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    Alex Stepney's self titled autobiography is a decent read, he really didn't see eye to eye with the Doc and gets a lot off his chest about it

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      Cheers elguapo. I'll keep an eye out for that.

      I have Peter Shilton's autobiography in my 'to read' pile. I've heard it's a bit dull though.

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        The Goalkeeper's History of Britain by Peter Chapman is one of my favourite football books. While, as often documented, Goalkeepers are Different by Brian Glanville is my favourite football novel, even though it was aimed at boys. There is no other book I've read as often - seven times as a kid, and then once more again a few years back around the turn of the century when I re-appraised it for WSC in their Classics of Football Literature series. That not only prompted Virgin to re-publish it, but also a personal thank-you letter to WSC from Mr G where he called my review "generous", implying that I thought the book was better than he maybe did.

        I rarely read player autobiographies, though. You can just read the reviews to find out if they said anything interesting.

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          Older autobiographies are interesting in capturing what was acceptable language and behaviour e.g. Grobbelaar's anecdotes that are basically him saying racist things to black team-mates, or Jennings saying that player simulation would make people think football players are "poofs".
          Last edited by Patrick Thistle; 17-09-2017, 22:37.

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            Thanks for the recommendations. I'll add them to my wants list

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              Trautmann's story sounds like interesting postwar social history. I think I would be throwing the Grobbelaar, Shilton and Jennings books across the room. Bob Wilson's book is worth it for the chapter on his daughter. Beautiful work.

              Commentator books - Brian Moore is more modest and generous than Motson or Davies; the latter is one long whine about Motty getting all the big games, which is not really accurate since Davies got the Heysel and Hand of God games (he was excellent at Heysel but appallingly partisan in Mexico to an almost racist degree). I haven't seen if the B-list ever had books out: Sinstadt, Gubba, Johns, Tyler. Any worth checking out? Martin Kelner's book on TV sport is essential.

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                The Trautmann one was very interesting. It didn't skirt how he abandoned his pregnant girlfriend after the war, or how he was one of the last let out of the camps because he refused to believe the denazification lessons (despite witnessing the mass murder of Jews while on the Eastern Front). It's a very good study of the Hitler Youth and how the Nazis indoctrinated young people, told through the lens of Aryan Bernhardt.

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                  Referees:

                  Arthur Ellis: https://ntvceltic.wordpress.com/2016...-in-the-black/

                  Clive Thomas https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Clive-.../dp/0002180839

                  Jack Taylor https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Taylor...ont_pop_book_1
                  Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 17-09-2017, 20:53.

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                    Two player autobiographies I really enjoyed:
                    Tales from the Boot Camps - Steve Claridge
                    Full Time - Tony Cascarino

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                      My thoughts on the recent Socrates biography

                      https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...ates-Biography

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                        I found Darren Anderton's autobiography in the WH Smiths clearance section for 50p. Haven't read it yet but at that price thought it worth a punt.

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                          @satchmo distel: I appreciate posts like that - I was half-thinking about buying it, then I read that and thought, "Nah, sounds like I won't be missing much if I don't bother." Though I might still, if I see it cheap.

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                            If anyone fancies a copy of Inverting the Pyramid, the Oxfam I've just been in had 3 copies on the sport shelf.

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                              The Forgotten Fifteen is down to its last 100 copies of a 1000 print run. Buy now to avoid disappointment.

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                                I've just borrowed The Binman Chronicles from the library and plan to start that tonight as my bedtime reading. I'm looking forward to it after what I've read on this thread and about Southall on the football one.

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                                  Originally posted by imp View Post
                                  @satchmo distel: I appreciate posts like that - I was half-thinking about buying it, then I read that and thought, "Nah, sounds like I won't be missing much if I don't bother." Though I might still, if I see it cheap.
                                  It gave me a deeper understanding of the man, but not really of the player or how his teams played. There's no tactical insight. Moreover, the personal details reveal a sad picture: a descent into alcoholism and failed projects, which I would have expected a man of Socrates' intellect and class background to have been able to avoid. The politics of Brazilian club football are potentially interesting but the writing is rather too dull to make that angle work either.

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                                    Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                    If anyone fancies a copy of Inverting the Pyramid, the Oxfam I've just been in had 3 copies on the sport shelf.
                                    I read Wilson's book on Eastern Europe [Behind The Curtain] last month. Although it is over a decade old (written around 2005) the insights are exceptionally good, and the interview with Bilic is great. I am pondering whether to invest in his Argentina book; I found his book on England a little stale, and I didn't like the gimmick of using 10 matches to try to capture an entire history. It becomes too piecemeal; just a set of match reports of games that are already over-familiar.

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                                      I realise I've said this before, but the Argentina book is superb, and isn't structured the same way as the England one. It's a lot more Behind the Curtain-like. I would recommend getting the second edition as there were one or two small errors in the first that should have been tidied up by the new one, and getting the UK edition if you can as it's substantially fuller than the US one.

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                                        Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post
                                        I've just borrowed The Binman Chronicles from the library and plan to start that tonight as my bedtime reading. I'm looking forward to it after what I've read on this thread and about Southall on the football one.
                                        Finished it yesterday. It's a typical football autobiography with some interesting things thrown in.

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                                          Is there a good biography of Pele, or any player of the 1958-70 period? Wilson might be the person to write it, I guess.

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                                            There are so many alternative and contradictory versions of Pele's story (the creation of many of which relied on his active participation (or at least acquiescence)) that any biography would necessarily be a Choose Your Own Adventure exercise.

                                            The best football biographies of that period are of much less players, like Dunphy's Only a Game? or Imlach's My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes.

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                                              Thanks. Have just ordered Imlach, having strangely overlooked it when it came out.

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                                                This is one of those threads that make OTF. I'm glad it keeps reappearing. Some excellent, detailed reviews and the bittersweet reminder of the Vole.

                                                Worth (re)reading it from the start.

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                                                  Owls: Sheffield Wednesday through the modern era by Tom Whitworth

                                                  This came out about a year back but only just got round to reading. Essentially a modern history of the club, starting with a few pages covering the first 120 years then the main focus kicks in with the disaster. This bookends the story as the inquest reaches its conclusions a few pages from the finish.

                                                  There's always a danger that club histories will disappear down a rabbit hole of "then we beat Barnsley then we got whacked by Reading then we drew with Cardiff" and the book largely avoids being a list of results, indeed at times entire playing seasons disappear in a paragraph - you won't find a mention of beating Leeds 6-0 in January 2014 for example even though it would have been relatively straightforward to add to the text. What there is a lot of is detailing the boardroom goings on at the club over the years and it can be seen how a sequence of poor decisions led to the decline of the club. There's undoubtedly an element of the author wanting to present people he likes in a positive light - Lee Strafford certainly gets a more favourable write up than I would have given him - but an unspoken theme of the book is the "ten bob millionaires" who ran the club for most of the period and who often appear more concerned with protecting their own position. We also get to see how the Co-Operative bank effectively ran the club for a decade and managed to finally steer the club away from the old guard and into the hands of Milan Mandaric.

                                                  The book ends in a slightly odd fashion, presumably because of print deadlines. We go through the entire 2015-16 season including the inquest then the play offs get tacked into a page of results afterwards. There's a few points in the book I'd argue the toss on, but it'd be nice to see the author reissue the book in a few years, perhaps when the court cases have finished and the more long term effects of the current owner are becoming apparent.

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                                                    How does he handle the local rivalry with Sheff Utd?

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