About the Author

Michael Walker first arrived in the north-east as a student from 1984-87. Ten years later he returned as a football reporter for The Guardian. He has been there ever since working also for The Observer, The Independent and Daily Mail. In 2006 he was commissioned by The Irish Times to write a season-long series on Sunderland, then Irish-owned and with Roy Keane as manager. Those articles formed the germ of the idea of this book.