Extra Time Beckons, Penalties Loom – How to use (and abuse) the language of football

As the self-appointed world expert on the subject, author Adam Hurrey sets off to define the definitive rules of the language of football.

He attempts to answer the big questions such as: is it acceptable to say a player is 'breaking their silence' (it's complicated), can headers can be 'lashed' (anatomically impossible), whether a penalty shootout could ever be described as 'late drama' (truly abhorrent), how many games constitute a 'bumper' day of Premier League action (minimum of eight) and just how big a deficit constitutes 'a mountain to climb' (certainly not Liverpool going 1-0 down at home to Wolves in the third minute, Sky Sports).

Along the way, Hurrey examines some case studies of how the football media has reached saturation point – the transfer rumour mill, the futile art of big-match previewing, the rise of (and backlash against) football jargon – and how its language has evolved to keep the machine going. Published in 2024.

Long-listed for ‘The William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2024'

Size: 159mm x 241mm – 240 pages.