Does the reality of professional football align with the public perception of the sport as a glamorous and rewarding career? Eamon Dunphy, a professional midfielder, provides a candid examination of the internal mechanics of a football club during a single season. Drawing on his personal experiences at Millwall, he documents the financial pressures, locker room politics, and the precarious nature of player employment in the professional game.

Critics and sports journalists frequently cite this work as a foundational text for its unvarnished look at the professional athlete's life. Readers often note the stark contrast between the author's gritty, realistic prose and the typical sanitized sports biographies of the era.