Fifty Defining Fixtures

ARSÈNE WENGER, French football manager and former player, has managed Arsenal since 1996, and has become the club's longest-serving and most successful manager. Wenger has contributed to the revolution of football in England, introducing several changes in training and the diet of players. Under his tenure, Arsenal have completed two League and FA Cup doubles, spent the 2003/04 League season undefeated, and reached the Champions League final in 2006. Season 2013/14 culminated in an FA Cup win, despite doubts over Wenger's contract being renewed. In 2014, 'Le Professeur' oversaw his 1,000th game in charge of Arsenal, and was rewarded with a new three-year contract as manager. In Arsène Wenger: Fifty Defining Fixtures, journalist Layth Yousif takes a look at the great man's career as manager, and tracks those games that have defined one of the most successful managers of all time.

SIR ALEX FERGUSON is one of the most admired and respected managers in the history of the beautiful game. Sir Alex Ferguson: Fifty Defining Fixtures presents a completely new perspective on the longest-serving manager of Manchester United. Covering his complete career as a player and a manager, this book highlights the games that projected the boy from the Glasgow district of Govan to the worldwide phenomenon that was Manchester United. From his Scottish Football League debut with the amateurs of Queens Park at Stranraer to his final game as manager of Manchester United at West Bromwich Albion, this fascinating book recaptures the many highs, and also a few lows, of a memorable and trophy-strewn career. It is the Sir Alex Ferguson story with a difference: fifty fixtures that defined the career of an ordinary footballer, who went on to become the most successful British manager ever.

Fifty matches that shaped the career of one of football's greatest managers... JOSÉ MOURINHO is regarded by some to be the world's best manager and one of the greatest of all time. Starting out as a player in the Portuguese Second Division, he later impressed with successful managerial periods at Benfica and Uniao de Leiria. As head coach to Porto, he won the Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and UEFA Cup in 2003. Moving to Chelsea the following year, they won the Premier League title with a record 95 points and the League Cup in his first season. In 2013, after several years with Serie A club Internazionale, Mourinho returned to Chelsea, taking the club to third in the Premier League in season 2013/14.

Fifty matches that shaped the career of one of football's greatest entertainers... Thierry Henry has come a long way since he was first spotted playing for local sides in the Paris suburb of Les Ulis where he grew up. Via Monaco, Turin, London, Barcelona and New York, he has reached the very pinnacle of his sport, winning every major trophy at both club and international level along with a glittering array of personal accolades. That rare combination of a great goalscorer and a scorer of great goals, Henry has enthralled football fans everywhere with his mesmeric talent during a twenty-plus-year career. This book is a celebration of fifty individual games, chosen by the author, that helped make his career so special.

Controversial, outspoken and a football genius, Brian Clough is often described as the best manager England never had. After setting a superb goalscoring record at Middlesbrough and Sunderland, a devastating injury in icy conditions effectively ended his playing career. But a new chapter in the Clough story was about to unfold. With an unmatched ability to motivate players, the master manager transformed two unfashionable clubs and made them world class, playing stylish football and with a respect for authority. Not only did he guide Derby County and Nottingham Forest to the pinnacle of the domestic game, he also went on to lead the Reds to two successive European Cups. Such success from lowly beginnings is unlikely to be seen again. But the long journey from Middlesbrough marksman to European glory was far from smooth, with a rocky forty-four days at Leeds along the way. Using archive reports and analysis, Brian Clough Fifty Defining Fixtures takes a unique look at some of the key matches that tell the story of the most charismatic figure the game has ever known.

Alan Shearer OBE (born 13 August 1970) is an English footballer whose prowess saw him score a hat-trick in his professional debut in 1988 while playing for Southhampton. Leaving Southhampton in 1992, Shearer went on to play as a striker for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, where he stayed until the end of his career in 2006. Widely regarded as one of the world's best strikers, his goalscoring talent saw him bcome both Newcastle's and the Premier League's top goalscorer in the 1995/96 season. During his career as a player, he captained England in 1996 and Newcastle from 1999 and scored a massive 283 league goals, of which 260 were in the Premier League, and a recored eleven Premier League hat-tricks. Named Football Writers' Association Player of the Year in 1994 and the PFA Player of the Year in 1995, Shearer is one of the greatest footballers England has produced. In Alan Shearer: Fifty Defining Fixtures, Tony Mathews oulines why Alan Shearer deserves to be recognised as a legend of the beautiful game.