Extra Time Beckons Penalties Loom

<P><B>SHORTLISTED FOR FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2025</B><br><B><br>LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD</B><br><br><B>A <I>New Statesman</I> Book of the Year</B><br><br><B>A <I>Sunday Times</I> Sports Book of the Year<br><br></B><I>"A hilarious examination of the football commentary language we all understand but don't know why" </I>WHSBOTY 2024 Reading Panel<br><br><B><br>The long-awaited follow-up to </B><B><I>Football Clichés, </I>A</B><B>dam Hurrey's cult classic about the language of football.</B><br><br>"So enjoyable ... fascinating and deliciously nerdy." <I>FourFourTwo</I><br><br>"Adam Hurrey is the best observer of football culture in the world. He has a knack for either encapsulating something that's always nagged at you or nailing something you can't believe you haven't noticed before." Elis James<br><br>"The funniest, smartest book on the language of football. It sends out a message, silences the doubters and lets its football do the talking ... a Rolls-Royce of a book." David Goldblatt<br><br><I>***</I><br><br><I>Does language evolve? Yes, it does.<br></I><br><I>Will it ever be acceptable for a football commentator to call a shot that bounces before it goes in 'a screamer'? No, it will not.<br></I><br>As the self-appointed world expert on the subject, Adam Hurrey sets off to define the definitive rules of the language of football.<br><br>He will answer the big questions such as: is it acceptable to say a player is 'breaking their silence' (it's complicated), can headers can be 'lashed' (anatomically impossible), whether a penalty shootout could ever be described as 'late drama' (truly abhorrent), how many games constitute a 'bumper' day of Premier League action (minimum of eight) and just how big a deficit constitutes 'a mountain to climb' (certainly not Liverpool going 1-0 down at home to Wolves in the third minute, Sky Sports).<br><br>Along the way, Hurrey examines some case studies of how the football media has reached saturation point - the transfer rumour mill, the futile art of big-match previewing, the rise of (and backlash against) football jargon - and how its language has evolved to keep the machine going.<br><br>Have we let the football lexicon spiral out of control? In finding out, this book will be exactly as gloriously pedantic as it sounds.</P>