Nick and Shaun didn’t expect to change football overnight when they wrote “Modern Football is Rubbish” in 2008 but they expected clubs like Portsmouth and Chester to get their houses in order and for Liverpool and Manchester United to clear up their debt problems. And they thought the days of tabloid headlines about England players would be a thing of the past.
But it just didn't happen! So they decided football needed another dose of their ultra-realism and commonsense. After all if a Premier League club can go into administration how can the game sort out knotty problems like “when is a tracksuit top not a tracksuit top” or whether the game's ills could be cured if own goals counted double... and they argueb that last suggestion is a lot more sensible than the Premier League’s Game 39 idea.
Modern Football is Rubbish was very nearly translated into German only for the publishing house to realise that it wasn’t an in-depth analysis of what is wrong with football. And Mein Herr, neither is this one. But it’s a great laugh and Nick and Shaun make many serious points as well.

If football were made of chocolate, it would have eaten itself long ago, possibly with a side salad of television cash and a huge dollop of self-importance. But as each passing week brings news of another club being consumed by football's greed, it's little wonder there is a growing nostalgia for the olden days.
The shorts might have been tight, Luton Town a top-flight side and .Mickev Quinn considered a decent striker, but at least it was the smell of onions and Brut 33, rather than the stench of money. Yes, modern football is rubbish!
In fact, it's so bad that the authors of Modem Football is Still Rubbish: Slinging Mud at What’s Left of the Beautiful Game have managed to do exactly what it says on the tin.
Taking their cue from TV’s Grumpy Old Men, the authors pour forth on an A-Z of topics with well-observed humour rather than relentless negativity. Modern football is given credit where due, and there is praise for the Jeff Stelling/Ray Stubbs Saturdays head-to-head, which evokes memories of classic Dickie Davies vs Des Lynam battles.
Again it hits the right tone: nostalgic, without being sentimental; and scathing without being bitter- The only problem is the first book is a hard act to follow. Davidson and Hunt neatly sidestep mis by tackling a few more obscure-subjects, such as end-of-season videos, grass-burns on the knees. balloon football (played indoors at Christmas), as well as some new bugbears, including thee vuvuzela and the Europa League. This book is just as thought-provoking as the original, but if anything, even more poignant in the light of football's impending financial meltdown. It may not quite reach the heights of the first book, simply because the first one hit most of the targets already, but this excellent sequel captures the mood of the times brilliantly.
Jon Crampin, FourFourTwo, four out of five stars