PREZ: What could a professional football academy do for this boy?

Prez is about far more than football. This true story, narrated by Prez’s barrister father, is a warm, witty and intensely personal account of their attempt to navigate the world of grassroots and academy football. It tells of the characters, skilfulness, kindnesses, injustices, duplicity and, at times, downright stupidity that they meet along the way.  Frank and utterly compelling, it provides a remarkable insight into the sport through Prez's experience of junior football and the Nottingham Forest Academy.  Incorporated into this memoir is a fascinating behind-the-scenes story arising from litigation between Brian Clough and Robert Maxwell. It also offers a unique insight into the purchase and sale of Notts County by Alan Hardy. Other well-known football figures who pop up include Darren Fletcher and Gary Brazil, the Academy manager at Nottingham Forest who once said to Andrew, “You watch everything that goes on here.” How right he was… Based on his diaries and rich in anecdotes, Andrew Prestwich brings a lawyer’s head and a father’s heart to the world of junior football and lays bare the tensions between sport, education, ambition and nurture.  Readers will love Prez, both the boy and the book.