Read it and leap

They say 80% of all books are sold at Christmas, and God knows they’re a good fall-back for a present. With that in mind we asked Michael Moynihan to combine the sports-and-Santa hats when it comes to the pick of this year’s sports books.

THERE are a lot of them around – Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole (various publishers) – but not a lot of people are buying them (as of October 15 sales figures were Gerrard 76,459; Rooney 36,973; Lampard 26,662; Ferdinand 7,651; Cole: 3,128).

And with good reason: if a more putrid genre in sports or writing exists we’ve yet to find it. Still, if a ball of clichés wrapped in a fog of excuses and topped off with a smirk is your cup of tea, you have your pick.