INTRODUCTION

There was Greaves . . . and then there was Hurst . . . and Hunt.

And then along came Astle - Jeff Astle, the latest of soccer's super-strikers, the men whose goal power makes them the most priceless gems in the modern game.

In ten years of football Astle has seen it all. From the struggles of the Third Division with Notts County to the glamour of Cup Finals with West Bromwich Albion and the taste of World Cup Soccer in the England Squad.

The Astle story traces his career from the time he was paid in chocolates to score goals in schoolboy football, through life in the Third Division jungle to his present-day status as a dynamic centre forward in the world's top football arena - the English First Division.

It is frank and controversial, flavoured with typical bluntness by a footballer who began his working life in the pits and has climbed to the top the hard way.

Astle offers a remarkable insight into the mind of today's professional - and shatters some popular illusions on the way.

In straight hard-hitting language - as befits an author born in the same village as D. H. Lawrence - Astle reveals the facts of life in big-time soccer, 1970-style.

He discusses the challenges, the pressures and the temptations facing today's stars, the men who live in the surtax bracket, but are always in danger of becoming pawns in the whirl of high finance gripping the game.

On a more personal note, Astle reveals the secrets behind his magical season when he was the Football League's top scorer with thirty-five goals and helped Albion win the 1968 F.A. Cup with the amazing record of a goal in every round.