Bøger af Greville Waterman

31,449 days. After last winning promotion to the First Division in 1935, it took Brentford 31,449 days to retake their position in the top tier of English football, when they hosted Arsenal on a balmy night in August 2021 and surprised a worldwide audience of more than a billion fans with a famous victory.But would the stunning opening night triumph prove to be a false dawn? How would the Bees - Just a Bus Stop in Hounslow - cope with the challenge of the Premier League where they would face clubs whose resources, squad depth, and quality dwarfed their own? Could a team that began the season without a single player who had started a Premier League match compete on a level playing field? Would Brentford's revolutionary methods - under charismatic manager Thomas Frank - eye-pleasing play, and tactical nous be enough to ensure Premier League survival?Written with the full co-operation of the club and including exclusive interviews with players and officials, Just a Bus Stop in Hounslow follows Brentford's debut season at home - in their beautiful Brentford Community Stadium - and away, as they took on the 2021/22 season.Detailing matches, rumours, signings and departures - including the arrival and impact of Christian Eriksen - and offering behind-the-scenes information plus historical insights, author Greville Waterman paints a fascinating picture of a club with an indelible bond, connection, and sense of unity with its supporters and local community.Just a Bus Stop in Hounslow? Absolutely not!

Written with the full co-operation of the club and including exclusive interviews with players and officials, 'Just a Bus Stop in Hounslow' follows Brentford FC's debut season in the Premier League.

OOH-AAH BOB BOOKAH...And so begins one of the most iconic chants in football. A chant for a cult hero who was renowned for his hard work, tenacity, honesty, and graciousness. A chant for a player who left everything on the pitch.It covers the challenges of dealing with fans' expectations, a long-term chronic injury that threatened to end his career, and how he dealt with the intrigue and machinations of football management.Bob worked hard, gave his all, played wherever he was asked without complaint, wore every shirt (apart from the goalkeeper's), and was rewarded by playing or coaching in all four divisions of the Football League. Indeed, in a rollercoaster career that spanned almost five decades, Bob was a crucial part of teams - as either a player or coach - that celebrated six promotions and suffered three relegations. Perhaps most importantly, nobody who has ever met Bob has a bad word to say about him. He is still revered at all three clubs he was associated with and remains a particular hero at Sheffield United.With contributions from former teammates, managers, and friends, the real Bob Booker is revealed in all his complexities. It is the kind, friendly, and humorous Bob that we all expected to find but also one who demonstrated grit, determination, courage, inner strength, guile and perseverance to forge such a long and successful career for himself.

The 2014/15 season saw newly-promoted Brentford FC reach the Championship playoffs and come within a whisker of the Premier League. However, it was also a season that ended in controversy with highly successful Manager Mark Warburton leaving the club and the club's management structure being remodelled to mix traditional scouting tools with mathematical models and statistics.Brentford were subjected to a stream of scorn and criticism from a football world which did not understand what was happening at the club. Everyone outside the club waited for Brentford to fall flat on their face.What would happen over the 2015/16 season? Would the Bees maintain their progress and success, would they fall into mediocrity, or would they return to Division One? The answer was a rollercoaster season with initial lows, an impressive recovery, more lows and - finally - a highly impressive spurt which saw them finish in a creditable ninth place in the Championship. A remarkable outcome to a year in the toughest and most remorseless football league in Europe, and one where the Bees regularly came up against teams that dwarfed them in terms of tradition, income and resources.In "Growing Pains", long-established supporter, blogger and author Greville Waterman continues the tale begun in "Ahead Of The Game". Mixing articles from his acclaimed blog, BFC Talk, with extensive new content, Greville offers an insightful, entertaining and fascinating journey into Brentford's year.Incorporating the tale of three Head Coaches, never-ending injuries, the embarrassment of Pitchgate, selling star players due to Financial Fair Play, and becoming the top-ranked London club outside the Premier League, this book is essential reading for all Brentford fans. It includes guest contributions from insiders and experts such as Matthew Benham, Cliff Crown, Phil Giles, Phil Parry, Billy Reeves, Tom Moore and Jim Levack.The 2015/16 season might well have seen some "Growing Pains" but the future for the club is bright and exciting.I would highly recommend Greville Waterman's excellent new book Growing Pains to every Brentford supporter. He has written wisely and entertainingly on pretty much everything that happened on and off the field at the club last season, good and bad alike. Matthew Benham

In May 2014, Brentford FC were promoted to the Football League Championship. It was only their second season at such a level, in sixty years, and many asked how the newcomers would cope against the so-called massive clubs Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City and Leeds United. Would they survive? Would they thrive? Or, as many expected, would they fall short and crash back to Division One at the first time of asking?The 2014/15 season answered these questions in emphatic style with Little Old Brentford - the perennial underachievers - displaying a vibrant brand of positive, attacking football that took the Division by storm and rocketed the Bees into the playoff places. Under the visionary ownership of Matthew Benham and the ultimate man-manager, Mark Warburton, the club had created a new and different way of doing things that piqued the interest of the Football World. Rather than look downwards, the disbelieving but delirious Brentford supporters began to harbour dreams of reaching the Promised Land of the Premier League.In Ahead Of The Game, long-established supporter and blogger, Greville Waterman, puts together selected articles from his blog, alongside new content, to detail Brentford's journey. He offers a fascinating and incredible inside story of how this unfancied team defied expectations, overcame the unforeseen break-up of the successful partnership between Benham and Warburton, did the double over Fulham, and came within a whisker of promotion.This book is a must-read for any Brentford fan and includes guest contributions from Cliff Crown, Richard Lee, Billy Reeves and Jim Levack. Whatever the future holds, it is clear that The Bees are truly Ahead Of The Game and the best is yet to come!"Greville has written an excellent and perceptive overview of everything that happened at the club during this incredible season. I loved it and I know you will too!" Matthew Benham