Transworld nets Sayer’s ‘wildly entertaining’ account of running a football club

Transworld has netted for Nowhere to Run, a “warts-and-all” insight into the running of a non-league football club, by Jonathan Sayer. 

Henry Vines, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from David Luxton at DLA. The book will be published on 18th May 2023. 

Nowhere to Run charts the first year of Sayer’s co-ownership, alongside his father, of his local football club, Ashton United FC. “Chronicling the bitter disappointments and euphoric highs of the less glamorous side of the beautiful game,” the book is a “hilarious, heart-warming tale of life in the hot seat of a non-league football club and a story of a father and son trying to work together”. 

The synopsis reads: “Battling to keep the club afloat, a record number of games without a win sees hope turn to despair as Jonathan contends with a mutiny from a group of octogenarian supporters, constant battles with the local council and a star striker who arrives on crutches despite somehow passing his medical.

“As the on-pitch form continues to deteriorate and rifts appear between him and his father, Jonathan begins to make some increasingly desperate decisions: dressing as a seven-foot robin in the local market in an effort to drum up larger crowds, sinking his savings into an ever-spiralling wage bill and even contemplating bringing in a local priest to lift the ‘Boxing Day Curse’ by performing a late-night exorcism on the pitch.” 

Vines said: “Every football fan has a soft spot for the non-league game and the quirks, characters and contests at the grassroots level of the sport. To have a writer of Jonathan’s talent immerse us in that world and explain its inner workings is a complete pleasure. With his own money on the line and the hopes and despairs of a community on his shoulders, his memoir is a brutally honest and wildly entertaining insight into the running of a football club.”

Sayer added: “I’m delighted to be able to bring together two of my biggest passions: the world of comedy and the world of football. Becoming the chairman of Ashton United FC with my Dad (David) has been both a dream come true and a living nightmare and I’m so excited to get to tell the story and make people laugh along the way.”