A long hot summer just passed me by…
You see, now I hate myself. All of a sudden the middle-aged have started to be called the ‘Jam’ generation. Terminally uncool politicians are name dropping Weller et al to ‘touch base’ with those most likely to vote. Now I compound this guff by quoting him in the title…where’s my gun!
The summer in football terms is usually a season of renewal. For most of us a long season of disappointment has ground to a halt. For the lucky few it went down to the wire and they are now recovering from the excitement. For all of us the steadily rising anticipation of the new season has already begun.
Hopefully the optimistic weather forecast will mean a few long lazy days on the beach, at the park or even in the garden. What better way to enjoy yourself than a long cold drink and a decent read…step into my office!
So far this year, you have a simple choice, you can live in the moment, reading about today’s issues with some of the game’s colourful characters or you can wallow in ‘the good old days’. Shall we wallow for a while?
2009 has in some ways been the year of Clough. Delighted as I am that young Nigel has accepted his inevitable place in his father’s shoes at Derby, it’s his Dad who’s taken the limelight once again. The controversial but excellent novel, The Damned United was released as a film this year. In truth the film is a slight entertainment in comparison, saved only by enjoyable performances by the principle actors but the ripples in the world of publishing have been far more interesting.
First out and bang in time for the release of the film were Duncan Hamilton’s Old Big ‘Ead: the Wit and Wisdom of Brian Clough, and the re-release of Rob Bagchi’s The Unforgiven: the Story of Don Revie’s Leeds Utd. Both have been reviewed on this site before, but for genuinely insightful and revealing primers on both men then I’d heartily recommend The Unforgiven and Hamilton’s 2007 biography of Clough, Provided You Don’t Kiss Me.
Missing the boat somewhat were Phil Rostron’s We are the Damned United and Don Shaw’s Clough’s War. Both were scheduled for the original release date of the film and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) move to catch the considerable tide of interest.
There’s nothing wrong with We are the Damned United, lots of interviews with many of the Leeds team of that time and it’s decently written. The real story of Leeds United is fascinating and well worth discovering, but unless you are rabidly Leeds Leeds Leeds, then there’s no point reading both this and The Unforgiven. Don’t go off the cover either; both are designed to look like the original jacket of the Damned United!
As for Clough’s War, I’m undecided. It concentrates on his time at Derby and the relationship he had with his archetypal chairman Sam Longston. It’s well written by an author who has a good track record and was right at the forefront of events at the time. My only reservation is that Shaw appears to be the self appointed spokesman for the Clough family. All through the whipping up of minor media storms around the release of the film he’s appeared wherever he can to put the family’s point of view…and mention in passing that his own book on Clough is out soon. I don’t begrudge him that but I would question how objective he can be. The family have every right to be upset by the novel, but I honestly believe that David Peace is an important British author who will be read for many generations to come and the fact that Brian Clough is a character in his book will not be an important ingredient in whether and how Clough is remembered in years to come; it might be the only reason that Johnny Giles is remembered.
‘Hot off the Press’ and just appearing in time for inclusion here is another Clough book, but one that really does stand out. 150 B.C. a collection of Clough related anecdotes compiled by Dave Armitage. It might sound a bit ‘so what’, but these are genuinely surprising stories, most of which have not been aired before. This really is a must for every Forest fan and anyone interested the real Clough.
Staying in the sixties and the seventies lets pay a visit to that perennial ship of fools, Manchester City. Colin Schindler has expressed his exasperation as a long suffering City fan on page before. The Worst of Friends takes us back to their last period of relative prosperity (trophy wise anyway) when Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison were in charge.
You couldn’t ask for two more unlikely partners, the well respected but ailing manager wanted one last crack at success and the Jack the lad, ambitious, controversial coach who wanted to be number one as soon as possible. Together they took City from the doldrums of division two through 5 glorious seasons that garnered 5 trophies. Mercer had promised to step aside in favour of Allison in 1970 but reneged and Allison went ballistic. The subsequent battle is the centre piece of Schindler’s book and for the neutral reader a real joy. Their ambition would destroy both and Manchester City, though I’m sure City would have managed this on its own anyway.
We all know that Football was re-born by a plastic breast wearing Gazza in 1990, but in The Last Game Jason Cowley contends that the actual ‘big-bang’ of new football was a year before, May the 26th, 1989 to be exact. Liverpool hosted Arsenal needing only to secure a defeat by 1 goal to be confirmed as Champions. I have sympathy for this view of that game as epoch making. I have no interest in Arsenal or Liverpool, yet hearing or even reading a transcript of Brian Moore describing Michael Thomas bursting through with minutes left still gives me the shivers. (Gooners – buy the shirt here!!! Commercially-driven Ed) http://www.goalfood.com/shop/acatalog/goalfood_0009.html
I believe Cowley is an Arsenal fan, but this is no paean to George Graham and his boys. Cowley brings together Liverpool’s twin tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough with this devastating defeat as an end of an era. One door closed on tribal football violence, isolationism and run down thiefdoms for local businessmen, another opened promising global branding, wealth beyond dreams and the era of player power. An interesting read, not without its contentious moments, but worth a go I’d say.
There are usually a few reasonable nostalgic football biographies around at this time of the year. The surge of interest in Leeds means that any book relating to John Charles will capture the imagination. In the Shadow of the Giant is brother Mel Charles’ story, but with plenty of reference to the aforementioned gentle giant. John Blake, the publisher has a reputation for going after a rather more lurid and tabloid market, but occasionally they uncover a decent well told story and this fits into that category.
Over the past year or so the interest in fighting footballers, particularly those who fought in the Great War has been evident. Fighting for Football by George Myerson is the story of Tim Coleman who wore the colours of Woolwich Arsenal, Everton and Nottingham Forest amongst others, organised the first players strike, won the military medal for bravery and ended up in obscurity cleaning windows in Kent. Comes across a somewhere between Jimmy Hill and John Mills in my head.
A little bit esoteric and a lot left of centre is Comrade Jim by Jim Riordan. You won’t know Jim by his football exploits but as a committed communist after the war went to Russia to teach yet ended up a double agent and ended up playing for Spartak Moscow in a resurgent Russian League. Now I enjoyed this tale, though it’s not one for those who want Football followed by more football and you have to add the caveat that many reviewers are questioning the memory of Riordan to the point where they are suggesting he never got close to playing for any team in Russia. But hey, why let bothersome facts get in the way of a good tale.
Enough of the sepia toned trawls through yesteryear; modern football is a vibrant manifestation of our modern world and is filed to the brim with great stories and colourful characters…too much? Maybe you are right, but considering I’ll be saving the autumn ‘blockbusters’ for Christmas, it’s not actually a bad line up.
Football biographies whether ghosted, self written or preferably the work of one of our better sports writers are to be treated with caution, the likes of Tony Cascarino (and to be fair many others) has raised the bar considerably, but for every Norman Whiteside there are loads of Ashley, Rio and Frank’s…so tread carefully.
It’s hard not to be attracted by Phillipe Auclair’s Cantona, The Rebel who would be King. He was everything we’d like to think a French footballer should be, talented, brooding, arrogant and a little bit bonkers and I can’t believe this won’t be a good read. Look out for Ken Loach’s forthcoming film too!
Whether a book on Ossie Ardiles would be as good a read is debatable, but I know we’re all rooting for him. Even the most hard hearted Gooner would struggle to heap vitriol on the impish Argentinean. Arguably the best import we’ve seen in English football and it’s a shame he couldn’t translate his ability to management.
About a year ago I was asked whether I thought a biography of Dave Whelan, Mr Wigan to you and I would be worth publishing. My first response was not outside Wigan, but on reflection that’s somewhat harsh. If all he’d done was to haul a non-football playing town’s football club from obscurity to the Premier League by sheer force of will (and wallet) it would be a decent read. But Whelan was a great player himself, unfortunate to be remembered for breaking his leg in a cup final for Blackburn. His career at an end he embarked on a successful business career, presided over Wigan’s dominance of Rugby League and set his sights on exposing the received wisdom that the big clubs will always succeed in football. A fight that goes on. Dave Whelan: Playing to Win may not be more than the sum of its parts, but there are a lot of parts to deal with.
Usually I can tell whether a biography will be successful or not, occasionally I’m stumped. So what do you do with Lawro, the Autobiography by Mark Lawrenson? Bizarrely thatched, fey of voice, possessor of a dry wit and a careworn expression housed in one of the most lived in faces you’ll ever see…and that’s after the moustache was removed. To give him his due he was a decent player, a ball playing defender and ahead of his time. He was an integral member of a very good Liverpool side and his reward was to cast judgement on lesser mortals for the rest of his life. You can’t ignore the negative though, as a member of the Liverpool media mafia he gets a little too much air time and in a world inhabited by awful shirts he plumbs new depths.
Everyone likes a maverick, a footballing genius who could not be tamed by Continental or International glory. Matthew Le Tissier is the latest (and maybe the last) of this rare breed. Legendary on the Solent, he graced football pitches up and down the land like a twinkle toed baby hippo! Unquestionably talented but unfortunate to be around at the tail end of an era where individualism was to be treated like a dose of Indigestion. As the title Taking Le Tiss suggests he’s not afraid to be self deprecating but the big question is how much detail he will spill on his tryst with Home and Away’s Marylin!
Perhaps the least well-known footballer’s memoir is possibly the most entertaining. Graham Joyce, a Writer, was 52 when he was called up to keep goal for his country. His retirement busting performance for the England Writers XI, a chronically-unskilled collection of scribblers who can't let go of their fantasies about being real footballers, was the inspiration for his goalkeeping memoir Simple Keeping Made Spectacular.
It’s very funny and will raise knowing smiles from all of us who harboured and probably still harbour resentment against the damned luck that prevented our own glorious careers.
Beyond the biographies there are some interesting footy related titles kicking around, most notably Jelleyman’s Thrown a Wobbly, Jeff Stelling’s book version of that Saturday afternoon staple, Soccer Saturday. I’ve waxed lyrical about Stelling on these pages before, but it is remarkable that watching four inarticulate ex-pro’s watch a game of football and fail to talk sensibly at the same time, could be so compelling. The secret is Stelling; I know he’s only mastered the ability to talk while listening to information but to do it with such panache as well as control his mostly tame footballers is brilliant. The title is a key to his talent. He had that line ready for years, waiting for journeyman pro Gareth Jelleyman to get sent off…finally it happened and Stelling pounced. Had Motson been given the same line he’d have crow barred it in at the earliest opportunity.
Another commentator on the ridiculous nature of football is Barney Ronay and his latest target is The Manager. He charts the transition from the sponge and whistle toting tubby bloke in a tracksuit, to the designer coated, stubbled and tactical wizards they are now. In reality it’s an opportunity to trot out anecdotes about our favourite managers, but Ronay has a good eye and there are one or two surprises too.
Why England Lose and other curious Football Phenomena Explained may promise more than you’d expect it to deliver but there must be some benefit in having Simon Kuper involved. Kuper is established as a great writer on the world game and as this book aims to answer some of the great football questions having him around may provide some very insightful answers.
On a more serious note, Every Boy’s Dream by Chris Green addresses our inability to nurture talented young footballers despite having the best league in Europe. It’s an important point, there’s nothing in this book that you’d argue with and I welcome the blueprint for the future of English Football. But is it a book? There is something of the expanded article about this, a two part expose in Four Four Two maybe? Perhaps I’m being a little unfair, it’s certainly worth talking about.
Finally I crave your indulgence, a book about the banners of Liverpool FC (Liverpool FC Banners) is of limited interest, I’m not really interested, (I am...and I’m not an LFC fan – Ed who’s admired the scousers’ unique banners for years) but if it contains a photo of possibly the greatest banner ever created then it’s worth the £9.99 they are asking.
Sometime in the nineties, obviously at a time when Joe Royle was managing their arch rivals Everton, Liverpool was playing an early round of the European Cup or Uefa Cup in Norway. It was a small ground and there was a decent away following. In amongst the red scarves and declarations of deity status for Robbie Fowler a crisp white sheet was daubed with five simple and clear words, JOE ROYLE’S BIG FAT HEAD. Genius!
So there you go, that gets you as far as September when the big books for Christmas start appearing. Don’t forget that those hardy perennials, the Sky Sports Football Yearbook and Playfair Football Annual hit the shelves. Plenty to keep you going I think.
State of the Art
9780007281251 Jelleyman’s Thrown a Wobbly, Jeff Stelling Harper Collins £15.99
9780230706347 Cantona: the Rebel who would be King, Phillipe Auclair. Macmillan £17.99
9781847442505 The Manager, Barney Ronay, Hodder and Stoughton £14.99
978007310913 Taking Le Tiss, Matt Le Tissier, Harper Collins £18.99
9781845134617 Dave Whelan: Playing to Win. Dave Whelan. £18.99
9780593062135 Ossie Ardiles the Autobiography £18.99
9780718154806 Lawro: The Autobiography, Penguin, £18.99
9781845964474 Simple Goalkeeping Made Spectacular, Graham Joyce. Mainstream £9.99
9780755319473 Sky Sports Football Yearbook, headline £35
9780007301119 Why England Lose and other Curious Phenomena Explained, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, Harper Collins £15.99
9780755319633 Playfair Football Annual 2009-10, headline 6.99
978-1408112168 Every Boy’s Dream: England’s Football Future on the Line, A&C Black, £9.99
978-1906802028 Liverpool FC Banners, Trinity Mirror, £9.99
Bloody Nostalgia
9781845134709 The Unforgiven, Rob Bagchi & Paul Rogerson, Aurum Press £8.99
Old Big ‘Ead The Wit and Wisdom of Brian Clough compiled by Duncan Hamilton, Aurum Press £8.99
Provided You Don’t Kiss Me by Duncan Hamilton
9780091928636 Clough’s War. Don Shaw, Ebury Press £16.99
9781845964344 The Worst of Friends, Colin Schindler. Mainstream £17.99
9781847371850 The Last Game, Jason Cowley. Simon & Schuster £14.99
9781845964450 We are the Damned United by Phil Rostron, Mainstream £12.99
9780955246623 150BC by Dave Armitage. Hot Air £18.99
History Men
9781845134099 Fighting for Football, George Myerson. Aurum press £14.99
9780007251155 Comrade Jim, Jim Riordan, Harper Collins £7.99
978-1844547760 In The Shadow of a Giant, Mel Charles, John Blake £15.99
