – the hugely respected sports journalist writes eloquently about the modern game in page turner State of Play.'
DAILY MIRROR
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Award-winning author of The Nowhere Men, Living on the Volcano and No Hunger in Paradise returns with his magnum opus on the state of modern football

First he revealed the extraordinary lives of football scouts in The Nowhere Men.

Next he unearthed the pressures on football managers in Living on the Volcano.

Then he chronicled the hardships of young players striving to make it in No Hunger in Paradise.


Now in State of Play, in what marks the pinnacle of a career investigating the human stories of football, award-winning writer Michael Calvin turns his eye to the biggest story of all - the game itself.


From mental health to money, concussion to Champions league, fan-owners to oligarchs, women's football to world cups, Calvin gets under the skin of the beautiful game, and reveals why it is truly the game of our lives.


Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with leading figures around the world, from Arsene Wenger to Steven Gerrard, Calvin reveals the winners, the losers, the politics, the pleasure, the hope, and the despair of the world's most popular sport.
  • Published: 15 March 2019
  • ISBN: 9781784756123
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $32.99
Categories:

About the author

Michael Calvin

Michael Calvin is one of the UK’s most accomplished sportswriters, having worked in more than eighty countries. He has covered every major sporting event, including seven summer Olympic Games and six World Cup finals. He was named Sports Writer of the Year for his despatches as a crew member in a round-the-world yacht race and has twice been named Sports Reporter of the Year.


His book, The Nowhere Men, a study of football scouts, won The Times Sports Book of the Year prize in 2014. He became the first author to receive the award in successive years, when Proud, his collaboration with former Wales and British Lions rugby captain Gareth Thomas, was named Sports Book of the Year in 2015.


In the same year Living On The Volcano, which exposed the pressures on managers, was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize. No Nonsense, his collaboration with Joey Barton, was named Autobiography of the Year in the 2017 British Sports Book awards.


No Hunger In Paradise, an insight into youth football that spawned a widely-praised BT Sport documentary, was a Sunday Times bestseller. State of Play, a study of the morality and social impact of modern football, was longlisted for the 2018 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.


He has been working closely with Thomas Bjorn on Mind Game to capture the unique nature of golf, and the principles and philosophies of the world’s best players.

Michael Calvin is an award-winning writer and Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books have been hailed for their insight and influence. He has collaborated with such celebrated sportsmen as Sir Alastair Cook, Dylan Hartley and Gareth Thomas, and is the only writer to win the British sports book of the year award in successive years.

Also by Michael Calvin

The Survivor
Mind Game
Family
No Hunger In Paradise
Living on the Volcano
The Nowhere Men
See all

Praise for State of Play

One of the issues Calvin explores in his most recent book State of Play is the need for more emotionally intelligent managers and coaches in football, as epitomised by England manager Gareth Southgate.

CNN Sport

As enthralling and insightful as any fans of Mike’s previous books would expect

Matt Williams, Simon Mayo’s Books of the Year Podcast

A grandstand view of the beautiful game . . . Calvin draws on his own frontline reporting as well as interviews with leading football figures to present an exhaustive portrait of the modern game.

Radio Times

Michael Calvin has done the game a massive service with this broad ranging, hard-hitting and exceptionally well researched book and he has also written it in a beautiful, lucid prose style.

Greville Waterman Review

The most vivid, revealing insight into contemporary British football that you are ever likely to read.

Tottenham on My Mind, blog

Very few books about football are truly essential, but this is now one of them.

TIFO

State Of Play is Mike Calvin’s finest work to date.

Phil Catchpole, BBC Sport commentator

Essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in football

Barry Glendenning, Guardian

Heartbreaking and funny, State Of Play is essential reading on many burning issues in the modern game.

FourFourTwo

Thought-provoking and well-wrought.

The Sunday Times

For those of you missing your football fix, anything by Michael Calvin is worth a read – the hugely respected sports journalist writes eloquently about the modern game in page turner State of Play

DAILY MIRROR

Praise for No Hunger In Paradise: Another landmark work from Mike Calvin, who has taken us beyond the surface of football to show its true workings. Ground-breaking reportage with a heart and a conscience. A service to the game

Paul Hayward, Telegraph

Praise for The Nowhere Men: A magnificent book, full of extraordinary characters and beautifully told

Guardian

Praise for Living on the Volcano: An eye-raising insight into the realities of life in the dugout

The Times, Books of the Year