Book Review: The Hooligans Are Still Among Us by Michael Layton and Bill Rogerson

Books about football hooliganism by those involved in it has become an industry in itself, so to get to read and review a title offering a view from the side of the police is a welcome change. Authors Michael Layton and Bill Rogerson can rightly speak from years of experience with long careers in the British Transport Police, having witnessed at first-hand ‘action’ on the frontline.

One interesting thing to note from the off when reading this book is the title. The Hooligans Are Still Among Us is emblazoned across the front cover, and appears to stand as a statement or fact, that this is the current situation. This seems slightly at odds then with the Foreword from Paul Robb QPM in which he asks the reader, Are the hooligans still amongst us? If this is one of the purposes of the book in posing the question and then the content providing evidence one way or another, would it not make sense for the book title to have been in the form of a question rather than a statement?

Over the various chapters the authors cover the early years of hooliganism and the rise of what has become describe as the ‘English disease’ from the 1960s, before focusing on events in the 2015/16 season and the 2016 European Championship Finals in France.

The 2015/16 campaign is detailed through various accounts from officers on duty and records of disturbances up and down the country on trains, stations and stadiums in the chapters, Hooligans on the Move and Disorder on the Streets and at Stadiums. The sheer volume of the reports indicates that the issue of hooliganism is still with us, but the chronological detailing can come across as a rather dry read at times.

Given this book was published in 2017, it was interesting to read about the issue with Russians hooligans in the Euros a year earlier and the concern that at the 2018 World Cup, there would be a serious problems. However, as we know the tournament passed off without major incident and the organised gangs seen in France were not in evidence.

The later chapters then move onto issues such as racism and sectarianism, a look at the more infamous firms and the change in policing methods as the fight to combat hooliganism continues. As with some of the earlier content, the outline details of the Clubs with notorious hooligans becomes rather listee and are so brief that one wonders what purpose they actually achieve. It would perhaps have been more interesting to read more detail about the future and the issues at non-league level as those banned from the professional game take advantage of games with next to no policing and limited stewarding, further down the football pyramid.

As someone who regularly attends football up and down the country and allied to the reported incidents during the current season (2018/19), it is apparent that whilst there are not the issues in the grounds that pervaded at the height of the problem back in the day, hooliganism is still with us.

 

 

 

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Book Review: I am Football by Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of most iconic names in football – something the man himself, famed for his limitless self-assurance, would surely not only corroborate but probably even propose. After all, this is the man who has referred to himself as a god and whose new book is titled I Am Football. There is no denying the fact that, in part because of this brazen chutzpah, Ibrahimovic has always been something of a divisive figure, both on and off the pitch, not only for spectators and media, but also amongst his own teammates and coaches, but the one thing that is unquestionable is his record.

Amongst other teams, Ibrahimovic has played for seven of the biggest clubs in football history – Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG and Manchester United. He has scored goals at for every team he has played for, in impressive quantities and important moments, racking up over 500 in total, and continues to do so at the age of 37 for LA Galaxy. He has won over thirty trophies with the teams he has played in, including league championships in four of the biggest competitions in the world (Eredivisie, Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1) as well as countless other individual awards. His records include being the only player to have played in the Champions League with seven teams (although the one black mark in his tally is the failure to win the competition), the only player to have scored in derbies in six countries and the only player to score in his first five league matches for Barcelona – records that neither the generation’s two leading players, Messi and Ronaldo, cannot match. And this book charts each of these milestones in Ibrahimovic’s journey from Malmo to Manchester United.

The chapters focus sequentially on each of the eight clubs he played for from 1999 to 2018, opening with a snapshot of his match, minutes, goals and assists stats, a picture and a Zlatan quote before an introduction to the context of each moment in Ibrahimovic’s career, which is followed up with images and quotes from the man himself, as well as contributions from teammates and coaches before a concluding assessment on his time at each club. It’s a really appealing and easy-to-read approach. But what really sells this book and makes it stand out from the crowd is the incredible design and finish of it – it’s clearly been lovingly and artistically put together, and rather than your average hardback sports autobiography, this has the appearance and gravitas, dare I say it, of something more akin to a bible. It is a book that visually grabs you and makes it clear its subject matter is intended to be viewed as something special, extraordinary. It’s a format that very much fits with a man who wants to make his mark, to turn heads, but it’s more than just a gimmick, it is genuinely a really stylish, well-packaged and put together creation, that, to my mind, suggests a refreshing, contemporary direction that sports books could take in the future to really develop the genre. Huge praise therefore must go to the creative and design team behind it, which includes Graphic Designer Sebastian Wadsted and Project Manager Martin Ransgart. There is nothing especially overly fussy or fancy inside the pages, just simple but hugely effective use of colours, spreads and imagery to create a beautiful, minimalist, sleek look. Even the way, the statistics – or rather Zlatistics (their word, not mine) – are displayed in a comprehensive chapter at the end of the book is engaging and visually appealing.

In terms of the content itself, the range of voices, from the book’s editor to Ibrahimovic’s teammates and coaches to the man himself, make for a more complete read. And whilst I am not sure this book will completely change perceptions about Ibrahimovic, it certainly gives a more rounded view of the man – no person, after all, is completely one thing, but Ibrahimovic, for whatever reason, has often been cast as the villain. The contributions from his teammates, and to some extent his coaches, are perhaps the most telling in their breakdown of this judgement. These are the people who spent the most time with him, day in, day out, who knew him off the pitch and on it, and their assessments – from greats such as Thierry Henry and Andrea Pirlo – are all markedly similar: Ibrahimovic, they all effectively concur, is indeed a strong personality, but above all a special footballing talent and a team player on the pitch, and off it, he is a funny and likeable character – very different to the troublemaker he has often been portrayed as. There is no denying his ego, many of the quotes from the man himself ooze it, but while some call it arrogance, the contributors tend to see it as self-confidence – a requisite for success. And success is exactly what Ibrahimovic has achieved throughout his two decades at the very top of the game. So maybe, as the title of the book suggests, he is, after all, football. There are definitely few who could argue with the Zlatistics.

Jade Craddock

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Book Review: George Best – A Memoir by Michael Parkinson

George Best died in November 2005, aged just 59, but his legend means that his name still lives on undiminished – and so too the interest in him. He was, unquestionably, a mercurial and complicated figure – a man who had it all but sadly couldn’t keep the demons away.

Lifelong friend Michael Parkinson saw Best at his highest and his lowest – both on and off the pitch – and thus writes this latest memoir from the privileged position both of Best’s friend but also as a journalist. As such it is equally a warm recollection and yet at times a critical assessment of this troubled character, compounded perhaps by what comes across as something of a lack of understanding about the nature of addiction. It is, of course, a difficult subject to broach, not least for someone close by watching another self-destruct, but it does feel as if the emphasis on Best’s troubles with alcohol are equated more often with a matter of choice than illness.

Best, it is repeated, is not a man who accepted pity, but the book does perhaps not have the empathy I had expected. I also found some of the writing quite unappealing, notably a couple of sections when Parkinson seemingly puts words and thoughts into Best’s head, which seems particularly strange given his reference to Best’s comment, ‘Nobody knows me’. In contrast, the book is at its strongest in the transcripted interviews with the man himself and the players and managers who knew him best on and around the pitch. Here we get to see both the awe at his footballing brilliance and the poignancy of a life derailed.

Best’s own assessment of the lack of support for footballers, the intrusion of the outside world and the philosophy of the British media are all particularly sad indictments and also understandable pressures on a young man upon whom the mantle of being the first real footballing superstar was thrust. What the book does do really well is it to pose some thought-provoking questions, not least about whether Best may have had a different experience had he been playing today, or whether even the support structures in place nowadays are really any better.

Another question that crops up is that perennial one of who is the best: Best, Messi or Ronaldo? But phrased not in terms of today but of Best’s era, it opens up the debate once more. Indeed, it is not a question of whether Best could have matched Messi and Ronaldo in the modern game but whether Messi and Ronaldo could have equalled Best in his era. It’s an interesting one, as too is that of how he would have fared under today’s managers. The portrait of Busby’s handling of him seems far removed from today’s footballing culture and makes you wonder just how Best’s career may have transpired under Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and, most intriguingly perhaps, Jose Mourinho.

The book ends with a reflection from Michael Parkinson’s son, Michael Junior, and it is perhaps one of the most touching moments of the memoir, as the junior Parkinson remembers having a kickaround with Best in the garden – or rather, as it turned out, a run around for the Parkinson boys as they chased United’s unplayable winger – a funny set piece in many ways but also a somewhat perfect portrait of both the joy and isolation football brought Best.

Whether or not you played football with Best in the back garden, watched him rule the pitch and fall from grace or know only of him through the reflections of the previous generation, you can’t help closing this book with a sense of loss, of what might have been. And though Messi and Ronaldo rule the roost today, despite his troubles, Best’s name continues to reverberate with theirs, which would surely please the man who said, ‘If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.’ Fortunately, there is still a generation of people who think Best was the best player in the world, and maybe, just maybe, the greatest of all time.

Jade Craddock

 

 

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Book Review: Caught Beneath the Landslide – Manchester City in the 1990s by Tim Rich

Looking at today’s roll call of talent, the impressive Etihad Stadium and the record-breaking feats and trophy hauls of the last few years, it is almost impossible to conceive of a time when Manchester City weren’t at the height of English football.

But yet, somewhat unbelievably only a couple of decades ago, it was a very different story for the blue half of Manchester. Despite a veritable thrashing of their nearest neighbours and greatest rivals, Manchester United, in September 1989, 5-1 at Maine Road, the game signalled not the start of the glory days but rather the beginning of a downward spiral that would see them, at their lowest, languishing in the third tier of the English game in 1998/99, and it is these dark days of City’s recent past that Tim Rich chronicles in Caught Beneath the Landslide.

The success of the club’s youth team in 1986 and that victory over United three years later could have seen City dominate in the way that the Class of ‘92 did in the nineties, but behind the scenes unrest and mismanagement saw a very different outcome.

Rich’s tale of City’s fall from grace charts some of the key figures, decisions and players in these uncertain times and it is a fascinating reminder of just how far City fell in the mid-nineties – when their neighbours were celebrating an historic treble, Manchester City were celebrating winning the Play-offs in a dramatic game against Gillingham to be promoted after finishing third in the old Third Division.

However, their decline also highlights just how far they’ve risen from the ashes since then. It really is incredible to read the authors narrative of the City of old in the context of the City of today.

Manchester City fans, especially those who remember and were witness to, the turbulent years of the nineties, may not want to be reminded of this uneasy past, whilst the new generation of Cityzens who have grown up with a City side at least competing in, if not dominating, the top flight of English football are likely to find the history unthinkable, but either way it’s a significant backdrop to this club’s past and its present, a reminder that success is not a given, it is earned and can just as easily be lost.

Jade Craddock

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Book Review: Ticket to the Moon: Aston Villa – The Rise and Fall of a European Champion by Richard Sydenham

1976–77 Liverpool, 1977–78 Liverpool, 1978–79 Nottingham Forest, 1979–80 Nottingham Forest, 1980–81 Liverpool and 1981–82 Aston Villa. The run of European Cup wins, when England dominated the football landscape in a competition which bears little resemblance to the monster that succeeded it and today is misleadingly titled as the UEFA Champions League. Back then entry to the competition was only reserved for the respective Champions of their top divisions, and when Aston Villa lifted the English First Division title in 1980-81 their ticket into Europe was booked.

Author Richard Sydenham looks at the period from 1968 to 1990 through the book with that timespan broken into chapters detailing, The Rise, The Glory and The Fall of the Villa Park club as they climbed to the pinnacle of European football beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam.

On the plus side the book displays great research with Sydenham’s access to the main protagonists such as ex-Chairman Doug Ellis, the families of ex-manager’s Ron Saunders and Tony Barton and ex-players, providing an impressive line-up. Through this Sydenham provides a sound background to events on and off the pitch, establishing such points of interest, such as which players and staff were either pro-Ellis or pro-Saunders.

The author was also privileged in having access to Boardroom minutes, however, the general feeling as a reader was that where these were used in the book, that in the main they provided no great revelations and was a disappointing feature.

Given that Villa have never to date been able to reach the highs of the 1980-81 and 1981-82 campaigns, the book feels a little light on the details around those two historic seasons. Further, there are times when reading that the story felt less about the club, and instead wandered too often into a defence of Doug Ellis and his time at the helm of the club.

Finally, a couple of other observations. Firstly, the text size is pretty reader unfriendly in being quite small, and secondly the statistics sections seemed slightly odd in that both cover different periods, with a season by season results breakdown from 1974-75 to 1987-88, accompanied by a summary that covers 1968-69 to 1989-90.

The idea for the book is a sound one with some great source material, yet somehow it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

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Book Review: Alan Shearer – Fifty Defining Fixtures by Tony Matthews

This look at the career of Alan Shearer in the Fifty Defining Fixtures series from Amberley Publishing was released in 2016 and this website has reviewed a number of them including the editions on Brian Clough, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Jose Mourinho.

And to repeat what has been said before in those reviews, these books are not intended as a full biographical analysis of a player or manager’s career, but rather an overview which the author illustrates through their choice of key games. And in that regard, there is a place for this type of formulaic book, as long as they are done well.

Unfortunately, in the Shearer version, as with some of the others, the result is a bit of a mixed bag. The Introduction and Fact File are beneficial enough, but facts and figures are only useful if they are accurate. The author of this edition also produced the Ryan Giggs book and it appears that a key fact of the Manchester United legend found its way into the Shearer story, as Matthews states the Newcastle United star “played in 1,031 senior games for club and country”, figures which actually relate to Giggs sparkling career.

Again, comparing this edition with the Ryan Giggs book, both suffer from the same overuse of the exclamation mark and typos aplenty, leaving the reader with the impression that this would have benefited from decent proof-reading and editing.

It is ultimately a huge shame, because for a generation of young football fans, who only recognise Shearer as a BBC pundit on Match of the Day, this could have been a good introduction to a player who was certainly a brilliant centre-forward for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and England.

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Book Review: Red Card Roy: Sex, booze and early baths – the life of Britain’s wildest-ever footballer by Roy McDonough with Bernie Friend

If ever there was a book which delivered based on its title, then this is it. As the Ronseal advert of the 1990’s famously proclaimed, “it does what it says on the tin.”

This rumbustious roller-caster of a story is without doubt a page turner and details the career of Roy McDonough who was good enough to score in the top-flight for Birmingham City, but then found himself careering around the lower professional ranks with clubs including Cambridge United, Colchester United, Exeter City, Southend United and Walsall.

One of the overriding observations as a reader and which McDonough discusses in the Epilogue, is how different his career could have been, with a number of key incidents shaping the eventual path of his years in the game.

At sixteen and on the books of Aston Villa, McDonough received a six month ban from the game after assaulting the referee, effectively ending his association with the Villa Park club. However, he was taken on by Birmingham City and after signing professionally made a couple of appearances at the end of the 1976/77 season, scoring in the final day of the campaign at QPR. His expected progression into a first-team regular in the following season never materialised and frustrated by the lack of opportunities moves onto Walsall, just as the striking pair at Birmingham are injured which would have seen McDonough back playing in the First Division.

The growing resentment and frustration at having missed out on playing in the top-flight and an unhappy season at Chelsea after leaving Walsall, saw McDonough increasingly seek comfort in ‘booze and birds’ and characterised his playing career as he had spells with Southend United (twice), Colchester United (twice), Exeter City and Cambridge United. Despite the excesses of his social life, McDonough comes across as a player who gave nothing less than 100% when crossing the white line, gaining cult status at Roots Hall and Layer Road and indeed had success earning promotions with Walsall and Southend United as a player and promotion and an FA Trophy win at Wembley with Colchester United as player-manager.

McDonough was undoubtedly a centre-forward and occasional centre-half in the old style of somebody who put themselves about and his physical approach to the game led to his record number of 22 red cards. As on the pitch, this book pulls no punches and reputations of some of the biggest names in football are scattered to the winds. For example, in his career McDonough was managed by Sir Alf Ramsey (at Birmingham City), Sir Geoff Hurst (at Chelsea) and Bobby Moore (at Southend United), yet it is only the England skipper Moore who emerges with any real respect.

This is a book written in the language of the dressing room so if you are looking for a read that is PC then this particular story isn’t for you. Ultimately, it is a tale of a player and a game from a different era and is about as far away from the sanitised product that is the Premier League as you can get.

 

 

 

 

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Book Review: The Beautiful Badge – The Stories Behind the Football Club Badge by Martyn Routledge & Elspeth Wills

The Club badge. The symbol of your team. Worn on the shirt and in the modern area kissed by players as a show of their love and loyalty to the Club. And indeed, like the game of football itself something that has gone through a great transition.

This A4 sized beautifully illustrated ‘coffee table’ book looks at the history of the badge from its beginnings in the 1860s to their transformation as brand symbols for the biggest clubs around the globe today.

Over twelve chapters the authors demonstrate their extensive research as they look at topics such as the early history of badges, those influenced by coats of arms, badge design, iconic badges and even a reader’s quiz.

Those thinking that this book is just about the ‘big’ clubs, fear not, as the pages are littered with badges of professional and semi-professional clubs from across the UK and even a few fictional examples.

It is a book that will have a universal appeal to football fans and those interested in the games links with social history and is both a good read as well as visually stimulating. There is however one small gripe, which is that the font size of the silver-grey text on the illustrations is hard to discern in certain lights – slightly ironic in a book given over to the idea of design. However, this doesn’t detract to what is a welcome addition to the football book shelves.

Note: This review was based on the first run of the book. A second run has now been produced which has addressed the issue around the text on the illustrations.

 

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Book Review: Alfie Jones and a crisis of confidence by David Fuller

This is the sixth instalment from the Alfie Jones series which sees the central character dealing with issues related to football, his friends and school life.

Once again author David Fuller understands the pressures affecting youngsters growing up in a world which seems to be increasingly demanding day-by-day. In a football context Alfie and his friend Billy face the trauma of whether they will be kept on at their respective Academy’s and the implications this can have on young boys whose only dream at that age is to be a professional footballer.

Once boys and girls start to approach the teens, they have to deal with all that this period of change in their life brings, which as David Fuller explores in this book includes the ideas of uncertainty, trust and lack of confidence, about themselves, their friends and indeed their family.

As ever, the author has been able to take serious issues and provide a storyline which seeks to gives readers an idea of the emotional impact in a way they can understand, without being condescending.

What will be interesting to see, is how the teenage Alfie develops and how he copes with his life as the distractions and hormones that kick-in with adolescence, impact on his football, friends and family.

 

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Book Review: John Lyall – A Life in Football by Dr. Phil Stevens

When John Lyall was appointed West Ham United manager in 1974, he was only the fifth incumbent in the role for the Hammers and stayed until his sacking in 1989. Football was a very different game back then, in an era prior to Sky, the Premier League, foreign imports and wall-to-wall coverage on social media.

And perhaps then, rather aptly, this book does reflect this and is written in a gentle style belonging to a different age. An age of managers who were as we look back at that time, considered gentlemen, and included the likes of Sir Bobby Robson, Ron Greenwood, and indeed the subject of this biography, John Lyall.

The book is very traditional in its chronological timeline, with chapters taking the reader through the childhood of the Ilford born Lyall, through his playing youth and professional career at West Ham and his later coaching and managerial jobs at Upton Park and Ipswich Town.

Given that Lyall spent 34 years at the club both as player and manager, it is no surprise that the book is dominated by his time with the Hammers. The young full-back had four years in the youth team between 1955 and 1959, before making his senior debut in April 1959. However, his career was to be blighted by a serious knee injury that meant that he had to retire from the game in 1963 with less than 40 first-team appearances to his name.

Lyall was offered the position of Youth Manager and after proving to be a success and then later working alongside the Upton Park boss Ron Greenwood, took over the Hammers at the back end of 1974. The West Ham faithful were rewarded with years which saw the club win the FA Cup on two occasions (1974/75 and 1979/80), reach the European Cup Winners Cup Final in 1975/76 and the League Cup Final in 1980/81, and a third-place finish in the top-flight in 1985/86. Along with the good times, there were inevitability some bad times with relegations in both 1977/78 and 1988/89, the later seeing Lyall leave under a cloud despite his years of service to the club.  He then stepped back into football in 1990, getting Ipswich Town promoted to the newly created Premier League at the end of the 1991/92 campaign. His stay at Portman Road lasted until December 1994, when Lyall walked away from football for good, to spend as he had promised, more time with his family. Tragically though, Lyall died of a heart attack in 2006 aged just 66.

There is no doubt that author Dr. Phil Stevens has invested time a great deal of time to research and chronicle the life of one of West Ham’s true legendary figures. However, as a reader it felt as if for a large section of the beginning of the book that it was a generic look at the club rather than Lyall himself. The book would also has benefitted from a more rigorous proofreading, as there was inconsistency around the format of quotes used throughout and also errors such as the detailing of ‘EUFA’ instead of ‘UEFA’ and referring to Nottingham Forest as Notts Forest.

With West Ham now residents at the London Stadium, the book will provide a link and look back to some of the best years that fans at Upton Park had, under one of the true ‘gents’ of the English game.

 

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