Bloody Confused!: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer

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Crown, Aug 5, 2008 - Sports & Recreation - 272 pages
Chuck Culpepper was a veteran sports journalist edging toward burnout . . . then he went to London and discovered the high-octane, fanatical (and bloody confusing!) world of English soccer.

After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world—the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, “It was like childhood, with beer.”

Writing in the vein of perennial bestsellers such as Fever Pitch and Among the Thugs, Chuck Culpepper brings penetrating insight to the vibrant landscape of English soccer—visiting such storied franchises as Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool . . . and an equally celebrated assortment of pubs. Bloody Confused! will put a smile on the face of any sports fan who has ever questioned what makes us love sports in the first place.
 

Contents

Common Sportswriter Malaise
7
Fumbling Around in Daylight
9
Europe
15
Fing Move
17
Is That Really Chelseas Pitch?
24
A TwelveInch Digix in Camden
31
My Very Own Relegation Weekend
39
Sunday Contempt
47
We Were Mental
142
Chimes and Mammals
150
Lonely Walks He Who Walks to Plainmoor
157
A Blackburn Fiasco
163
Never Miss a Chance to Hang Out in a Pub with
170
Betraying a Kind Reading
177
Just Disgusting
184
Rather Hopeless
191

MediaInaccessible England
54
Two Months to Choose
61
Clueless
68
Knowing Too Much
74
Away
80
The Best Goal in My Admittedly Limited Lifetime
86
47
94
Cheering for a ToiletSeat Thief
125
74
128
Old Trafford
136
80
198
You Have to Be Kidding
203
NotTaken Roads
210
Adopted
217
Its Really the Heart of England
223
Elvis and the Beatles
230
8
231
One Goal from Europe
237
The Whole Meat Raffle of It
244
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About the author (2008)

Chuck Culpepper writes for The Los Angeles Times and has written for Newsday and ESPN Books, among other publications. Culpepper has a particular enthusiasm for football, but he has also covered camel racing in the United Arab Emirates, soccer in Rwanda, sailing in South Africa, cricket in India, and kiteboarding in the Middle East.

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