Be Careful What You Wish For

An explosive insight into the previously unseen world of football club ownership by one of the game's most-recognisable figures A finalist for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Shortlisted for the British Sports Book Award for best autobiography

The author made his fortune building a mobile phone company from scratch. When he sold it for GBP75 million, he bought Crystal Palace FC, the club he'd supported as a boy, and led them into the Premier League. Ten years later Palace was in administration and Jordan had lost nigh on everything. This title tells his story.

The ultimate gift for every football fan. Ever dreamed of owning your boyhood football club? Be careful what you wish for...

Simon Jordan grew up a stone's throw from Crystal Palace Football Club. As a boy he used to break into the Palace ground for a kick-about on the hallowed turf. On leaving school he entered the mobile phone business. By the age of thirty-two, he'd built a company from nothing, sold it for £75 million and bought his childhood club. By the age of forty-two Palace was in administration and Jordan had lost nigh on everything.

Be Careful What You Wish For lifts the lid on the owner's story and reveals for the first time how the national game really works. Jordan spares no one, least of all himself, as he takes us inside a world where hopes and aspirations sit alongside greed, self-interest, overpriced players, dodgy transfers and top-level incompetence. He doesn't hold back.

Breathtakingly honest, highly controversial, humorous and full of jaw-dropping anecdotes, this is far more than a football book. It is a social commentary on the culture of great wealth and ambition; a Shakespearean tragedy that exposes the dark side of chasing a dream.

‘If you are a football fan and have not read this book, you are missing out’ John Inverdale

‘One hell of a read’ Sport Magazine

'One of the best football books you will ever read' Birmingham Post