Description
Shortlisted for Football Book of the Year Sports Book Awards
Gripping Daily Mail
Moving chronicles two remarkable lives Guardian
Razorsharp tactical analysis Irish Independent
Wilson is a fine nuanced writer Times Literary Supplement
The story of Jack and Bobby Charlton and a family that characterised English football for decades
In later life Jack and Bobby didnt get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentiethcentury English football the tensions between flair and industry between individuality and the collective between right and left between middle and workingclasses between exile and home
Jack was open charismatic selfish and pigheaded Bobby was guarded shy polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness They were very different footballers Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other
Both enjoyed great success as players Jack won a league a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds Bobby won a league title survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich and then at enormous emotional cost won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup Together for England they won the World Cup
Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously unimagined heights Both were financially very successful but Jack remained staunchly leftwing while Bobby tended to conservatism In the end Jack returned to Northumberland Bobby remained in the NorthWest
Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation
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