Square Peg, Round Ball cover art

Square Peg, Round Ball

Football, TV and Me

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Square Peg, Round Ball

By: Ned Boulting
Narrated by: Ned Boulting
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Square Peg, Round Ball written and read by Ned Boulting.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 – SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR

'What Ned hasn’t seen on a sports TV channel isn’t worth knowing about.' – Gabby Logan

'From falling out with Mourinho to flying with Gerrard, this is a wonderful journey through football.'- Henry Winter

Square Peg, Round Ball is a candid, insightful reminiscence on a life in football.

Although best known as ITV's commentator on the Tour de France, Ned Boulting has spent most of his professional life covering football.

Follow Ned's journey from football supporter to reporter – from criss-crossing the country in a banger of a car hoping for a word or two from the latest big signing, to the glamour of the Champions League. Ned really has been there, done that, and got the Sky Sports jacket to prove it.

Witnessing the shenanigans, the machinations and the idiocy of football at close quarters Ned shares his best stories with affection. Whether it's treading mud into Steven Gerrard's pristine white carpets, or nearly being pushed into oncoming traffic by a menacing Vinnie Jones, or being chased away from Roman Abramovich's house by some scary looking men on quadbikes – Ned has made a fool of himself to bring us the best tales from his experiences in 90s and 2000s football.©2022 Ned Boulting (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Football (Soccer) Sports

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Nation Holds Its Breath cover art
1923 cover art
BBC Sports Report cover art
Jan Ullrich cover art
Sticky Bottle cover art
God Is Dead cover art
Football and How to Survive It cover art
Who Are Ya? cover art
Bloody Minded cover art
The Death of Marco Pantani cover art
Twelve Summers cover art
The Accidental Footballer cover art
The Full English cover art
Quiet Genius cover art
It's Always Summer Somewhere cover art
The Conspiracy Tourist cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Ned sums up how football lost a lot of us and the fun went out of watching it as money and TV took over.

good review of where football went

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I know Ned’s work from the world of cycling but didn’t know of the football backstory. A lovely personal account of accidentally falling into the maelstrom of the UK tv footy media pack with occasional imposter syndrome and some cracking anecdotes.

Fascinating personal backstory on the rise and fall of his passion for footy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this book, of Ned falling in and then out of love with the great game. I remember him on TV often interviewing players after a match or his pre-match programmes. He runs through his career in TV and with some interesting anecdotes about the demise of ITV digital and the rise of Sky. Like many football fans, he fell out of love with the game, perhaps because of the corporatisation and move to PR trained footballers, who give monosylabic answers and make the life of interviewers very difficult. Love Ned's cycling work and footballs loss is cycling's gain - and unlike some of the less than forthcoming footballers Ned's work with David Millar and co. is an annual summer highlight.

Overall, this is a good book well read - but it is more a recap of Neds career rather than a story.

Ned's enjoyment of football and then...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Superb book, great insight into behind the scenes football on TV and wonderful to listen to.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Insightful, humorous, poignant. Non stop anecdotes, beautifully narrated.
Can’t wait for the next chapter on cycling

Breathless

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed listening to Ned and his memories of being a football journalist, there were some points where I properly laughed out loud. Listen, you'll like it.

As much fun as How To Be A Footballer.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen on how football is imploding as a game due to money and moving away from real fans

Football as changed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ned admits to coming late to football but the basic errors are an annoying distraction. He twice refers to Forest playing the County Ground and reports that Everton had to prequalify for the Champions League because Liverpool won in Istanbul; Everton played a qualifier because they’d finished 4th; it was Liverpool that had to go through pre-qualifying. Drogba’s last kick for Chelsea was not in 2012; he returned to win the league again in 2015.

Likeable and self deprecating but..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An interesting insight into a football commentators life with some great stories but it just seemed as if the truth of the matter is that football commentators in the modern game don’t really get access to players and managers so don’t really have much to share.

A bit disappointing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.