Footballers’ Autobiographies

[mathematics]

What have been your favourite reads? Looking for suggestions.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Paul McGrath, most others are shite.

[Derry Alli]

Roy Keane. 

The book written about Robin Friday is decent too. 

[hk blues]

Vinnie Jones' wasn't bad 

[Guest JTS98]

I went through a weird phase with these a few years ago.

From memory the Zlatan one was good. He's clearly a bit of a bell-end and utterly self-obsessed, but we knew that and he seems ok enough with it. It was an interesting enough read.

Enjoyed the Sven autobiography. He's a manager, so lots of self-justification, but his experience of managing England and dealing with the media was interesting, as well as his time in Sweden, Italy. Portugal etc. Maybe my favourite one. He's some boy.

Sandy Clark's was completely unmemorable.

Chris Sutton's was decent enough.

I read the Alex Ferguson one that came out maybe three years ago or so. It was ok.

Keith Gillespie's was a tough read in terms of the gambling etc, but I enjoyed it.

Charlie Miller's was unmemorable.

Graeme Souness interesting in places.

They're much of a muchness in that there tends to be a lot of self-justification and a sprinkling of score-settling. While they don't tend to be marvelous works of literature, if you're interested in football then most of them are readable enough.

So, in short, Sven and Zlatan would be my two picks. Not read one for years.

[pozbaird]

Billy Abercromby ‘Aber’s Gonnae’ Get Ye’... funny, sad, tragic, funny again... really good read.

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by pozbaird

[GNU_Linux]

Darren Mackie's

[Ylf]

paul mcgrath.
paul merson
brian clough
keith gillespie
charlie miller
andy goram
matt le tissier
lou macari

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

Half way through this, funny as f**k.

[Darren]

Kenny Dalglish's autobiography is one of the most boring books I've read. Only a man that dour could make his life seem tedious.

[LondonHMFC]

Paul Lake - The Invisible Man: One of the only books that has made me cry (was very intoxicated, but still). Superb read. 

Andy Morrison - The Good, the Mad and the Ugly: Yes the man who manages Connah's Quay who comes across as a knob. After reading it, you will can understand why he may come across the way he does. The man has been through a lot. 

Lee Howey - Massively Violent & Decidedly Average: Brother of former Newcastle player Steve Howey. He fucking despises his brother, and Newcastle. Written how I imagine most fans would write about their club if they ever played for them. 

And whilst not football, the best "sporting" book I have ever read, was "The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee" funnily enough about boxer Eamonn Magee. The blurb explains it better than anyone ever will

Quote

 "A book? Listen, I’ve been beaten with baseball bats, I’ve had my throat slashed, I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been exiled out of the country. My family’s been abducted from our home as well. I’ve been shot twice, I’ve been in prison and my son’s just been stabbed to death. Amongst all that, I was the welterweight champion of the world while drinking the bar dry and doing enough coke to kill a small horse every night. My life’s not a book, it’s a f*cking movie script."

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by LondonHMFC

[gannonball]

1 hour ago, Dele said:

Roy Keane. 

The book written about Robin Friday is decent too. 

His second one was quite funny mainly because it was written by Roddy Doyle who is a cracking novelist.

Would agree regarding Paul McGrath, a hard up bringing and a tortured soul makes it a sad read.

Other ‘Irish’ players I would recommend would be Tony Cascarino mainly because it was in that book that he divulged that he didnt know who his dad was so most possibly wasn't eligible.

Niall Quinns one was decent, had some funny drinking stories at Arsenal with Adams, Merson etc. The chapters flip between his life/footballing life and the Saipan debacle with Keane. Quite well done.

 

 

[Shandon Par]

Steak Diana Ross: Diary of a Football Nobody

Life as a 1970s journeymen. By David McVay

 

[Ylf]

Half way through this, funny as f**k.

love the bold clough. some off. in my top 5 all time best managers

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

He was pish. 

[Shandon Par]

I could lend you my signed copy if you can excuse the stains and crispy pages:

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

24 minutes ago, Barry Ferguson's Hat said:

He was pish. 

You're pish.

[NE63 exile]

Read 100s and most of them listed above. 

My top 10. 

RED CARD ROY (Roy McDonough) - Lower league legend in England. Really funny, goes into depth about the drinking and shagging culture of playing in the lower league's in England back in the 70s and 80's. Good football read too. Most of my mates enjoyed this one after I mentioned it to them.

CONFESSIONS OF A HIGHLAND HERO (Steve Paterson) - Another gripping read. A shame how the guy never learned from the same mistakes he kept making. Obviously had problems in his home life from an early age but never the less a great read.

BUDGIE (John Burridge) - Not a great lover of the guy having had dealings with him in Non-League down in England but I really enjoyed his book. The guy is a total nutcase but he admits it himself. He was years ahead of himself in the terms of fitness regimes and sports science but another interesting book.

NO HALF MEASURES (Graeme Souness) - This was Souness's first autiobiography just after he took over at Rangers. As usual Souey doesn't sit in the fence. Some good stuff about how Liverpool were successful during his playing days there.

OLLIE (Ian Holloway) - Another enjoyable read. Written typically in Holloway's mad sense of humour. Goes in depth about his playing career then going into management and how. tough it was bringing up two deaf daughters in the process. Very funny in parts but deadly serious too.

GET THE SHEEP OFF THE PITCH (Phil Staley) - I guarentee no one in Scotland will have heard of him but the guy was a North West of England and North Wales legendary Non-League manager. Tells his managerial career which was colourful. Full of tells of threatening to knock out ref's (seen him do it one day at Stalybridge), playing ringers and generally what a glamorous life it was managing in non-league football back in the 80s & 90's. Just a short book of about 150 pages so its not a big read. You can get on Amazon for about £3.

OH JOEY (Joey Jones) - Joey played in Liverpool's first European Cup success in 1977. A Liverpool fan from North Wales, he lived the dream playing for his boyhood club but two seasons after winning the European Cup he was back playing with his local club Wrexham wondering where it all went wrong. Spells with Chelsea and Huddersfield followed, Joey described how it wasn't such a glamorous life playing for clubs like that back then before ending up in the lower leagues scrapping for a living.

THE DEREK FERGUSON STORY - Not just about his time at Rangers but he goes in-depth about his journeyman career and should be of interests to guys that follow the lower divisions in Scotland and in Northern Ireland too.

TAXI FOR FARRELL  (David Farrell) - Another book of Scottish interest. The guy tells about his hard luck football story where not much seems to have gone for him over the years. Again this should interest anyone with an interest of the lower divisions up here.

STAN THE MAN - (Stan Bowles) - As the title says Stan was some man. He was legendary player in the 70s with QPR who vice was gambling. Again, a very funny book which tells some great tales about one of the great English players that never fulfilled his potential.

I also recommend Stan Ternent's book 'Stan the Man A Hard life in football', The Crazy Gang which was written by Dave Bassett & Wally Downes about Wimbledon's rise up the football league which was brilliant and Neil Redfearn's autobiography 'There's only one Neil Redfearn'

[Alert Mongoose]

Seconded on Steve Peterson’s. An excellent read and Roy Keane's was better than expected.

[senorsoupe]

Former Man Utd and Chelsea winger Mickey Thomas's autobiography is pretty good, mostly because he was up to all sorts of shenanigans when he was a player