On the Brink: A Journey Through English Football's North West

by Simon Hughes

As the days became shorter and the nights darker, Simon Hughes began a journey through the country’s most successful football region during the winter of the 2016/17 English season. Starting in Carlisle and heading south, Hughes went through Barrow, Morecambe and towards the Fylde coast. He trekked inland – to Preston, to Burnley, to Accrington. From Southport, he moved into deepest Merseyside and then to Cheshire, Greater Manchester and inner-city Manchester itself. From the Premier League to Sunday League, Hughes met the individuals shaping the game; those able to explain how and why trends and moods are shifting. Featuring interviews with Jürgen Klopp, Sean Dyche, Gary Neville and many other managers, players, owners, chairmen, directors and politicians, On the Brink studies the modern state of the North West’s professional clubs. Part social examination, part travelogue, Hughes rediscovers and laces together some of the personalities and moments that have helped define football history.

Genres: Football, Sports, Nonfiction, Soccer

407 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2017

About the author

Simon Peter Hughes is an English cricketer and journalist. He is the son of the actor Peter Hughes, and the brother of historian Bettany Hughes.


Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Matt Roylance]

This book is absolutely fascinating. It takes in every single facet of football in England’s North West, providing something of a cultural history as well as a critical analysis of the modern game.
The variety of formats in each chapter makes this very easy to read, and I particularly enjoyed the chapters that focused on in-depth interviews with particular individuals, the chapters with Tranmere Rovers chairman Mark Palios & Accrington Stanley manger John Coleman spring to mind.
Overall an excellent read, and I would say required reading for anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of modern football.

[Benny]

Hughes let's us travel through the heartland of English football. The North West. From the constantly above their weight punching Accrington Stanleys and Morecambe over the crime that's taking place at Blackpool, an Ukip supporter at Fylde to the super-rich at City, United and Liverpool. And with all the football within this 300+ pages observation, it more tells us a lot about modern day Britain with all it's lost identity and obvious disparity.

[Corey]

Great book going through various teams in Northwest England. As an American, unfamiliar with teams outside of the Premier League, there were many chapters about places that I had never heard of, but were still interesting. I loved the chapters with Dyche, Klopp, and Neville. The author Simon Hughes had coffee with my brother and me when we were in Liverpool so he gets 5 stars out of principle.

[Cristobal]

Part travelogue, part social commentary this book goes into the rough and tumble English northwest. Similar in theme to “Welcome to Wrexham” but in a much more raw vein. It doesn’t have the celebrity angle but it makes up for that by getting deeper into the struggle of semi amateur sport and how global business is leaving it by the wayside.

[Rob]

This book is reviewed for The Two Unfortunates football blog here.

[Kevin Holland]

Great to read about football in the north west, it's interesting when you have football teams that are at different levels and some have been through good and bad periods.

[Oliver Weston]

Super interesting, but a slow read for me. Each chapter focuses on a different club with a different insight into how the town and politics of the area affects the clubs and vice versa.