Tom van Hulsen’s book about Blues legends Arnold Mühren and Frans Thijssen, Game Changers, has been named on the longlist for the 2018 Coutts Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year.

Game Changers, the English version of Het Geheim van Ipswich (The Secret of Ipswich), which was initially published in the Netherlands in 2016, recalls Mühren and Thijssen’s time with the Blues under Bobby Robson.

Dutch journalist and Town fan van Hulsen interviewed Town figures from that era for the book, including former captain Mick Mills, ex-press officer Mel Henderson and Pat Godbold, secretary to every Town manager from Scott Duncan to George Burley, and also spoke to every member of the UEFA Cup-winning team.

Game Changers is the story of two ground-breaking pioneers in English football, how they helped to turn the Blues into one of the top teams in Europe and paved the way for the many fellow Dutchman who followed them into English football. Game Changers is available from TWTD here.

The shortlist will be announced on 10th May with the awards ceremony set to take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 7th June.

The other nine books on the longlist are Sir Matt Busby by Patrick Barclay, Quiet Genius (Life of Bob Paisley) by Ian Herbert, David Bolchover’s The Greatest Comeback, the Story of Bela Guttmann, Brave New World by Guillem Balague, From Delhi to the Den: The Story of Football’s Most Travelled Manager by Stephen Constantine with Owen Amos, Michael Calvin’s No Hunger in Paradise, James Montague’s The Billionaires Club, White Hart Lane but Martin Lipton, Doctor Socrates by Andrew Downie, David Tossell’s Alan Ball: The Man in White Boots, James Corbett’s Faith Of Our Families: Everton FC — An Oral Histrory 1878-2018.

David Willis, chairman of the Sports Book Awards said: “We are delighted to be announcing the Football Writers’ Association Book of the Year Longlist and working in partnership with Coutts for the first time and the highly esteemed Football Writers’ Association.”

Mike Collett, chair of the Football Writers’ Association books committee, added: “We’re incredibly impressed by the quality of this year’s football writing. So much so that we’ve decided to announce this longlist for the first time.

"We’re thrilled with the continued association with the Sports Book Awards team and by the new sponsorship from Coutts.”

Photo: TWTD

TractorBeezer added 21:12 - Mar 20 A very interesting and enjoyable read. Of particular interest, Arnold and Frans described how they convinced Sir Bobby to change the style of play. Rather than direct balls by-passing the midfield they suggested that defenders could pass to them and they would take care of things from there. Sir Bobby listened and agreed....the rest is history!
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BlueMachines added 22:06 - Mar 20 Imagine if someone suggested something to Mick like that now. They'd be loaned out within the hour!
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