8 May 2013: the day Manchester United fans had dreaded for nearly three decades. Sir Alex Ferguson announced he was to step down as manager of the world's biggest football club after 27 years in charge. The Scot signed off in style with an honours list that confirmed him as the most successful manager in British - and world - history. He would leave United at the age of 71 having won 38 trophies with them, and he would now become a director and ambassador for the club he had served so well.The story of Sir Alex Ferguson is a true rags-to-riches fairytale. Born in Govan, Glasgow in 1941, he played for Queen's Park, Dunfermline and Rangers before retiring in 1974 to begin his managerial career. Before joining Manchester United, he led a struggling Aberdeen side to the league title and the 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup and, although he struggled initially at United, his bargain-signing of Eric Cantona secured their first league title in 26 years.An incredible run of success followed, shaped by the emergence of 'Fergie's Fledglings' - Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Nicky Butt. His finest moment was in 1999 when United romped to an unprecedented Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies. Ferguson was knighted the same year. This in-depth biography charts Fergie's unstoppable rise and pays tribute to the greatest manager the world has ever seen.

Frank Worrall is a journalist who writes regularly for the Sunday Times and the Sun. He is also the author of number one bestseller Roy Keane: Red Man Walking, and countless football books including Rooney: Wayne's World, Giggsy and The Magnificent Sevens.

Discover the most memorable moments in football history in this fascinating Ultimate Football Heroes collection! From the invention of the modern sport all the way to the present day, bestselling author and football expert Tom Palmer picks ONE HUNDRED of the most thrilling and significant goals, games, and players from more than 150 years of the Beautiful Game. Featuring Pele's World Cup, Maradona's Hand of God, John Barnes' Maracana magic, and the Lionesses' European Championship triumph, this is an endlessly fascinating treasury of stories for fans of all ages.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE brings to students, researchers and practitioners in all of the social and language-related sciences carefully selected book-length publications dealing with sociolinguistic theory, methods, findings and applications. It approaches the study of language in society in its broadest sense, as a truly international and interdisciplinary field in which various approaches, theoretical and empirical, supplement and complement each other. The series invites the attention of linguists, language teachers of all interests, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, historians etc. to the development of the sociology of language.

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED 'The finest Fergie book of them all' – Tom English, BBC Sport When Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2013 season he was the most successful football manager Britain had ever seen, having won twice as many trophies as his nearest rival. But that success had not come easily. Thirty-five years previously he had arrived at the rain-swept training ground at Aberdeen F.C. as the recently sacked manager of St Mirren. Already a divisive figure, this Alex Ferguson came with a reputation for trouble and a lot still to prove. Not for nothing, many thought he was a risky choice. Fergie Rises returns to a time when Ferguson was lucky to get Aberdeen, not the other way around. It's the story of an eight-year revolution that saw the Dons and their ambitious young manager knock the Old Firm off their perch, taste victory in Europe for the first time, and electrify Scottish football. When Ferguson finally left the club for Manchester United, in 1986, fans and rivals were unanimous in believing he had engineered one of the most astonishing upheavals in the game's history. The author also examines the personal tragedies Ferguson overcame – the deaths of his father and his mentor Jock Stein – and the rivalries, setbacks and triumphs that shaped a sporting genius. 'A masterful retelling of how Ferguson was "made" at Aberdeen' – Alan Pattullo, The Scotsman

Liturgies for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Transfiguration, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, All Saints', St Columba's Day, Father's Day; on hunger, economic witness, peacemaking, the environment, pilgrimage, welcome, hospitality and friendship. Includes a blessing liturgy for a marriage or partnership, a wedding/partnership ceremony and resources for a memorial event. Full communion services and shorts acts of worship; liturgies for small groups and all-age gatherings; worship rooted in church life and the Iona Community's resident group on Iona, in social justice and pastoral work. So - as always with the Iona Community - worship which is contextual, with a strong justice and peace edge. Originally published as single digital downloads by Wild Goose, these are now all brought together for the first time in the second of at least two Big Books of resources and liturgies.

In The Great and the Good, Ireland's leading football pundit and legend of the game John Giles looks back on more than fifty years of football, at developments in the game from the post-War period to the present day, the great players who drove it forward, the visionary managers and their teams, and the age-old question of what makes a player good and what makes one great. From his earliest days, John Giles can recall pondering the subject. 'You'd hear about certain 'great' players, such as Stanley Matthews, but no one would ever explain why they were great. And it's a thing that has always frustrated me: trying to define what makes a player great, and what separates the great from the good.' Now the man himself brings us the answers and celebrates the great ones, from Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney, Dave Mackay, John Charles, Johnny Haynes and Jimmy Greaves to Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, John Robertson, Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten, Lionel Messi, Paul Scholes and many more. It will include a section on Irish players including detailed analysis of such greats as Roy Keane, Liam Brady and Paul McGrath. And, finally, Giles names the player he considers the greatest of them all.

JIMMY GREAVES was a great entertainer and a national hero as a footballer, and is held in equal affection as a television pundit and performer. Now Greavsie reveals the footballers and managers who have given him most entertainment and are his biggest heroes. Greavsie has confined his star-studded assembly to players and managers of his lifetime -- dipping fondly back into the days of Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Len Shackleton and coming up to date with in-depth analysis of modern masters like Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney. Along the way he nods in the direction of his good pals Bobby Moore, Dave Mackay, Billy Wright and, of course, George Best. Footballing gods of the calibre of Pele, di Stefano, Puskas and Maradona naturally win a place in the personal Greaves Hall of Fame. You may not agree with all his selections, but if you are a true football fan you will agree that this is a book that makes you laugh and grips your attention as you take a look at some of FOOTBALL's GREAT HEROES AND ENTERTAINERS.

Graeme Souness is a Glasgow Rangers icon, and a Liverpool legend in the same bracket as Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. He has racked up getting on for fifty years in and around the world of professional football. The game has been his life, and his enduring passion. Souness has written a perceptive and opinionated autobiography. It chronicles one of the most successful and colourful careers in the history of British football. But it also provides an intriguing assessment of the game which has dominated his existence, drawing extensively on his incredibly rich and varied experiences as a player, manager and pundit. The result is a shrewd, incisive and hard-hitting memoir, at times tinged with hindsight and regret, which also grapples with many of the major talking points affecting the game today. It is shot through with Souness' trademark tenacity and wisdom, and with fantastic anecdotes from his glittering career. In many ways, Football: My Life, My Passion is the story of the last half-century of British football writ large.

Few professional athletes have been as loved and respected as Jean Béliveau, captain of the fabled Montreal Canadiens during the team’s glory years in the 1950s and 1960s. His career on ice was followed by an equally successful career in the Canadiens' front office. First published in 1994, this classic biography has been fully updated to reflect the events of the past decade, from his battle with cancer to his frank assessment of the game today, including the consequences of expansion and the fallout from a cancelled season.