Why England Lose and Other Curious Phenomena Explained

By Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski

Football fans are always wary of statistics. How often is some obscure stat brought forth into the sunlight to prove a player everyone knows to be useless is actually very, very good. So, it is right to be just a little suspicious of a book which uses stats and analysis to seemingly explain all that has happened and will happen in the modern game. Turkey to become footballing giants? Iraq even? It’s possible that you’ll be convinced they can be by the time you’ve read this.

It isn’t all about money, and this book does go some way to proving that. In fact, what success in football is about must surely be using the available data in a smarter way. The book is written from an economic viewpoint, but is still very readable and critics have even gone as far as to say it should be required reading for chief executives of every single club. Being better informed leads to better decisions, or at least it should do. To understand just why many parts of the modern game are as they are and just how much difference a good over a bad manager can make, this book is highly recommended.