A wonderfully compelling biography of someone so unbelievably eccentric and darkly maverick that no fiction writer would dare invent him. This is a story that, once read, you can't forget.

Duncan Hamilton, three-time William Hill award winner

A brilliantly captivating book – breathlessly paced and teeming with detail – about the life and times of a man who makes José Mourinho look like Mother Teresa.

Tom Williams, author of DO YOU SPEAK FOOTBALL?

HH – what a character. A deeply disturbed, malevolent, brilliant man... A superb book. I absolutely loved it.

Paul Howard, five-time Irish Book Award winner

A transfixing, twisting documentary of a book as befits the Herrera story. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, like all great football books it goes way beyond the game

Daniel Gray, author of the acclaimed SATURDAY, 3PM

Richard Fitzpatrick has finally written the book we've all been waiting to read – about the man Gabriel García Márquez called “His Holiness”. A brilliant story; brilliantly told.

Sid Lowe, GUARDIAN Spanish football correspondent

Helenio Herrera insisted his catenaccio system - which gave us the sweeper - should be attractive, with full-backs overlapping and joining attacks. Yet it was perceived as cautious and defensive. It was also hugely successful and Richard Fitzpatrick, a fine story teller and diligent journalist, unpicks this fascinating man who changed football

Andy Mitten, editor-at-large for FOURFOURTWO