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Dave Whelan Dave Whelan

Dave Whelan By Dave Whelan

Dave Whelan by Dave Whelan


$24.99
Condition - Well Read
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Dave Whelan Summary

Dave Whelan: Playing to Win - The Autobiography by Dave Whelan

Few figures in British business or sport have enjoyed Dave Whelan's success. As a footballer he played in all four divisions. As a businessman he created one the country's leading high street brands. And as chairman of Wigan Athletic he's taken his club all the way from the Third Division to the Premiership. Dave's story is one of ambition, enterprise and tenacity - but also of a fierce loyalty. It begins in wartime Wigan with the Whelans' desperate struggle to survive. Dave describes the terrifying wasp-like hum of the Luftwaffe; he remembers the deathly winter of 1942, peeing on his hands to stop his fingers from freezing; admits how hunger drove ordinary families to lie, cheat and steal; and relives a remarkable reunion with the father he'd never known - a returning soldier. In peacetime a boyhood love affair with football leads him to sign with Blackburn Rovers and when national service calls he joins the Army football team, becoming close friends with 'Busby Babes' Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards. Then, a vicious tackle in the 1960 FA Cup final spells the twilight of his playing career - but a new dawn in business. Starting as a market trader, he breaks the mould from day one: taking on Boots single-handedly in the Appeal Court; negotiating the sale of his supermarket chain to Ken Morrison - whilst stood at a urinal; and transforming a single tackle shop in Wigan into JJB Sports, the UK's biggest sports retailer and a GBP1 billion PLC. In 1995 he used his personal fortune to buy struggling, hometown Wigan Athletic, vowing to take the Latics all the way to the Premier League. At the time he was ridiculed, but ten years later, on the final day of the Championship, Dave watched, ecstatic, as his club beat Reading 3-1 to finally secure their place. Sometimes tragic, frequently controversial and always heartfelt, Playing to Win lifts the lid on a life lived on the pitch and in the boardroom and tells how a hungry kid from Wigan's backstreets became a national success and a local hero.

About Dave Whelan

Dave Whelan was the founder of retailer JJB Sports and is the owner of Wigan Athletic Football Club. He is the only man to have worked in all four divisions of English football as both a player and a chairman.

Additional information

GOR004967869
9781845135799
1845135792
Dave Whelan: Playing to Win - The Autobiography by Dave Whelan
Used - Well Read
Paperback
Aurum Press
20100825
320
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book. We do our best to provide good quality books for you to read, but there is no escaping the fact that it has been owned and read by someone else previously. Therefore it will show signs of wear and may be an ex library book

Customer Reviews - Dave Whelan