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Those Feet : A Sensual History of English Football
Is Victorian masturbation anxiety the root cause of England's many World Cup failures? What links Roy Keane to a soldier who never lived but died in the Charge of the Light Brigade? And how did thick mud and wet leather shape the contours of the English soul? In this playful and highly original look at English football, David Winner, author of the acclaimed Brilliant Orange, journeys to the heart of Englishness itself, and shines a peculiar light on the true nature of a rapidly-changing game which was never really meant to be beautiful.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 16, 2019
bir kere kapak berbat. dikkatli bakın, anlarsınız.
2. isim aşırı yanıltıcı. yani 'kök' kelimesini okuyunca, ilk dönemleri anlarsın, nasıl çıktı falan. hayır, bunlar üstüne değil kitap tam olarak. alt başlık 'ingiliz futbolunun yakın tarihi'. hayır, o da yok? kitabın orijinal adı da bambaşka zaten.
3. ingiliz futboluyla alakanız varsa --türkseniz ve futbolla ilgiliyseniz, vardır-- okuyun. ama aynı zamanda da okumayın. çünkü -eğer bu işler umrunuzdaysa-- kafanızdaki bazı şeyleri yerinden sarsabilir. yani bir açıdan bu kitap, futbol kitabından daha çok, sosyoloji kitabı gibi bir şey. bizde işler çok farklı, çok dağınık evet. ama bu kitabın bir benzerini bizim futbol dünyamız için okumak isterdim. peki bunu yazacak vatandaş var mı ülkede? ben tanımıyorum. umarım vardır.
2. isim aşırı yanıltıcı. yani 'kök' kelimesini okuyunca, ilk dönemleri anlarsın, nasıl çıktı falan. hayır, bunlar üstüne değil kitap tam olarak. alt başlık 'ingiliz futbolunun yakın tarihi'. hayır, o da yok? kitabın orijinal adı da bambaşka zaten.
3. ingiliz futboluyla alakanız varsa --türkseniz ve futbolla ilgiliyseniz, vardır-- okuyun. ama aynı zamanda da okumayın. çünkü -eğer bu işler umrunuzdaysa-- kafanızdaki bazı şeyleri yerinden sarsabilir. yani bir açıdan bu kitap, futbol kitabından daha çok, sosyoloji kitabı gibi bir şey. bizde işler çok farklı, çok dağınık evet. ama bu kitabın bir benzerini bizim futbol dünyamız için okumak isterdim. peki bunu yazacak vatandaş var mı ülkede? ben tanımıyorum. umarım vardır.
April 19, 2020
sadece futbol değil bir nevi tarih kitabı.
dolu yazım hatası var ve those feet e kökler diye ad koymakta salakça.
dolu yazım hatası var ve those feet e kökler diye ad koymakta salakça.
May 29, 2021
Who wrote the book?
David Winner. Author of the brilliant, Brilliant Orange, still my favorite football book. He also worked with Dennis Bergkamp on the outstanding Stillness and Speed and translated Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff.
He can be found on Twitter @dwinnera
What’s it about?
The simple answer is that in Those Feet Winner has attempted to do for English football, what he did for Dutch. It takes its name from the line on the William Blake poem which was set to music as the hymn Jerusalem and later covered by the renowned Fat Les ahead of Euro 2000
‘And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green’
Any readers of Brilliant Orange will know to expect an unorthodox approach to football history and Those Feet is no different. As Winner states in the introduction, ‘(r)reflecting on the essential Englishness of English football too to deeper, more primal themes. Sex and memory. Grace and violence. Laughter and war. Manliness. History.’ All are covered. Winner’s aim is to explain why English football is characterized by a direct approach, of bravery and fair play.
What are the best bits?
The subtitle of the book is ‘A Sensual History of English Football’ and Winner devotes the opening of the book to the rise of football in the English Private Schools as an antidote to the (insert name’ of Masturbation. The research is extensive and it is clear that finding means to keep adolescent boys active was certainly a genesis in the formation of organized sport. However, I do feel that the book over-plays this and that what might have been a humorous additional detail extends to an entire chapter.
‘Reeping the Whirlwind’ on the Charles Reep influence and England’s ‘Military Mentality to football’ will be familiar to readers of Inverting the Pyramid, but Winner’s book was written first. In the ‘The Phantom Limb’ chapter Winner explores the self-loathing streak the English have, their obsession with Empire and World War 2, and how that is reflected in their media, their fans, and their on-the-field play.
Winner delves into the English pre-disposition for nostalgia, just as prevalent in football, an element of the ‘Heritage Industry’ and there’s an excellent chapter on English fan culture, which still remains one of the game’s most revered, and the subsequent literature that grew up alongside this. There’s a nice interview with Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch) a seminal book but one which created a genre of self-deprecating fan writing, none of which lived up to the original. As Hornby states: “It’s just one joke: “it’s cold and we’re rubbish”.
Winner has a keen eye for cause and effect and in the ‘Cooling the Blood’ section he looks at how the climate has impacted the playing fields of England, and thus, the style of play most effective.
Final Word
English football and English culture is certainly an extensive topic and few have attempted it. Winner makes a fair fist of it and perhaps for the foreign reader, it would have the same effect on them as Brilliant Orange did on me, in learning about the Dutch. That being said, I feel like there are a number of topics missed in the book. Firstly, there is little mention of hooliganism, the England fan abroad, and historically far-right elements of that movement as well as the concept of Englishness versus Britishness. There is little on Race within the English game and the ascension of black players into the National team during the 80s.
I would have liked to have seen more distinct correlations made between Winner’s subject matter and the product on the field. There’s not a lot on the tactics of the English game, aside from the work of Reep, and given Winner’s other works, this is a topic he is capable of providing excellent commentary on. Lastly, the sources in this book ultimately let Winner down. In Brilliant Orange we have Johnny Rep, in Those Feet, we have an Italian agent I’ve never heard of.
That being said, there’s enough good stuff in here that showcases Winner at his best and he’s got plenty credit in the bank with me following Brilliant Orange. In many ways, it's the perfect tribute to England, capable of brilliance but also liable to get knocked out of a major tournament by Iceland. Quite simply, it’s an incredibly large couple of topics: English football and English history, and it would be impossible to create a definitive account in 400 pages. It may well be that there is no one had one unifying concept, that is the exploration of space, like in Brilliant Orange that connects English football, but Winner offers a number of lenses through which we can view the English game and he does it in an inquisitive and entertaining manner.
If this book was a team: England, World Cup 2010
David Winner. Author of the brilliant, Brilliant Orange, still my favorite football book. He also worked with Dennis Bergkamp on the outstanding Stillness and Speed and translated Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff.
He can be found on Twitter @dwinnera
What’s it about?
The simple answer is that in Those Feet Winner has attempted to do for English football, what he did for Dutch. It takes its name from the line on the William Blake poem which was set to music as the hymn Jerusalem and later covered by the renowned Fat Les ahead of Euro 2000
‘And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green’
Any readers of Brilliant Orange will know to expect an unorthodox approach to football history and Those Feet is no different. As Winner states in the introduction, ‘(r)reflecting on the essential Englishness of English football too to deeper, more primal themes. Sex and memory. Grace and violence. Laughter and war. Manliness. History.’ All are covered. Winner’s aim is to explain why English football is characterized by a direct approach, of bravery and fair play.
What are the best bits?
The subtitle of the book is ‘A Sensual History of English Football’ and Winner devotes the opening of the book to the rise of football in the English Private Schools as an antidote to the (insert name’ of Masturbation. The research is extensive and it is clear that finding means to keep adolescent boys active was certainly a genesis in the formation of organized sport. However, I do feel that the book over-plays this and that what might have been a humorous additional detail extends to an entire chapter.
‘Reeping the Whirlwind’ on the Charles Reep influence and England’s ‘Military Mentality to football’ will be familiar to readers of Inverting the Pyramid, but Winner’s book was written first. In the ‘The Phantom Limb’ chapter Winner explores the self-loathing streak the English have, their obsession with Empire and World War 2, and how that is reflected in their media, their fans, and their on-the-field play.
Winner delves into the English pre-disposition for nostalgia, just as prevalent in football, an element of the ‘Heritage Industry’ and there’s an excellent chapter on English fan culture, which still remains one of the game’s most revered, and the subsequent literature that grew up alongside this. There’s a nice interview with Fever Pitch author Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch) a seminal book but one which created a genre of self-deprecating fan writing, none of which lived up to the original. As Hornby states: “It’s just one joke: “it’s cold and we’re rubbish”.
Winner has a keen eye for cause and effect and in the ‘Cooling the Blood’ section he looks at how the climate has impacted the playing fields of England, and thus, the style of play most effective.
Final Word
English football and English culture is certainly an extensive topic and few have attempted it. Winner makes a fair fist of it and perhaps for the foreign reader, it would have the same effect on them as Brilliant Orange did on me, in learning about the Dutch. That being said, I feel like there are a number of topics missed in the book. Firstly, there is little mention of hooliganism, the England fan abroad, and historically far-right elements of that movement as well as the concept of Englishness versus Britishness. There is little on Race within the English game and the ascension of black players into the National team during the 80s.
I would have liked to have seen more distinct correlations made between Winner’s subject matter and the product on the field. There’s not a lot on the tactics of the English game, aside from the work of Reep, and given Winner’s other works, this is a topic he is capable of providing excellent commentary on. Lastly, the sources in this book ultimately let Winner down. In Brilliant Orange we have Johnny Rep, in Those Feet, we have an Italian agent I’ve never heard of.
That being said, there’s enough good stuff in here that showcases Winner at his best and he’s got plenty credit in the bank with me following Brilliant Orange. In many ways, it's the perfect tribute to England, capable of brilliance but also liable to get knocked out of a major tournament by Iceland. Quite simply, it’s an incredibly large couple of topics: English football and English history, and it would be impossible to create a definitive account in 400 pages. It may well be that there is no one had one unifying concept, that is the exploration of space, like in Brilliant Orange that connects English football, but Winner offers a number of lenses through which we can view the English game and he does it in an inquisitive and entertaining manner.
If this book was a team: England, World Cup 2010
August 13, 2019
It was difficult to tell what this book actually was. This was partly because the covers are keener to tell me that the author wrote Brilliant Orange, but mainly because this was a history that didn't stay chronological, nor necessarily English. It was more like a collection of essays or markedly different styles, with English football providing the loose theme, and this disrupted the flow rather than added variety.
It starts traditionally with a look at the origins of football, although it segues into the societal attitude towards masturbation, and then analyses fictional namesakes of Irish national Roy Keane to reveal how English society has changed over the years. This sounds wacky in abstract, but was quite boring to actually plough through.
These tangents were placed alongside discussions of playing styles and levels of jingoism, and there was just enough relevant content to keep me reading. Towards the end there were a few more short chapters on subjects like pitch conditions, which seemed more worthy of an article in When Saturday Comes due to their niche appeal, and finally looked at traditional forefathers of the game. I don't know why the games that predate football were put at the end, and I don't think it worked either.
Even writing the review hasn't helped me work out if I actually liked it. He interviewed a few interesting and different characters outside of football like Hornby and McGowan as well as academics, but Winner skimmed the surface on some elements of modern football, and dwelt in far too much detail on the older, more detached subjects, and didn't really try to link them at all. A study of Anglo-Italian relations also seemed pointless, Italy has never really been in the nation's consciousness in the same way as the US, France or Germany. The foreword from Rome probably explains it though, a scattergun book on Winner's pet interests rather than a coherent work.
It starts traditionally with a look at the origins of football, although it segues into the societal attitude towards masturbation, and then analyses fictional namesakes of Irish national Roy Keane to reveal how English society has changed over the years. This sounds wacky in abstract, but was quite boring to actually plough through.
These tangents were placed alongside discussions of playing styles and levels of jingoism, and there was just enough relevant content to keep me reading. Towards the end there were a few more short chapters on subjects like pitch conditions, which seemed more worthy of an article in When Saturday Comes due to their niche appeal, and finally looked at traditional forefathers of the game. I don't know why the games that predate football were put at the end, and I don't think it worked either.
Even writing the review hasn't helped me work out if I actually liked it. He interviewed a few interesting and different characters outside of football like Hornby and McGowan as well as academics, but Winner skimmed the surface on some elements of modern football, and dwelt in far too much detail on the older, more detached subjects, and didn't really try to link them at all. A study of Anglo-Italian relations also seemed pointless, Italy has never really been in the nation's consciousness in the same way as the US, France or Germany. The foreword from Rome probably explains it though, a scattergun book on Winner's pet interests rather than a coherent work.
December 3, 2020
3.5. Ughhh, it was nearly the perfect book! So interesting, and from such a fresh angle - studying the story of English football and its relationship with identity and history has been done in many a journal article, but not I think through pop culture, children's magazines, and accessible language. Although Winner seems to be quoting a lot from other publications he condenses it to something that's immensely readable and peppers it with interviews from people with fascinating insights.
And then we come to the chapter called the Italian Job, which is basically... a hyping up of Italian football? In a book about English football? This threw me entirely for a loop, and I can't say that I understood it at all. If anything I would have thought it'd be about the English obsession with Germany, or at least something more related beyond 'as English football got worse Italian football got better'.
The chapter or two after that was also strange, but upon reflection I did suddenly remember that the book was supposed to be a 'sensual history' of English football - perhaps it was because the book did such a good job of a cultural rather than sensual history that when it suddenly went back to 'oh, football is like sex' I was like 'whoa, what?' Probably if it were a stronger thread through the rest of the book it wouldn't be as head scratching.
It's definitely worth a read, and there's lots to learn from it! I just think that it could've been much better.
And then we come to the chapter called the Italian Job, which is basically... a hyping up of Italian football? In a book about English football? This threw me entirely for a loop, and I can't say that I understood it at all. If anything I would have thought it'd be about the English obsession with Germany, or at least something more related beyond 'as English football got worse Italian football got better'.
The chapter or two after that was also strange, but upon reflection I did suddenly remember that the book was supposed to be a 'sensual history' of English football - perhaps it was because the book did such a good job of a cultural rather than sensual history that when it suddenly went back to 'oh, football is like sex' I was like 'whoa, what?' Probably if it were a stronger thread through the rest of the book it wouldn't be as head scratching.
It's definitely worth a read, and there's lots to learn from it! I just think that it could've been much better.
October 21, 2019
Yazarın kitapta cevabını aradığı temel soru şu : Britanya'nın çamurlu topraklarından doğan futbolda nasıl olur da milli takım bazında İngiltere bu denli başarısız bir grafik çizer? David Winner bu sorunun cevabını taktiksel hatalarda değil özellikle İngiltere'nin 19.yyına odaklanarak irdelemekte.O dönemde açılan disiplinli ve İngiliz bencilliğini kırmaya çalışan okullar ve bu okullarda belli kişilerin verdiği eğitimler incelenmekte hatta öyle ki İngilizlerin bu bencil yapısına yol açtığı düşünülen masturbasyonun toplumda nasıl bir tabu ve nefret ögesi haline dönüştüğü futboun da aslında bu bireyciliği ve bencilliği kırmak için ortaya çıktığı verilen örneklerle analiz edilmekte.İngilizlerin nasıl geçmişe takılı kaldıkları ve bu durumun toplumun kolektif bilincinde ne gibi şeylere yol açtığını bunun futbola yansımalarını yazar çok iyi bir şekilde incelemiş.
June 30, 2023
For a non brit this history of football and the british game was a bit tedious with many references to early football mags and screaming newspaper headlines. I loved Brilliant Orange David Winners study of the Dutch footballing ethos but the British football mindset is built off the British character that won two world wars and one world cup but hasnt been much until it learned to change in the last ten years or so.
Less a pure football book than a sociological look at the development of football in the UK. Really enjoyed the Italian Job section though
Less a pure football book than a sociological look at the development of football in the UK. Really enjoyed the Italian Job section though
October 8, 2019
A bit dated , a couple of funny bits , otherwise very boring in places , and the last few chapters are confusing , Italy? .
September 1, 2021
İngiliz futbolunu sosyoloji katarak derinlemesine inceleyen etkileyici bir kitap
November 24, 2021
Clear history, especially good on the Victorian era, which brings us up to the recent present.
January 29, 2023
Ingiliz futbol tarihini viktoryan gecmisten anlatan ilginc bir kitap.
June 5, 2023
Starts very interesting but towards the middle it starts to seem like a gathering from anecdotes relating to English History. Instead of the history of boots, i'd prefer reading about the transformation of football clubs and premier league. Still, this book is an output of a beautifully conducted research and it is fun to read
April 13, 2022
This book is absolutely amazing.
June 25, 2014
Having watched yet another highly depressing England world cup defeat at the hands of silky skilled Continentals, I am tempted to throw my hands to the heavens and scream 'Why, oh Lord, why can we never play with style and grace? But I don’t because I’ve just finished David Winner’s excellent book ‘Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football’ which amusingly and brilliantly explains the deep-rooted English attitude to the beautiful game and goes some way to showing why it’s so joyless and lacking inspiration.
According to Winner the first people who played the game were 19th century upper class boys at public schools. They were encouraged to play sport to increase their strong manly figures but also to dissipate certain ‘urges’ to ‘ruin’ themselves.
Not that excessive sporting activity was enough for some headmasters. Some even sewed up boy’s pockets to make sure hands did not come into contact with private parts.
This sexual repression, when linked with a strong dislike of effeminacy, ensured that the English game was energetic but devoid of any passion and sensuality. Which are exactly the kind of things you see in teams like Brazil or Italy who actually win major tournaments.
Watching the Brazil team of the sixties and early seventies is to see a team with rhythm and feeling akin to watching a really good dancer move across a dance floor. In short, it’s sexy. In England during the same period though such skill was admired by some of the more discerning players if anyone was to try that sort of thing they would be kicked off the field (as indeed Brazil were when they appeared in the 1966 World Cup in England)
Over decades we had developed a philosophy of spirited on field combat, which occasionally strayed over into almost criminal assault.
Indeed one player hit the legendary Everton 1930’s forward Dixie Dean so hard in the groin Dean actually lost a testicle (Don’t worry 17 years later he spotted his on field assailant in a pub and gave him a sound beating)
The story shows the desire for an English player to be hard, uncomplaining and repress his own skills for the good of the team.
Any players who didn’t do this were in trouble. England boss Alf Ramsey warned Stan Bowles, a highly-skilled 1970’s number ten, "if you don't work hard I'm going to pull you off at half time." To which Stan replied, "Christ, at Man City all we get is a cup of tea and an orange."
Suffice to say he wasn’t picked again.
According to Winner the first people who played the game were 19th century upper class boys at public schools. They were encouraged to play sport to increase their strong manly figures but also to dissipate certain ‘urges’ to ‘ruin’ themselves.
Not that excessive sporting activity was enough for some headmasters. Some even sewed up boy’s pockets to make sure hands did not come into contact with private parts.
This sexual repression, when linked with a strong dislike of effeminacy, ensured that the English game was energetic but devoid of any passion and sensuality. Which are exactly the kind of things you see in teams like Brazil or Italy who actually win major tournaments.
Watching the Brazil team of the sixties and early seventies is to see a team with rhythm and feeling akin to watching a really good dancer move across a dance floor. In short, it’s sexy. In England during the same period though such skill was admired by some of the more discerning players if anyone was to try that sort of thing they would be kicked off the field (as indeed Brazil were when they appeared in the 1966 World Cup in England)
Over decades we had developed a philosophy of spirited on field combat, which occasionally strayed over into almost criminal assault.
Indeed one player hit the legendary Everton 1930’s forward Dixie Dean so hard in the groin Dean actually lost a testicle (Don’t worry 17 years later he spotted his on field assailant in a pub and gave him a sound beating)
The story shows the desire for an English player to be hard, uncomplaining and repress his own skills for the good of the team.
Any players who didn’t do this were in trouble. England boss Alf Ramsey warned Stan Bowles, a highly-skilled 1970’s number ten, "if you don't work hard I'm going to pull you off at half time." To which Stan replied, "Christ, at Man City all we get is a cup of tea and an orange."
Suffice to say he wasn’t picked again.
May 4, 2015
Alternately idiosyncratic, thought-provoking, and maddening, Winner's book takes on the question of why English football is so ugly and so often ineffective. His answer stretches back to the origins of organized football in the muscular Christianity of the Victorian public school. English football is unsexy, he argues, because the progenitors of football were anxious about sex in general and masturbation in particular. The subtitle of the book is, therefore, a bit of a joke - it's the lack of sensuousness (think of the 'hard man' who never winces) that dooms English football.
Winner's history ranges widely, taking us from a survey of Roys in "boy's own" literature to the cultural geopolitics of 'The Italian Job' to the transition from heavy, traditional English boots to sleek, sexy Brazilian ones. At his best, Winner is entertaining and enlightening. But the structure is a bit too episodic for my taste and Winner takes too many academics at their word (not least the Italian scholar of English literature who insists that no one in London could point towards the British Museum or Heathrow).
Winner's history ranges widely, taking us from a survey of Roys in "boy's own" literature to the cultural geopolitics of 'The Italian Job' to the transition from heavy, traditional English boots to sleek, sexy Brazilian ones. At his best, Winner is entertaining and enlightening. But the structure is a bit too episodic for my taste and Winner takes too many academics at their word (not least the Italian scholar of English literature who insists that no one in London could point towards the British Museum or Heathrow).
September 6, 2013
Now I know why the English are the way they are -- it's all because of soccer. Or is it now I know why soccer is the way it is -- it's all because of the English?
Anyway, it all started with the Victorian fear of masturbation, and the desire to cure that with "manly" sports that sapped all your wanking energy. . . . But seriously, this is a fascinating book that is at its best when it describes the typical English character and how it reflects the English style of football. (Yes, that's the "proper" term.) The English sense of "work hard, don't complain," the sense of superiority of other nations and peoples, and their own sense of decline in recent years, are all embodied in English soccer. If you want to know what makes the English English, this book is a nice start.
Anyway, it all started with the Victorian fear of masturbation, and the desire to cure that with "manly" sports that sapped all your wanking energy. . . . But seriously, this is a fascinating book that is at its best when it describes the typical English character and how it reflects the English style of football. (Yes, that's the "proper" term.) The English sense of "work hard, don't complain," the sense of superiority of other nations and peoples, and their own sense of decline in recent years, are all embodied in English soccer. If you want to know what makes the English English, this book is a nice start.
November 11, 2016
Who knew the origins of soccer were intertwined with the purity movement, specifically the goal of ending masturbation among English youth? Winner uses this opening to help explain why the
English play soccer the way they do and why they haven’t been all that successful. It’s maybe a stretch to explore a country’s history and culture through the lens of a sport, but Winner did with the Netherlands in Brilliant Orange as an outsider looking in. In Those Feet, Winner offers an insider’s perspective into English soccer, history, culture and relationship to Europe.
English play soccer the way they do and why they haven’t been all that successful. It’s maybe a stretch to explore a country’s history and culture through the lens of a sport, but Winner did with the Netherlands in Brilliant Orange as an outsider looking in. In Those Feet, Winner offers an insider’s perspective into English soccer, history, culture and relationship to Europe.
December 11, 2013
Having loved Brilliant Orange, I was excited to find a rare copy of this book in the US. However, much of it didn't excite me -- probably because it was geared toward an English audience. In Brilliant Orange, Winner took the time to explain much more about Dutch culture, whereas in Those Feet, even those outside England who are quite connected with English football are lost on quite a few of the references. If you're not a huge Anglophile, read this book with a Wikipedia tab open.
January 28, 2021
Futbol temelli bir İngiliz ve İngiltere tarihi kitabı. Fazlasıyla "meraklısına" bir kitap. Futbolu ve İngiltere'yi seviyorsanız tavsiye ederim. Okuyuş olarak da merak uyandırıcı başlayıp, ilginçliğini maalesef hızlı kaybediyor.
March 22, 2007
An interesting study of what makes English football the way it is actually becomes a close examination of Englishness in general. Fascinating stuff - bring on those long balls
September 1, 2013
Great background on the history of the British game. While some of Winner's hypotheses are a little far fetched, he makes a good case for all of them. Fascinating soccer/sociology stuff.
January 15, 2016
Really fun. Granted it speaks to a niche market, but in reading a Malcolm Gladwell type history of English footballing culture much history is learned in a lighthearted way.
September 22, 2012
Read this book, then you'll understand why Britten just can't win on the world stage
September 12, 2016
only for the soccer enthusiast, lots of history
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews