Bad news Harold, a bigger draw on the circuit this week flogging poorly remembered opinions. Most of the juicy bits seem to be in the press already, or at least the Times this morning. Ferguson, undoubtedly a genius of a manager, is obviously also undoubtedly a nasty piece of work (for legal reasons 'in my opinion' inserted here). Slags off plenty of players who sweated blood for him (in return for money of course), because they may have voiced an opinion or done something not in line with his diktats. I'm sure there is a big market of ersatz Urinals fans who will buy this, but surely SAF doesn't need the cash. Can only conclude that he is a vindictive old git, suffering from being out of the limelight already. I've never read a 'football autobiography'. Tried Stuart Pearce's 'Psycho', because it was bought for me and I'd heard he was a punk fan. Unreadable (as in very poorly written, probably not by Pearce) and he's not really a psycho, just an electrician made good. My favourite football reads: A Season with Verona - Tim Parks - home and away with a struggling Serie A team, very funny Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby. We all know its the Gooners, but gets the angst of the supporter perfectly All Played Out - Pete Davies - brilliant story of the 1990 World Cup, great access to the players but a much broader scope. Description of the semi final brought a tear to my eye. The Damned Utd was very heavy and depressing, the film was much more fun. I don't count the tons of books about hooligans like The Football Factory, they are violent voyeurism rather than about football (in my opinion).... Sorry, got a bit distracted.....any suggestions for other good football books gratefully received.
Ferguson? Is that the big woman who used to be on Eastenders? Didn't know she was into football or had a stormy affair with Beckham.
Can't think of any football ABs that I've enjoyed. I read the Tony Adams one and he just came across as a big-headed bastard, even when he was talking about his alcoholic depravity. Loved the film of The Damned United.
Loved the bit about "he (beckham) thought he was bigger than me and tried to find fame, one day he'll realise his mistake and perhaps apologise, haha Effie ha the red faced twat
I've generally tried to steer clear of autobiographies as they're generally rather tedious affairs full of "I did this...", then "I did that..." and "needless to say I had the last laugh..." Sporting ones are particularly bad as they're often about individuals lacking in intelligence and good grace. I read Warnock's and Bowles', neither of which were exactly riveting. The three autos that I've most enjoyed we're those of Michael Caine, Ray Davies and Bob Monkhouse.
Agree Uber. Best AB I have ever read was Keith Richards, absolutely riveting What those guys got up to with drugs, alcohol and women.....amazing they are still alive to tell the tale
Oh dear I tend to agree on autobiographies as well. I liked Keef's and Caine's, am intrigued by Ray Davies'. He's a contender for the title of Greatest Living Englishman alongside Nick Lowe and John Lydon (well Anglo-Irishman in his case).
What I liked about X-Ray is that he wrote it in the third person and involved a story in which a young reporter goes to interview an extremely old, cynical and bitter Raymondo. Just a bit different to the usual kakk. Christ, we both admire Nick Lowe too! You'll be telling me that both Squeeze and XTC are hugely underrated great quintessentially English bands next.
Good tip, KFDH, I'll take a gander once I've fulfilled my ambition of finally reading the Flashman Papers. Fourth book in and they're great Boys Own-type tales of, in Flashman's case, derring don't.
This is becoming creepy. Squeeze - proper songwriting genius, XTC - superbly off kilter eccentricity, and Flashman.....just got my 17 year old son into these, he's on the third book. I must have read all of them at least twice. Great fun and great history. The universe is not safe Ubes.
Difficult to know in which order to read Flashman, so opted for his timeline chronology rather than the order in which they were published.
I thought Warnock's book was a real good read. Showed us what happened behind closed doors. Like the situation with Fitz
That's what the boy is doing, I started at random (some time in the early 80s) and then read as they were published. Not a bad one among them, but my favourite is The Great Game. Real shame McDonald Fraser died before writing Flashman in the US Civil War, where hints from other books indicate he fought as a Colonel on both sides and ended up with the Congressional Medal of Honour. Priceless.
Have to say I read it (after much persuasion) & i thought it was a pile of sh*te. A book that told us nothing we didnt really know and allit did was give us excuse after excuse throughout his whole carrer. Why nothing went right for him. How he never got it wrong it was always someone or something else....bol**x! It changed nothing regarding how I felt about him. I still dont like the bloke but acknowledge that he was what our club needed at that time. I thank him for what he achieved and thats it! Big headed, self centred loud mouth who knows it all IMO. Sorry !
SAF was to me always a sour old **** He bullied there is no doubt Game better off without him now Used to hate the way United got a lot of decisions go their way as his and their power grew The brainwashed public would think he was English at one point and United and him commanded millions of arm chair fans ... Thankfully we are entering a time where they are dissolving United however produced some brilliant footballers and I give him credit for those
If you have never read Stan Bowles autobiography tou have really missed something. The stories and anecdotes he writes about are amazing.
I may have imagined it, but I think I read somewhere a suggestion that GMF's son might pick up the reins? I'm only on the fourth book of my tour, which is Flashman & The Mountain Of Light, but have enjoyed every word of the first three and this to date. I ordered the DVD of Royal Flash after reading the book and it was complete pants. I think the books would make a great film/TV mini-series (on a large budget, like with Sharpe) but only if it was played out more seriously and they don't fall into the mistake of trying to make it overly comedic.
Definition of contrarian = Queenslander. I will always have a soft spot for Warnock (and dare 1 say it Taarabt) for the season of joy that they gave us.
