John Giles: A Football Man - My Autobiography - The heart of the game

''The dream was football . . .''
John Giles had a gift. At the age of three, he could kick a ball the way it was supposed to be kicked. And he knew that every hour that passed without kicking a ball was an hour wasted.

''It was the same dream that most of the kids had at that time . . .''
In A Football Man, Giles tells the story of a dream pursued and realised beyond his wildest imaginings, from his humble beginnings in Ormond Square in 1940s'' Dublin,counting down the minutes to his next game of football, to that unforgettable moment when the original football man - his dad, ''Dickie'' - announced that his young son, at just fourteen, was on his way to Manchester United.

''What I didn''t realise was that my dream would come true.''
Full of anecdote, insight and wry humour, Giles recounts his rise through the ranks at Manchester United, before and after the Munich Disaster; the great players he knew, the good and the bad times under