
The Netherlands has been one of the world's most distinctive & sophisticated football cultures. From the birth of Total Football in the sixties through two decades of World Cup near misses to the exiles who remade clubs like AC Milan Barcelona Arsenal & Chelsea in their own image the Dutch have often been dazzlingly original & influential. The elements of their style (exquisite skills adventurous attacking tactics a unique blend of individual creativity & teamwork weird patterns of self-destruction) reflect & embody the country's culture & history. This book lays bare the elegant fractured soul of the Dutch Masters & the culture that spawned them by exploring & analysing its key ideas institutions personalities & history in the context of wider Dutch society.