johnny jigsaw
"My life's in pieces"
Published 2000 or 2001. Covers up to his retirement from the game with Red Star Paris or something or other. Think it's still readily available in the shops.
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Football reads
- Thread starter Withdean Wanderer
- Start date
Published 2000 or 2001. Covers up to his retirement from the game with Red Star Paris or something or other. Think it's still readily available in the shops.
fenech1elphick1
New member
thedonkeycentrehalf
Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
- Jul 7, 2003
- 9,322
Not that new but The Damned United by David Peace is a semi-fictionalal about Cloughies time at Leeds and is a good read.
Best football related book I have ever read though is Dynamo by Andy Dougan. The book description on Amazon is:
In 1942 at the centre point of the Second World War an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. A match was arranged between a German Luftwaffe side and a team of impoverished Kievans from a local bakery - Start FC - that became the subject of legend. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen.
When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept East, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire Second World War were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, arguably the best in Europe before the war .
Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery. Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of which the team win handsomely. To such an extent that they inspired Kievan spirits.
The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal. Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction and restoring to the centre of WW2 a moment of extraordinary poignancy and complex bravery, of which the clichi is demonstrably true: football is not a matter of life or death; it's much more important than that.
Best football related book I have ever read though is Dynamo by Andy Dougan. The book description on Amazon is:
In 1942 at the centre point of the Second World War an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. A match was arranged between a German Luftwaffe side and a team of impoverished Kievans from a local bakery - Start FC - that became the subject of legend. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen.
When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept East, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire Second World War were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, arguably the best in Europe before the war .
Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery. Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of which the team win handsomely. To such an extent that they inspired Kievan spirits.
The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal. Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction and restoring to the centre of WW2 a moment of extraordinary poignancy and complex bravery, of which the clichi is demonstrably true: football is not a matter of life or death; it's much more important than that.
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,854
Yeah - good book, if a bit short.
You really have to a football fan to appreciate it.
The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story, by Paul McGuigan and Paolo Hewitt
Is supposed to be a great read, but never got round to reading it.
I can recommend Micky Quinn - Who Ate All The Pies
Withdean Wanderer
Banned
- Thread starter
- #25
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,854
Has anyone read this - I've been tempted, but never got round to it....
Norman Potting
Well-known member
As mentioned elsewhere I would heartily endorse "The Damned United" by David Peace (the Albion do feature) as a fine piece of "faction".
"My father and other working class football heroes" by Gary Imlach is an eye opening account of first division (remember that) football in the fifties and sixties by the son of a star player of the era, John Imlach.
As one of the reviewers suggests it should be compulsory reading for all premiership players. I am pretty confident that none of them have ever had to cycle home after training, cycle back with their toolbag and fix some broken seats in the stand as the subject of the book did!
"My father and other working class football heroes" by Gary Imlach is an eye opening account of first division (remember that) football in the fifties and sixties by the son of a star player of the era, John Imlach.
As one of the reviewers suggests it should be compulsory reading for all premiership players. I am pretty confident that none of them have ever had to cycle home after training, cycle back with their toolbag and fix some broken seats in the stand as the subject of the book did!
1234andcounting
Well-known member
- Mar 31, 2008
- 1,609
Footballer autobiographies are crap, by and large. Spoiled adolescents who have done f... all with their lives apart from kick a ball about. If you want to read autobiographies, read ones about people who have actually done something - politicians, writers, film directors, even business ffs.
Otherwise, stick to football books about football in general. These are quite old, but you will be hard pushed to find a more intelligent book than Football Against The Enemy by Simon Kuper or a funnier book than The Far Corner by Harry Pearson.
Otherwise, stick to football books about football in general. These are quite old, but you will be hard pushed to find a more intelligent book than Football Against The Enemy by Simon Kuper or a funnier book than The Far Corner by Harry Pearson.
1234andcounting
Well-known member
- Mar 31, 2008
- 1,609
Has anyone read this - I've been tempted, but never got round to it....
Very funny. I've got it pm me and I will bring it along and hand it over.
SussexHoop
New member
- Dec 7, 2003
- 887
Colin Shindler - Manchester United ruined my life
Braders
Abi Fletchers Gimpboy
i've been tempted to get that for a while , might order that later..
erm .. can echo the Tony Cascarino one , Brian Cloughs is pretty good too as is (if you can get hold of it) Harry Redknapps
non- autobiography wise i also echo floodlit dreams , but the damned united is a good read too as is Robin Friday - the greatest footballer you never saw
WW- guessing you've read Adrian Chiles " we don't know what we're doing" ?
Withdean Wanderer
Banned
- Thread starter
- #33
It's a great book - but don't expect pages of your anti Neville/Ronaldo/anyone connected with them drivel!!
I haven't - any good?sullyshuffle
Member
Adrian Chiles wrote an interesting book following the other Albion through a season (2005/06) home and away, and trying to put the point of view across that supporting your team is a life long passion. Total obsession for the club! Have just finished it, and there are so many instances that he relives such as superstitions, having to tell the wife that you have a re-arranged match to atend etc, that happens to many of us!
"We don't know what we're doing"
"We don't know what we're doing"
KZNSeagull
Well-known member
As mentioned already, Brian Cloughs book is good, but the best I have read is "The Way it Was" by Stanley Matthews.
SeagullRic
New member
Only a game by Eamon Dunphy- A diary kept throughout a season at Millwall. An Ineresting read.