Believe in the Sign

Title: Believe in the Sign

Author: Mark Hodkinson

Published: 2007

Publisher: Pomona Press

Whilst reading about a perennially small team in the industrial north west of England during the 1970s may not be the glamour that appeals to many sports fans, Mark Hodkinson’s Believe in the Sign is an interesting tale of growing up in Rochdale as well as charting the downright misery of supporting a club that has no history of achieving greatness, isn’t achieving greatness and nor is there any indication they are ever likely to achieve greatness.

Alongside tales of early cup exits to non-league opponents and promises of a ‘fresh start’ under new management, is anecdotes and recollections of adolescence in an unfashionable former-industrial town - the opening of an ASDA supermarket, bikes being stolen, Scout groups and rather grimly, an abduction and murder of a young girl.

There is no flashiness involved in Hodkinson’s book - it is deliberately vacant of some details and it is much the better for it. It is full of smart observations without being pleased with itself. Hodkinson is a writer whose work I will be further investigating (hopefully) in this blog in the future.

Buy Believe in the Sign here.

The Golden Years

Title: The Golden Years - Hibernian in the Days of the Famous Five

Author: Tom Wright

Published: 2010

Publisher: DB Publishing

The Golden Years is the history of Hibernian’s success in the years following the Second World War. Led by a quintet of talented players - Gordon Smith, Lawrie Reilly, Bobby Johnstone, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond. They were known as the Famous Five and for a decade wrestled for dominance as one of the top club sides in Britain, if not the world.

The book is told in standard linear fashion and begins before the outbreak of the Second World War. The style is informative and factual, almost textbook like, not necessarily aimed at entertaining the read. This is a piece of historic preservation rather than an examination of the personalities involved and whilst there is certainly not glaring faults with this style, it does treat the piece rather earnestly rather than celebrate the time with added colour. Another criticism would be the size of the print which is far too small and makes the task of reading the Golden Years far more daunting than it should be.

Wright is the Hibs club historian and it shows. He has access to reams of sources and it’s clear as all the detail is in the book very precisely. There are as well a good few anecdotes which are worth sharing, which certainly date the era: for example in 1949 the Hibs players gave the Board of Directors a Christmas gift. Not a move that I can imagine is replicated in the current era by players at Easter Road (or most clubs for that matter). Also, more tellingly, it emerges that Scotland took 41 people to the World Cup finals in 1954 in Switzerland. Only 13 of them were players. So it appears mismanagement and incompetence has been a fundamental part of the SFA for a prolonged period of time.

What is all the more remarkable about Hibs’ achievements on the pitch during the Famous Five era is that for a side that won the league three times between 1948 and 1952 is that the Famous Five only appeared together in 80 league matches. It is purely conjecture but one would have to wonder what could have been achieved by this Hibernian side if they had stayed injury free.

Buy The Golden Years here.

Feeding The Monster

Title: Feeding The Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top

Author: Seth Mnookin

Published: 2007

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Rarely these days do owners and managers of professional sports teams grant a level of access as John Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox afforded Seth Mnookin in Feeding The Monster. Mnookin was given access all areas for this book which meant he was fully immersed in the ball club - spending mornings with General Manager Theo Epstein and his Baseball Operations team, the afternoon in the clubhouse and batting practice with the coaches and players and then the evening watching events unfold from the luxurious surroundings of the Owner’s Box. From a deep and rich source of information and characters involved, Mnookin does not disappoint - this is one of the finest stories in modern day baseball.

Mnookin first has to set the context for his book and with the Red Sox, there is a lot of context. Perenial underachievers the Red Sox by the time of their centenary in 2001 had become one of America’s greatest soap operas. They had not won the World Series since 1918, coincidentally the year they sold their greatest player Babe Ruth to their greatest rivals, the New York Yankees. In the interim, the myths and legends became so prevalent they actually replaced the truth - with established New England journalists passing off folklore as true history. Mnookin spends much of the early sections teasing out the truth and dispelling ’facts’ such as Ruth not being sold to finance Broadway musical No No Nanette; former owner Yawkey was not the kind hearted, benevolent owner but in fact a cruel, sometimes disinterested owner and the Red Sox history of not signing black players.

From there, Mnookin moves onto more recent history: the takeover of the Red Sox that led to the arrival of John Henry as owner, Larry Lucchino as Chief Executive and Theo Epstien as the youngest General Manager in MLB history. Whilst the detail that Mnookin covers is not essential it is very interesting and an otherwise complicated process comes over on paper as a fantastic piece of drama with different actors and machinations whilst impacting on the ownership outcome.

With the takeover confirmed the book then moves to a season-by-season account of the Red Sox in the Henry era. With vast expectations from fans and a critical media, Mnookin gives us a balanced and entertaining account of what happens from off-park adjustments to dealing with highly paid and highly opinionated players - this is the story of how a modern organisation functions. That may sound dull but rest assured it is anything but, Feeding The Monster is a colourful, gossipy and vibrant story which goes past Boston’s miraculous 2004 World Series win (which was greeted with unprecedented celebrations in Bean Town), which would have been a typical finish-point. Instead Feeding The Monster goes to ‘what next?’ How does an organisation, once it has thrown the monkey off its back, go on from? This aspect is just as interesting as the build-up.

Mnookin has written a fantastic book and one this blog would heartily endorse. Time will tell, but this has the makings of an all-time great.

Buy Feeding The Monster here.

Fallen Idle

Title: Fallen Idle

Author: Peter Marinello

Publisher: Headline

Published: 2007

It’s been several weeks since I’ve finished reading Fallen Idle by Peter Marinello but it has taken me a while to get round to writing this review. I was hoping that a bit of time and space may allow me to reflect more on the character I read about, but truth be told I am no further illuminated by the hours that I have allowed myself.

Marinello’s autobiography is a straight forward footballer’s biography, albeit about a rather complicated character. Marinello gained fame after becoming a £100,000 signing for Arsenal after just 45 appearances for Hibs. Dubbed the ‘new George Best’ on account of being a nippy winger with an eye for fashion, it became as Marinello reflects a millstone around his neck. Subsequent moves to Portsmouth, Motherwell, Hearts, Fulham and time in America and Australia saw Marinello live up to the hype, however, we never quite get the answer whether he could have been a top class player had he knocked his boozy lifestyle on the head or whether the move to Arsenal was an aberration is what would have been otherwise an unspectacular career.

The book does not get off to a great start - within five pages there is the first mention of the pc brigade. This did not auger well and this reader was expecting more of the same but thankfully the reader is spared this sort of populist nonsense.

Marinello’s book suffers from not having a great deal of analysis of his own behaviour - why he did do the things he did? Why did he drink as much as he did? Was it simply because he found it enjoyable? Did he ever think that it might have an impact on his game? None of this is discussed, but we hear lots of stories (and there were probably far more than couldn’t be printed): we discover that he lost his virginity to a prostitute on a close-season tour to Africa with Hibs cheered on by his team mates. Marinello had a girlfriend at this time but there is no reflection of what impact on her bedding another women would have.

On the footballing side, Marinello appears to recall almost every senior goal he scored, which demonstrated that he obviously cared a great deal for playing football but perhaps not enough to test his own ability?

In a career which did not fulfil his apparent talent, the life of Peter Marinello off the field is more interesting than the sporadic appearances on the grass. When his wife Joyce has a mental breakdown it is dealt with in a paragraph saying the condition was hereditary and there was “nothing we could do about it” - suggests to this reviewer a sense of coldness. When his career finishes, Marinello becomes involved in the pub trade and other business ventures - his lack of business acumen and extreme naivety leads him to bankruptcy. It’s an unpleasant read yet one that could have been avoided if Marinello wasn’t so trusting of others who were out to fleece him.

The book ends with Marinello seemingly happy with his lot in life following his son’s recovery from heroin addiction. There is no mention of what he does with himself day-to-day but he is involved in coaching a Sunday league team.

Fallen Idol was a refreshing honest footballing biography from somewhat who arguably had nothing to lose from being coy and dull. Fallen Idol serves as a warning to those professionals who start to believe their own hype and coast on their abilities, to those who see football as merely a distraction to the serious business of socialising and drinking. For Marinello, it is always going to be a case of ‘What if…’ but that’s one he appears to be entirely comfortable with.

Buy Fallen Idle here.

The Ghost of White Hart Lane

Title: The Ghost of White Hart Lane

Authors: Rob White and Julie Welch

Publisher: Yellow Jersey

Published: 2011

One cannot conceive how difficult it would be to lose your father at a young age.. Yet that is what happened to Rob White, co-author of The Ghost of White Hart Lane, a book about his father, John White, the Scottish internationalist. White died after being struck by lightning on a golf course at the age of 27. The Ghost of White Hart is more than a biography of White’s life but also a personal tale of a child growing up without his father.

The Ghost of White Hart is a fantastically riveting book, the story of White’s life is brought together by Julie Welsh and Rob White - about a boy growing up in Musselburgh who was always told he was too slight to make it as a professional. Yet White defied the odds, first at Alloa Athletic and then Falkirk before being snapped up by Bill Nicholson, the final piece in a Tottenham Hotspur jigsaw that would see the club become the first English team to complete the double and also the first to win a piece of European silverware, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963. It was during the time played for Spurs that White attracted the nickname The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his ability to be in places on the field that wasn’t expected, as if he almost glided through games. It was a nickname that would be prophetic too.

As a book, The Ghost of White Hart Lane is a wonderful piece of work - one that encapsulates the mood of the time and explaining the key personalities at play in John White’s life. The biography is also interspersed with reflections from Rob White. These chapters are powerful and illuminating without being mawkish or unsettling.

The ending of White’s life remains a tragedy and one that if this was a work of fiction would be deemed too far fetched. Welsh helps White pay a real tribute to his father in what is without doubt one of the finest football biographies I have read.

Buy The Ghost of White Hart Lane here.

Played in Glasgow

Title: Played in Glasgow: Charting the heritage of a city at play

Author: Ged O'Brien

Publisher: Malavan

Year: 2010

The Played in Britain series goes from strength to strength with this addition to the collection – a history of sport in Glasgow which is a rich testament to the passion for sport in Scotland’s biggest city.

Divided into two sections – the first detailing areas of Glasgow that have clear association to sport – Glasgow Green, Queen’s Park and the like before moving onto a variety of sports detailing their heritage in the city, it is a fascinating account of this sport mad city.

Lovingly researched by author Ged O’Brien and edited by Simon Inglis, the book is eminently readable as well as beautiful to look at – pictures from the archives alongside modern portraits of a city constantly enthralled with sport.

With the Commonwealth Games coming in three years time, it was apt for this book to be published, especially with a list of suggestions at the end for what Glasgow can do to protect its sporting heritage, this is a must read for those with a keen interest in the history of sport in Scotland.

Buy Played in Glasgow here.

New: The Football Men

Title: The Football Men - Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game
Author: Simon Kuper
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2011

The Football Men is a collection of essays and articles by British journalist Simon Kuper. Kuper is, in my opinion, one of the finest writers on sport in the world. Kuper’s first book, Football Against The Enemy remains a classic and I would highly recommended his other work, Ajax, The Dutch, The War and Why England Lose (co-authored with Stefan Szymanski. We can now add The Football Men to Kuper’s stellar list of work.

The Football Men is a series of portraits of those at the upper echelon of the game – from Bert Trautman to Dennis Bergkamp to Lionel Messi, managers such as Diego Maradona, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho and others involved in the game such as Franz Beckenbauer. From short articles to very detailed studies it is a readable and stimulating book that examines what exactly makes these people tick and why they find themselves in the positions they are in.

The theme that comes across within the first few pages is that these men are not like us fans that support them – they are careerists and they are almost certainly not as interesting as certain elements of the media would have you believe – Kuper refers to many players not having anything of interest to say at all beyond mundane platitudes.

What is more revealing is when Kuper looks at why certain players and managers act in the way they do. Kuper believes that Jose Mourinho’s attitude is borne out of his family and his wife’s family being one of the big losers in Portugal’s move from dictatorship to democracy. Kuper discovers that Ruud Guillt looked supremely average when playing in a Seniors league, being outplayed by other 40somethings.

The Football Men is at its best when Kuper includes articles where he was provided more than a few column inches. His profiles on Lothar Matthaus, Nicolas Anelka, Glenn Hoddle and Johan Cruyff are particularly revealing – if we could have more of these pieces then football journalism would be in a much better place.

The Football Men is available here