Turncoat
Turncoat is the light-hearted story of one disillusioned Arsenal fan’s quest to find a new team while rediscovering the simple joys of watching football.
From sneaking out of bed to see Michael Thomas’s winner against Liverpool, to holding a season ticket for 16 years, Matt Coughlan was a dedicated Arsenal fan.
Then came the move to a new ground, kick-off times always being shunted around and the goalposts being moved when billionaires injected vast sums into rival teams, so the height of ambition became finishing fourth.
He became disillusioned with the modern game and drifted away from it, but he missed being part of the conversation in the pub and correcting friends on points of trivia. He started to watch non-league football and searched for a new team to follow.
On his journey, Matt rediscovers a love for the sport, gets into club boardrooms, talks with officials, finds out about community-owned clubs, learns about some historic old clubs and watches a mixed bag of football. But does he find a new team to support?
Tired of interfering managers rewriting his reports at work, Matt started writing about the one subject no one could profess to have more expertise in, his own experience of watching football. The result is Turncoat, Matt’s debut book.