Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager - Hardcover

Calvin, Michael

3.81

838 ratings by Goodreads

9781780893273: Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780893272 ISBN 13: 9781780893273

Publisher: Century, 2015

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This is a book about football managers, live and uncut.
A man punches the wall in a strategic show of anger. Another complains he has become a stranger to those he loves. A third relies on "my three a day: coffee, Nurofen and a bottle of wine." Yet another admits he is an oddity, who would prefer to be working in cricket. A fifth describes his professional life as "a circus". These are football managers, live and uncut. Arsene Wenger likens the job to "living on a volcano: any day may be your last". He speaks with the authority of being the longest serving manager in the English game, having been at Arsenal for 17 years. The average lifespan of a Football League manager is 17 months. Fifty three managers, across all four Divisions, were sacked, or resigned, in the 2012-13 season. There were fifty seven managerial changes in the 2013-14 season. What makes these men tick? They are familiar figures, who rarely offer anything more than a glimpse into their personal and professional lives. What shapes them? How and why do they do their job? Award-winning writer Michael Calvin provides the answers.
Insecurity is a unifying factor, but managers at different levels face different sets of problems. Depending on their status, they are dealing with multi-millionaires, or mortgage slaves. Living on the Volcano charts the progress of more than 20 managers, in different circumstances and in different phases of their career. Some, like Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez, are at the peak of their profession. Others, like Chris Hughton, Brian McDermott and Gary Waddock, have been sacked, and are seeking a way back into the game. They offer a unique insight into a trade which is prone to superficial judgement and savage swings in fortune. Management requires ruthlessness and empathy, idealism and cunning. Stories overlap, experiences intermingle, and myths are exposed.

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About the Author:

MICHAEL CALVIN is one of the UK's most acclaimed sports writers. He was named Sports writer of the Year for his despatches as a crew member in a round the world yacht race and has twice been named Sports Reporter of the Year. He is currently chief sports writer with the Independent on Sunday. His last book, The Nowhere Men, won the Times Sports Book of the Year prize in 2014. Proud, his collaboration with former Wales and British Lions rugby captain Gareth Thomas, was named Autobiography of the Year in the Cross Pens British Sports Book Awards in 2015.

Review:

"The honesty in Living on the Volcano suggests that in an era of anodyne press conferences where so many managers speak a lot while saying little, giving fans an occasional glimpse of these feelings might be no bad thing" * The Guardian * "an illuminating new book...vivid journey on what it is really is to be a football manager" * Independent * "Arguably the greatest asset of Michael Calvin's previous, award-winning book The Nowhere Men was its human insight into a shadowy, under-appreciated world. The trials and tribulations of scouting were vividly portrayed through interviews with figures unaccustomed to the limelight... What Living on the Volcano does so brilliantly, is pick up the recurring threads. The `band of brothers' mentality that emerges is built on a mutual world of uncertainty, frustration, and `recurrent rejection and renewal'. Each chapter is cleverly connected to the next to reflect the fluid nature of the managerial merry-go-round... As a series of individual portraits, Living on the Volcano may seem like a book to dip in and out of. However, in doing so, there's a danger of missing the power of the overall narrative. Bookended by former Torquay manager Martin Ling's emotional story, this is a book about people and what it takes to do their intoxicating and exhausting job. Just as with The Nowhere Men, Calvin gets to the personal core of an impersonal industry" * Of Pitch and Page * "Brilliant stuff" * FourFourTwo Magazine * "an eye-raising insight into the realities of life in the dugout" * The Times * "Calvin's book takes us into many enthralling areas. It is especially strong on the nuts and bolts of ambition. And how ambition often sits uneasily alongside dreams... superb" * Irish Examiner * "a remarkable insight into the often hopelessly neurotic world of those in charge of a professional football dressing-room... The book conveys a fragile side of management most often kept obscured. Its real beauty is that it deals with people, not caricatures" * Irish Independent * "the narrative of Ling's decline forms a vivid part of the superb new book which seeks to understand, like never before, the interior mind and challenges of a football manager. Mike Calvin's Living on the Volcano reaches way beyond the standard press conference propaganda" * Independent * " a remarkable insight into what makes these men [football managers] tick, or in some cases, tic. Stress, insomnia, paranoia, depression with a dash of ego, a dollop of insecurity and there you have it ... one volatile cocktail. Calvin is an exquisite writer but he is also a "proper" journalist. If a manager wants to keep talking, thus revealing far more than he perhaps intended, Calvin sits back and allow the dictaphone to take the strain then lets the quotes run." * Sports Journalist Association * "I am quite sure that football fans would be more patient and have a better understanding of the problems and pressures that managers face every day if they took the time to read Mike Calvin's fascinating and illuminating new book" * BFC Talk * "The book's greatest achievement is in making managers look human - people just like you, your father, your son or your husband. It is a melancholy book, about the death of dreams and idealism. But it is also uplifting, because it shows how difficult it is to extinguish a fiery spirit." * When Saturday Comes * "revealing and enjoyable... a memorable book" * Sunday Express * "a book you need to read if you want to understand football" * Soccer Issue * "For any football fan with the belief that football isn't quite as simple as the average fan on the street believes this is a fascinating read, and if your football role is on the other side of the touchline or on the training pitch, this book gives an insight rarely available." * Each Game As It Comes * "The brilliance of Calvin's book is to reveal that managers, whether vilified or revered, have a vulnerable side. They might have a particularly thick skin, but they're fragile and fallible too. This book will leave you with a much greater appreciation for the work they do. Behind the team-talks, the press-conference meltdowns, the club statements and departures by mutual consent, there are complex characters working in an incredibly pressurised, often hostile environment. Managers are more than scapegoats or miracle workers - this heartening, harrowing book gives them a human face." * Sport Magazine *

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