THE HARD YARDS

Nige Tassell ( Simon & Schuster, £ 16.99)

With a cast of fallen giants, parachute- assisted sides from above and some new hopefuls, it’s hardly surprising that the 2020- 21 Championship season was as dramatic and insanely competitive as ever.

Throw in the fact that games were played in largely empty stadiums – though enterprising Millwall fans bent the rules by booking rooms at the Holiday Inn which overlook the pitch at Carrow Road – and the financial pressures on already- strained The clubs 2019- were 20 never Champions higher.

League This textured and Europa book League delves into finals a rough- were and- played tumble behind division closed described doors, by but Norwich deserted manager stadiums Daniel Farke are nothing as “the toughest new in at the European world”. Through showpieces. interviews with The European key figures, Cup Tassell Winners’ paints Cup a fascinating final was spectated picture of by life fewer at than ailing 10,000 Sheffield fans Wednesday, on three occasions. Wayne Rooney’s Just 6,461 Derby watched as they East battle German a transfer club Magdeburg embargo, stun Wycombe Milan in under Rotterdam affable in leader 1974, while Gareth the Ainsworth lowest crowd and for Cardiff, a European where Tassell final – learns excluding that this Mick year’s Mccarthy games has – came lost none when of his Soviet bite in Dinamo the coarsest Tbilisi Anglo beat Saxon. another It’s a East fascinating German testimony side, Carl not Zeiss only Jena, to a ruthless in 1981. league, The tie but was also held to in the the far- West reaching German city impact of Dusseldorf, of the pandemic. making it difficult for both sets of fans to attend because of restrictions