David Goldblatt is the name for writing state of the nation football history on a grand scale and with Injury Time he continues that story bringing together the more recent history of football with the changing face of Britain through the financial crisis, Brexit, Covid and the now multitudinous crises we are faced with. Football is a rich seam of social history, playing as it does such a major part in the lives and psyches of so many people and Goldblatt as ever pulls all threads together expertly.

As a lifelong football fan and hobbyist writer I often find myself looking at the modern game through the lens of the crises that we are facing as a nation. The crossovers are numerous, a series of problems around wealth inequality, global capital, cost of living, mental health, environmental degradation, technology, the list goes on. Injury Time discusses them all and demands that we join the dots and ask ourselves some serious questions. Not least, is it worth it?

To take just one issue of mental health, the impact of the pressure and demands that we put on footballers, coaches and officials just so that we can watch a game is devastating, and not just on those who make it to the pinnacle of the sport. For every player who makes it to the top, hundreds are thrown aside as children and young adults with barely a thought. Young lives controlled and shaped by forces only interested in what they can extract from their human football factories.

I have walked the corridors of a professional football club following defeat and it wasn’t pleasant. What toll does a winning mentality take, to live constantly in fear of defeat and repercussion? Then to leave your place of work only to be faced by a relentless analysis of every aspect of your performance, both on and off the pitch. We excuse a lot of it by pointing to the money, but as Goldblatt introduces us to personal stories that in some cases lead all the way to suicide those excuses cease to carry any weight.

Football’s problems are legion and overlapping. The influx of global capital raising the financial stakes, dangling the high life before all fans whilst also creating massive financial inequality so that those without a billionaire sponsor are left behind with no hope of competing however hard or innovatively they work. Multinational corporate groups competing with local “chimney pots” sides. Global verses local labour markets and acquisition costs. The deployment of technology ostensibly to improve decisions, but in reality to micro-manage, analyse and create relentless intense content for television and internet. The detached online experience verses the embodied experience of being there. The list goes on.

As fans we don’t always want to face up to the problems, it’s easier to focus on winning games and progressing up the pyramid, at least until our owner stops paying the players and staff and the future starts to look more precarious. Our tribalism often limits both our willingness to criticise the actions of our own clubs and our empathy with the experiences of others, and it can prevent us from collaborating as collective football fans on issues that ultimately impact us all.

Injury Time doesn’t let us ignore what is happening though, it paints a vivid and clear picture of the state of our game. In many ways football remains a beautiful and absorbing pastime, but we shouldn’t let that blind us to its failings or stop us from acting to make it better. Yet, it is not about looking back to some imagined golden age that we all know never existed, but rather learning from the entirety of our journey this far to create something new. With Goldblatt’s sharp analysis we are talking about football here, and everything else too.



I received an audio copy of the book via Netgalley for the purposes of this review and although I am generally about physical books that I can hold and put on a shelf, it behoves me to comment briefly on the audio version. David Goldblatt reads his work himself and that is a good move. Audio books can sometimes feel like a performance, which has a value in itself but perhaps changes the “reading” experience as it includes the interpretation of the audio performer.

When the author reads the work though it provides emphasis and tone to the writing and Goldblatt does this very well in this version of Injury Time. I found it easy to absorb myself in the reading and thoroughly enjoyed his delivery, so if you tend towards podcasts and audiobooks for your football opinions I can heartily recommend this edition to you.