Pan Macmillan nets Martin O'Neill's 'captivating' autobiography on 50 years in football

Pan Macmillan has netted an “insightful and captivating” autobiography from former footballer and manager Martin O’ Neill.

Matthew Cole, senior commissioning editor at Pan Macmillan, acquired world rights in all languages directly from the author. On Days Like These: My Life in Football will publish in hardback, e-book and audio on 10th November 2022.

The publisher said: “Martin O’Neill is one of the most fascinating and respected figures in football. In On Days Like These he tells the story of his extraordinary career for the first time. Martin made his breakthrough playing for Distillery in Northern Ireland and then became a key part of Brian Clough’s legendary Nottingham Forest team. Under the charismatic and controversial Clough, O’Neill was one of the few players who made the epic journey from the second division to the glory years: winning the First Division championship, two League Cups and back-to-back European Cups. O’Neill represented Northern Ireland over 60 times and led them at the 1982 World Cup.

“As a manager, O’Neill took Wycombe Wanderers to the football league for the first time, led Leicester City to two League Cups, and his tenure at Celtic saw them win seven trophies and their glorious run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003. Martin also led Aston Villa to an unprecedented three consecutive top six Premier League finishes and he oversaw Ireland reaching the Euros in 2016, when they made it to the second round for the first time in their history.”

Cole said: “It has been one of the absolute highlights of my career working with Martin on his book. His career spans the most exciting and innovative period in football and he has always been one of the most brilliant and thoughtful thinkers in the game. I am absolutely thrilled that Martin has been convinced to finally write the story of his life.”

O’Neill said: “I have been asked about my life in this wild and wonderful game called football. After 50 years I have decided to put pen to paper and I am looking forward to sharing my story for the first time with readers.”