The Mavericks: English Football When Flair Wore Flares

Proud individuals amid an increasingly corporate environment, their invention and artistry were matched only by a disdain for authority and convention. Their belief in football as performance art, as showbiz, gave the game a boost, and elevated them to cult status. During their heyday, nevertheless, they were largely ignored by a succession of England managers, none of whom were able to assemble a side competent enough to qualify for the World Cup finals. Against a backdrop of increasing violence on the field and terraces alike, of battles between players and the Establishment, this book – now featuring a new Foreword and Postscript – examines an anomaly at the heart of English culture, one that symbolised the death of post-Sixties optimism, the end of innocence.