Grayson Perry once made a pot titled ‘Football Stands for Everything I Hate’. David Goldblatt might say the same thing. While Perry included the words ‘hair gel’ and ‘pub bores’ on his elegant ceramic, Injury Time goes further and deeper with a long list of football-related hates, including cheats, bullies, violence, exploitation, racism and sexism, not counting dull statues and terrible songs. The 2020 European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley was a shameless shitshow of mob rule, drink and cocaine. My friend had a ticket but didn’t fancy it once he got there and went straight home.

The strange and wonderful thing about this book is that Goldblatt loves English football as well. Indeed, he is addicted to it, but it never seems to make him entirely happy. Chapter seven is called ‘Which England Will Turn Up?’ and it is the same question all through. On the one hand, there is the contemporary England that reflects the world of football; on the other, there is the contemporary England that football reflects. Goldblatt doesn’t seem to like contemporary England all that much, but the truth is, aside from Gareth Southgate and the irrepressible rise of the women’s game, he