book review – Page 11 – FOOTBALL BOOK REVIEWS (FBR)

Book Review: Introducing Jarrod Black – An Unashamed Football Novel by Texi Smith

When you think about team sport in Australia, what generally comes to mind is a country where Rugby League, Rugby Union, Cricket and Aussie Rules Football dominate. Soccer has had a fight to establish itself within the sporting consciousness of the nation.

The Australian’s national soccer team (nicknamed the Socceroos) qualified for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, but then had to wait 32 years before their next appearance in 2006 in a now unified Germany. Since then Australia have qualified for the subsequent tournaments in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

This change in fortunes can be in some way attributed to the formation of the A-League in April 2004 and a golden generation of players, some of whom who appeared in the English Premier League such as Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton, Harry Kewell, Lucas Neil, Mark Schwarzer and Mark Viduka.

Just as soccer has had to work to establish itself in the country, so author of Introducing Jarrod Black – An Unashamed Football Novel, Texi Smith, is looking to make a breakthrough. In speaking to Football Book Reviews (FBR) he said, “the Australian football fiction scene is definitely in its infancy, and I’m keen to help make it a thing.”

His first book tells the story of an Aussie-boy who makes his way from his homeland to England and begin a career in the professional game. In terms of timeline, the novel switches between the teenage years of Jarrod’s life in England and the present day in which the player now in his thirties is at a crossroads in his career.

The author provides a convincing glimpse into the life of a footballer, with this feelgood fiction having a feel of Roy of the Rovers at its heart. It is an engaging novel, which ensures the reader wants to know more about the characters. It is as its title suggests an introduction to Jarrod and accomplishes that, whilst at the same time having an entertaining plotline that sees resolution.

Appetite wetted? Then you won’t have to wait long for the next instalment as book two Jarrod Black – Hospital Pass is already published with a review here on FBR to follow.

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Five-a-side. Quick fire questions with Texi Smith – October 2019

Football Book Reviews (FBR) caught up with the writer of two football novels, Introducing Jarrod Black and Jarrod Black – Hospital Pass to get a bit of background on the author, Texi Smith.

1. FBR: Where does your love of football come from?

Texi Smith (TS): Despite coming from a town where there was no organised sport until under 9s, I was always surrounded by football. We played every night after school with the kids in the street, down the park or with a tennis ball in the street.

2. FBR: What team do you support?

TS: I’m a Newcastle United supporter first and foremost. After twenty years in Australia, I’m also a Sydney FC fan – it is common knowledge that Sydney is Sky Blue. That’s where I get my live football fix.

3. FBR: How did you get into writing?

TS: I was match reporter for the football team at University, then for teams I played in and coached. Additionally, I did a stint as newsletter editor for the local club here in Australia, which gave me an audience, and then made the progression to novels.

4. FBR: In your first novel, ‘Introducing Jarrod Black’, its setting is the North East of England, do you have connections to the area?

TS: Yes, I was born in Ashington (like Newcastle United legend, Jackie Milburn and the Charlton brothers, Bobby and Jack), and lived in Morpeth.

As a result, I followed the Toon around the country. All my immediate family all still live in the area, I left England when I was 18 – a reverse journey to Jarrod Black in the first book.

I get back once every couple of years, craftily timed to be when there’s a game on!

5. FBR: Both of your novels have “An Unashamed Football Novel” in the title. What’s behind that?

I guess it’s a tip of the hat to fellow novel writers who choose to write about what they love.

Also, if someone chooses to read one of these books, I don’t want them to say “…it’s just all about football.” – let’s call it a warning message before the reader makes that choice! Like the warning message on a packet of cigarettes.

For further information on Texi Smith, visit https://www.fairplaypublishing.com.au/texi-smith

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Book Review: From Triumph to Tragedy – The Chapecoense Story by Steven Bell

In this era of over-hyped, sensationalist media coverage, the words, ‘disaster’ or ‘tragedy’ are banded about in football like confetti, usually following a defeat for any Premier League club you’d care to mention. The reality is that down the years in the game there have been events that are genuine tragedies. These have included the loss of Italian side Torino’s squad in 1949, the deaths of many of Manchester United’s ‘Busby Babes’ in 1958, that of Peruvian club Alianza Lima in 1987 and the Zambia national team in 1993. The common factor linking all four, being that these disasters were as a result of plane crashes.

This sad list was added to on 26 November 2016, when Brazilian side Chapecoense who were travelling to the first-leg of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals in Columbia, saw their playing and management staff decimated in a crash that saw their plane plough into the forest mountain of Cerro Gordo.

Whilst Triumph to Tragedy – The Chapecoense Story details the awful events of that catastrophic event, the book expresses so much more about the Brazilian game and its footballing culture, quite an achievement for a book of only 223 pages. It manages this due to the fact that author Steven Bell has such a passion for the Brazil national team, nicknamed the Canarinhos (Little Canaries), his fascination with the World Cup and his love of the game at club level in the country.

The book follows Bell’s experiences beginning with him watching Brazil win the 1994 World Cup which took place in the USA and which led to him travelling to South America to see them host the 2014 tournament. That six week visit was the catalyst for his deeper interest in the game in Brazil and his discovery of a side based in the south of the country, Chapecoense. The author is cleverly able to combine the story of the Brazilian national side, who have one of the biggest kit deals in history with Nike, with a team that in 2006 was basically a non-league outfit on the verge of going out of business. This linking of paths is achieved because Bell highlights the 1994 World Cup winning Brazil squad under coach Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira, who weren’t in the tradition of the free-flowing sides of the past playing, O Jogo Bonito (the beautiful game), but instead adopted a pragmatic European style to lift the trophy. This change in approach was an influence as Chapecoense, nicknamed the Verdao (the Big Green) took on the mantel of underdog, a side willing to scrap and fight to survive and overcome more illustrious opposition.

The clubs incredible rise and promotions are well documented in the book and the author’s knowledge of the working of the Brazilian football organisation is very useful in understanding the State Championship system, promotion through the Serie divisions and the wider structure relationship within the game in South America as a whole, something very unfamiliar to those used to the rudiments of the pyramid system in England.

As a reader, you are introduced to some of the players, officials and management that came through the Big Green’s rise, and their individual stories are told in such a way that you connect with them. They are real people. Some who had harsh backgrounds, others whose careers were considered over, but all human, with wives, girlfriends, families and a love of the club. So, despite the fact that you know there is tragedy waiting in the story, it is still shocking and sad to read of the deaths of characters that Bell has warmly introduced.

The book doesn’t end with the crash and instead the final chapter details how the club, country and the footballing community dealt with the disaster, which lead the author to an interesting concluding observation.

Bell was in Brazil when the Canarinhos hosted the 2014 World Cup and the nation and its national side hoped to exorcise the demons of the 1950 World Cup loss to Uruguay, instead they were humiliated by Germany in the Semi-Finals 7-1. It was a night of tears and tantrums and of perceived national tragedy – Bell describes the aftermath in which, “Brazilian football was broken: Brazil as a nation was broken too.” Fast forward to 2018 in Russia and the book reflects a change in reaction following defeat to Belgium in the Quarter-Finals, with Bell’s opinion that the Chapecoense disaster had left the nation with the realisation that there is more to life than football.

Passado mas nao esquecido

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Book Review: Another Bloody Saturday – A Journey to the Heart and Soul of Football by Mat Guy

With the recent demise of Bury Football Club with its expulsion from the Football League after 134 years, this book first published in 2015, is a timely reminder of what loss means both in the footballing and human sense.

Author Mat Guy takes a diary format look at his journey through the 2014/15 season (with a couple of flashback chapters to 2006) as he seeks to celebrate, “all that is great with the game of football, as seen through the eyes of a club and fans rarely bothered by satellite television cameras and the riches of the elite game.” It takes him from an early season Europa League Qualifier in North Wales, to the Wessex League Premier Division over the Festive period, via the Faroe Islands and North Cyprus, with Accrington Stanley featuring large in the books twenty-six chapters.

From this book, it is evident that football for the author, like for so many other people, has become deeply embedded in his psyche. For example, the game and attending matches on his own brought solace for Guy when his father took his own life. Whilst the affection he had for his grandfather is warmly described in memories of the trips they took to watch Salisbury City play. However, like the authors’ father and grandfather, the club was taken away from him, when in 2014 the club was disbanded and with it the very physical presence of their ground Victoria Park and the memories it evoked.

The sense of loss is at the centre of the book, as is though the desire to once again feel the connection and almost child-like joy of attending games as he did with his grandfather.

Does Guy achieve this? Well, the author certainly takes in the full gamut of the football experience as the tradition, passion and volunteer spirit that enables non-league clubs to exist is detailed with his trips to games in the Wessex League. He also explores the rise of the Women’s game as he takes in a World Cup Qualifier, the 2014/15 WSL Cup Final and the momentous friendly international between England and Germany at Wembley.

The stand out chapters though are from 2006 as Guy reveals to the reader football experiences that the average fan in the UK will never get to, in trips to the outpost of the Faroe Islands and Northern Cyprus for the ELF Cup (Equality, Liberty, Fraternity), with Crimea, Gagauzia, Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Tibet, Northern Cyprus and Zanzibar, the participants.

However, nearly a third of the chapters are devoted to Guy and his fellow travellers as they find a new ‘home’ in the guise of Accrington Stanley. It is somehow fitting that for the author his connection to the game and what he feels is at the heart and soul of the match experience is found in a club that folded back in 1966, only to be reborn in 1968 and once more find its way back into the Football League. Guy is won over by the honesty, the friendliness and eccentricity of the those who follow ‘Stanley’ home and away and the people working to keep the club operating.

The finding of the connection at Accrington and indeed the writing of the book and the different experiences along the way, are no doubt a cathartic experience for Guy, who acknowledges in the final chapter that despite the loss of Salisbury City and the memories of his grandfather at Victoria Park, “it’s time to stop mourning, because it is all here in spirit.”

Right, now for all those associated with Bury FC, they will be consumed by grief and will be mourning the loss of their team and what it has meant to the town. All they have right now is memories, but Another Bloody Saturday gives us hope that there is a new future born out of the spirit of the past.

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Book Review: It Shouldn’t Happen to a Manager – How to survive the world’s hardest job by Harry Redknapp

Since his stint in the Australian jungle on I’m a Celebrity last year, Harry Redknapp has fast become the nation’s favourite former football manager (unless, of course, you’re a Southampton fan – in which case however many critters Harry ate or dingo dollars he won, he’s probably still not on your Christmas card list). Whatever your thoughts on him, there’s no doubt that he’s certainly a character both on the touchline and off it, and if anyone has a story or two to tell from his footballing career, it’s Harry Redknapp.

Published in 2016, when he was better known as a football manager (still managing Jordan before going on to manage Birmingham City in 2017) rather than a ‘showbiz’ celebrity, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Manager (one of several books to have been published by Harry Redknapp and the most recent aside from his 2019 The World According to Harry) shares some of Harry’s stories from over five decades in football and his views on everything from agents to scouting to the modern obsession with sports science and stats. And, without doubt, there’s a sense in which Harry is one of the old guard of managers who belong to another era when footballers thought nothing of a post-match meal of fish and chips (and a pre-match pint or two), when managers could bawl players out without the threat of them storming off or calling in their agent, and when clubs couldn’t afford to put teams up in hotels for away matches let alone fly them by private jet.

Football has, inevitably, evolved and in lots of ways for the better, but Harry’s simple, common-sense attitude rings true on a number of fronts, not least in his insistence on the need to see a player live to judge them. Videos and stats can show you so much, but there’s nothing that compares to watching a player on a muddy pitch on a cold December day in England to see if they can hack it, as many fans will attest. Similarly, Harry’s concerns about the way that technology can get in the way of team spirit seems to be a simple but accurate truth. Whereas coach journeys, he says, used to be a great opportunity for players to bond, nowadays most players put their headphones on and don’t talk to anyone. He offers a perceptive point, too, about the amount of injuries in the modern game compared with earlier eras, despite the rise of sport science. Whilst he acknowledges the modern game is perhaps faster and more intense, he also points out the physicality of bygone eras, in which players kicked lumps out of each other on pitches that were more like dirt tracks than carpets.

Though in many ways Harry seems to be a product of a different time, in some ways he’s a timeless manager, not least in the emphasis he placed on player management and a holistic approach to understanding and managing individuals. Again, though, simplicity seems to be the key – as in the way he built his “tactics” on getting the ball to the best player! Although, I’m not entirely sure how successful this approach would be in motivating players who clearly know they’re not top dog – but it seemed to work at Bournemouth, Tottenham and Portsmouth. Harry also claims that the gap between divisions isn’t as wide as people think – whilst the quality may be noticeable between teams and leagues, there are individual players who are capable of playing higher up the football pyramid but have got stuck at a certain level. Similarly, Redknapp asserts there are players at top teams who struggle when dropping down the leagues. He seems to advocate the fact that there is a degree of luck, of being in the right place at the right time, on which footballers’ careers are made or broken. And, in much of what he says, Redknapp seems to hit the nail on the head.

In all, this is a really easy and enjoyable read from one of football’s last real characters. It sheds light on life as a football player and manager and the changing face of both. It also holds football’s past up against its present, highlighting the differences, both for better and for worse. At its crux, Redknapp maintains, football is a simple game, but the modern way seems to try and overcomplicate things and the old guard are at the risk of being left behind. But football’s loss has been entertainment’s gain in the form of Harry Redknapp, who comes across as an eminently likeable, straightforward and down-to-earth man – just the sort perhaps that seems to be missing in large part from football today.

Jade Craddock

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Book Review: Europe United – 1 football fan. 1 crazy season. 55 UEFA nations by Matt Walker

Like many people, I consider myself something of a football fan. An ardent one at that. And then I came across Matt Walker’s book Europe United, and I realised I’m very much an armchair fan at best.

Walker, a keen traveller and football fan, decided to embark on something of a football expedition in the 2017/18 season that would see him watch a top-division match in all fifty-five UEFA nations (it certainly puts my twelve live matches last season to shame). I’m not sure I could even name the fifty-five UEFA nations! Not only was this a journey of epic proportions around the continent from Iceland and Scandinavia in the north, to Cyprus in the south, east to Azerbaijan and Armenia and west to Portugal and Ireland, but to undertake it in a single season was both a logistical and personal challenge. While football in Spain and Germany may be on most football fans’ bucket lists, I’m not sure the Faroe Islands Premier League or the Macedonian First Football League have quite the same appeal. Yet Matt Walker accomplished his European odyssey, starting out with the Erovnuli Liga – Georgia’s top flight – where else? – and traversing the continent over eleven football-filled months before ticking off his fifty-fifth and final leg with the Montenegrin First League, taking 54 flights and 6 ferry journeys, and spending over 200 nights in more than 100 hotels along the way.

This book charts each step of the journey and the highlights (and lowlights) of the travel arrangements, the countries, the football and the fans. Unsurprisingly, the book is fairly long for a sports book, at over 400 pages, but in some ways it feels as if this perhaps doesn’t even begin to do the experience justice, given just how much the journey would have entailed and the vagaries of the various matches. It’s impossible of course to cover every team, stadium, match and country in minute detail, without it turning into a contender for the world’s longest book, but what Walker gives is a glimpse into each of these experiences and an overall narrative.

As a keen photographer, Walker naturally charted his journey in photographic form too and there is a selection of these included in a centrepiece, in the usual sports book style. However, it does seem a shame that we only have a handful of each. It would have been nice to have at least one for each country as the bare minimum. A coffee-table collection of photographs is mooted in the book, and although the written narrative is crucial, I think, to do this journey justice, I would have been more than happy to see an accompanying photographic book too, although admittedly this would be a rather unusual approach for the publishers to take. Walker’s photographs are available to view on the website that tracks his adventure (www.55footballnations.com), and they are definitely worth a look. Similarly, for those fans who enjoy the stats side of the game, again I feel as if the publishers missed a trick by not including Walker’s comprehensive stats, even if only in an appendix at the end (again these can be found on Walker’s website).

However, none of this is to take away from what is a unique and truly awe-inspiring feat. The book itself is an informative and eye-opening read for football fans and offers an insight into the wider world of European football and an opportunity to reconsider the English game, and the sport more generally. Without question, all football lovers will learn a thing or two about the European game – if only a bit of geography – from this wide-ranging book. It’s also an inspirational and motivational book for fans looking to undertake and enjoy new football experiences. It’s a reminder that there is more to football than the English Premier League, but at the same time it’s also a testament to the quality and visibility of football at home. Though, if you’re ever getting tired of watching football in Manchester, Liverpool, London or the like, there’s always a game to catch in Gibraltar or San Marino, and who knows, it may just be more entertaining – off the pitch if not always on it.

Jade Craddock

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Book Review: Here We Go: Everton in the 1980s – The Players’ Stories by Simon Hart

(NOTE: This is the [revised and updated] paperback version, published in 2019, of the hardback edition which was published in 2016. 270pp)

To get the major (and perhaps only) criticism out of the way from the start, the book is written in the miniscule font 8! That is way too small for a comfortable read and it is great pity because the content is excellent. One can only conjecture that some financial constraint dictated the small font but, for whatever reason, it’s a shame!

Simon Hart’s book is a really enjoyable read and has an obvious audience of mature Evertonians who look back dewy-eyed at the successful years in the mid-80s. Its appeal is much wider, though, and ought to provide good reading for any (mature) football lover. It would be a waste of time trying for a younger audience, anyway, as few under 25 can probably be motivated to reading anything where you are required to actually turn pages.

The subtitle tells the necessary information about the book. It deals with Everton in the 1980s, told in a series of interviews with many but not all of the major players. Andy Gray, Graeme Sharp, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens, John Bailey, Alan Harper and Kevin Sheedy are all absent. Their input would surely have added much. Part of the appeal of it covering the whole decade is that some very drossy years sandwiched some exceptional ones where Everton were the best team in the land – and the club was the major sufferer from the European football ban imposed on English teams following the Heysel tragedy.

There are many hidden gems which Simon Hart patiently and skilfully reveals that would almost certainly be missing in a book about a decade of remorseless success. For example, having played football in North Wales in the same era as Neville Southall, I tend to believe his claim that, amongst all the football pitches covered in sheep, cow, dog shit, there was one with a telegraph pole in the middle, which they, presumably, treated like a roundabout.

A recurring feature of the story is how many footballers missed many games and/or shortened their careers by playing despite being injured; Mark Higgins and Paul Bracewell being among the number. The sharp contrast is made between those days and the modern era where players are simply not risked in the same way. The sheer variety of different characters and backgrounds allows Hart to build up a layered picture where everyone featured has an observation or anecdote of their own to add.

Under Howard Kendall’s inspired management, Everton won the FA Cup (in 1984), the League Championship twice (in 1985 & 1987), plus the European Cup Winners’ Cup (in 1985) beating Bayern Munich in the Semi-Final on the way to victory. Their win at Goodison Park was, by common consent, THE performance of the decade, after Kendall told the team who were losing 1-0 at half time to get the ball forward and the Gwladys Street would ‘suck the ball into the net.’ They did, three times.

The various contributions build up an affectionate picture of the inspired management team of Kendall and Colin Harvey that brought out the best in such a diverse group of players and, having actually seen Pat Van den Hauwe play many times, after reading his contribution, I am drawn to the conclusion that his nickname ‘Psycho Pat’ is probably a little on the understated side.

There is so much to like about the book and the ones who might have been deemed bit-part players often make the most telling contributions. The key factor is the feeling they all had or found for the club, none more so than the much-loved Harvey. Yet players did not need to have been Evertonians born and bred. That was encapsulated by Adrian Heath’s words. The bond was so strong, he felt, that they became ‘blood brothers’ and there was a love of club and a love of each other.

The only one who does not show that affectionate feeling, and never felt it, is Gary Lineker. Everything he says is fine and at least he was good enough to contribute at length, but it comes across unmistakably that, uniquely in this book, the pull of Everton which made a special mark on so many, for once did not work.

Graeme Garvey

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Book Review: Provided You Don’t Kiss Me – 20 Years with Brian Clough by Duncan Hamilton

Ghost-writing and writing about ghosts

Duncan Hamilton is haunted by the ghost of Brian Clough and it permeates much of his writing. He is fascinated not just by famous sporting characters but by relationships, especially between the living and the dead. A case in point is the book he was the ghost writer of, Johnny Bairstow’s autobiography A Clear Blue Sky. Hamilton understood so well the influence David Bairstow still exerted over his son, years after his death, because of how father-figure Clough continued to affect him in a similar way.

In his own name, Hamilton has written a number of acclaimed books but his breakthrough one was Provided You Don’t Kiss Me – 20 Years with Brian Clough. It could be said that he has done very well out of Clough. Apart from anything else, he won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for it in 2007. And, despite its imperfections, the book deserved that award, he had great subject matter but did an excellent job of it.

His journalistic career flourished, in no small part thanks to the access Clough allowed him into his crazy, zany and utterly distinctive world. That was where Hamilton developed his skills as a ghost writer and many of the newspaper pieces we believed were written by Clough himself were in reality Hamilton’s work.

In the following years, he followed up his success with a number of fine books including another William Hill winner, in 2009, on cricketer Harold Larwood. He had promised in a section at the end of 20 Years called ‘Provided You Do Kiss Me’, “I won’t be writing about Brian again.” That promise kind of held true for two whole years. Only kind of, as it can be argued that Old Big ‘ead: The Wit and Wisdom of Brian Clough is not written by Hamilton, only compiled by him. But I wonder if some of that ‘wit and wisdom’ had been ghosted by him in any case?

There is no doubt whatsoever that Hamilton was hugely fond of Clough but there are a number of things that catch the attention on (re)visiting the book. First of all, there is the nature of the relationship between Clough and the author. Hamilton was much younger and admits that he felt in some ways like a son. Then there is the relationship between Clough and Peter Taylor which Hamilton describes as being virtually like a marriage, even so far as the way it led to a messy divorce when they fell out permanently. It’s all very macho, like the relationship between Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. And there is a funny yet touching moment in the book where Clough admits that he does not know how to cope with Justin Fashanu, whose homosexuality made his manager feel uncomfortable. Such was Fashanu’s fear of him and need to win his approval that Clough commented, “If I say, ‘Good morning’ to him, he bursts into tears.”

But in this very male world described by the author, two things stand out in particular; Brian Clough was married, to Barbara, from 1959 till his death 45 years later and yet she plays a much less significant and no more real role in the book than Norman Bates’s mother does in Psycho. Her total absence is very surprising and most noticeable during Clough’s descent into alcoholism. The great manager is depicted by the author as a totally isolated individual and there are strong hints that Hamilton became much closer to him after Clough’s friendship ended with Taylor than either his actual wife or children, including Nigel who played for him at Nottingham Forest.

This leads to the second point. Duncan Hamilton was clearly very fond of Clough and in many ways idolised him. Perhaps this reason, alongside his journalistic objectivity, is why he did nothing to try to help Clough out of the chronic alcoholism that destroyed him. This idol seems to have been so daunting when alive that he separated himself from other people, a bitter irony for a self-confessed champagne socialist but then, after death, his ghost began its haunting. He was abandoned by people as his face blotched with all the alcohol, his reputation suffered as his bung-rumoured corruption started to mirror that of his nemesis Don Revie and a second liver was given a severe bashing. Once safely dead, people could then begin to sorely miss Old Big ‘Ead.

Graeme Garvey

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Book Review: The Greatest Comeback – From Genocide To Football Glory by David Bolchover

In 2012, renown sportswriter and journalist, Anthony Clavane released a book titled, Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here, which focused on the exploration of, “the role of Jews in English football’s transformation from a working-class pursuit played in the crumbling arenas to a global entertainment industry”. He did so by looking at the stories of eleven key figures (although many others are detailed in the book), through three stages to illustrate the integration of Jews into English society.

Adding to this list of writing uncovering the influence of Jews in the global game is David Bolchover’s, The Greatest Comeback – From Genocide To Football Glory, which looks at the life of Bela Guttmann, a name more likely to be recognised and revered in Portugal than anywhere else in Europe. The reason for this, being that this player and influential coach born in Budapest, went on to win two successive European Cups in 1960/61 and 1961/62 with Lisbon based, Benfica.

As with Clavane’s book, Bolchover is not just focusing on the game of football and there are wider issues explored. In the case of Guttmann’s story, each of the eleven chapters is proceeded by some historical context which details the persecution of Jews at various times and places around the world. Whilst harrowing to read, the graphic details help the reader understand that Jews have been targeted down the years, and not just in the Holocaust. As is understandable from a Jewish author, Bolchover explores the hatred and prejudice that Jews experienced through Guttmann’s life, and the timeline of his football playing and coaching career.

Guttmann’s professional career saw him playing from 1919 to 1933 chiefly as a midfielder, winning the Hungarian title in 1919/20 with MTK Hungaria FC, the Austrian Championship in 1920/21 with SC Hakoah Wien and the National Challenge Cup in the USA with New York Hakoah in 1929. In addition, he earned six caps for Hungary between 1921 and 1924. The Hakoah Wien side was considered to be a force to be reckoned with and in touring the USA during 1926 drew large crowds on an extensive tour. Once he finished playing, Guttmann turned to coaching, taking charge of SC Hakoah Wien, Enschede, Hakoah Wien and Ujpest, in spells of two years or less, which were to be symptomatic of his length of stays at Clubs after the Second World War. At Ujpest he managed the side to the Hungarian League title in 1938/39 and won the Mitropa Cup in 1939.

Previous to Bolchover’s book, the truth around Guttmann’s whereabouts during the Second World War were unclear. However, the author discovers that Guttmann spent time hidden in an attic of his brother-in-law’s in Ujpest and then was in a Labour Camp. Resuming coaching with Vasas SC in Hungary in 1945, Guttmann went on to work with another nineteen clubs, finishing at Porto in 1973 and a brief spell in 1964 as Austrian National Coach. During that 28 spell he plied his trade in in a nomadic journey through Hungary, Romania, Italy, Argentina, Cyprus, Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay, Switzerland, Greece and Austria; winning trophies with Ujpest, Sao Paulo, Porto and Benfica.

However, this story about a coach influential in the development of the 4-2-4 playing system, doesn’t hold back in reflecting the darker side of Guttmann’s character, for which Bolchover is to be commended. Details of his involvement in a hit-and-run death in Milan in 1955 are laid out for the reader as is the gambling problem that Guttmann had, which the author contends may have been part of the reason why the coach went on working until he was 74. Guttmann was also very much a man who demanded that things by his players and Directors were done his way, and in the cases where this didn’t occur he walked away or was removed from his roles at Honved, AC Milan and Benfica.

Amongst a book that it is a recommended read (and rightly nominated in the 2017 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Short-list), is a telling story about how little Guttmann was recognised in England and indeed the parochialism in the English game. In 1962 after leaving Benfica and having won a second successive European Cup, he had “two firm offers for his services…both from teams whose name began with a ‘P’. There was Penarol, the best club team in the world, reigning champions of Uruguay and South America and holders of the Intercontinental Cup…and there was Port Vale, having just finished twelfth in the Third Division of the English League.”

An incredible career, an incredible character and no ordinary read about a coach who was an influence on the way the game is played today and a survivor of the worst genocide in history.

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Book Review: The Making of the Women’s World Cup – Defining stories from a sport’s coming of age by Kieran Theivam and Jeff Kassouf

With all eyes on France this summer for the eighth FIFA Women’s World Cup, Kieran Theivam and Jeff Kassouf’s The Making of the Women’s World Cup is a timely and welcome read, reminding us of the unfairly stunted history of the women’s tournament, how far it has come in its officially short-lived existence and how far it still has to go if parity with the men’s game is ever to be achieved. But the overriding message that leaps from the pages of this book is of the incredible people – both female and male, on and off the pitch – who have fought every step of the way to raise the profile and quality of the women’s game and continue to do so. This book itself is part of that process and its authors and publishers deserve great credit for their contribution.

In ten insightful chapters, the book takes the reader through some of the most defining moments in the history of the Women’s World Cup – the first chapter, which looks at the competition’s early years, a shocking reminder that the women’s format is only its second decade – having been introduced, albeit in a watered-down version, in 1991 – some nearly sixty years after the men’s inaugural tournament in 1930. Viewed in these terms, the success of the women’s game is even more impressive – and begs the question of quite where it will be in another two decades. Indeed, the stories in this book show the incredible leaps women’s football has made in such a short period in everything from training and talent development to nutrition and spectators. Some of the anecdotes that are told by those who have been involved throughout the tournament’s development are genuinely astonishing, but sadly all too real. That many prodigious female footballers did not have the opportunity to be involved in a World Cup prior to its emergence in 1991 is surely one of the most poignant takeaways from this book – all the more reason to celebrate and promote the tournament today.

With the book beginning at the start of the World Cup journey, I had anticipated a chronological development to the chapters, but the structure takes a more thematic approach, focusing on some of the key players, individuals and teams who have defined the various stages of the game’s development. The main guard are well and truly covered – with chapters dedicated to the US, English, Japanese and German teams, as well as figures including Marta, Kelly Smith and Carli Lloyd. Other chapters focus on lesser-known histories including that of the Matildas – the Australian women’s football team – and the inspirational Japanese side of 2011, and the book is peppered with the names of a vast array of coaches and players who have similarly contributed to the game’s history.

I did feel, though, that the book is somewhat US-centric. Of course, given America’s unprecedented success – they are the only country to have won the tournament three times, prior to the 2019 competition – and the way they have arguably been at the forefront of the female game, this is somewhat understandable. However, it made other nations, such as, in particular, Sweden and Norway, all the more conspicuous by their absence, and indeed it would have also been nice to hear the stories of the less-dominant teams, who perhaps have had an even bigger struggle just to develop a women’s team, let alone qualify for or compete at a World Cup. Certainly, on the back of the current competition, there would, for example, be an argument for including the stories of Chile, Jamaica, Scotland and South Africa – all of whom make their World Cup debuts this year. But if there is one thing that this book underlines it is the continual drive and ambition of the women’s game – so whilst it marks the starting point of the journey, there is very clearly a lot more history yet to come, and Theivam and Kassouf have merely begun the conversation.

Jade Craddock

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