Soccer Book Reviews
IN the late 1980s Paul Lake was considered one of the most exciting young players in Britain. A boyhood Manchester City fan, Lake realised a dream in playing for and captaining the Blues. He was the classic local boy done good. Life was idyllic.
Then in September 1990, disaster struck: Lake ruptured his cruciate ligament. A month short of his 22nd birthday it was already the beginning of the end. Several attempted comebacks ended in disaster, Lake slipped into depression and was finally forced to retire in January 1996.
This book is his story. It details his meteoric rise, his shattered dreams and his anger and bitterness at the quality of the medical treatment he received at the club he loved. Lake recalls, after a long struggle with then City chairman Peter Swales, finally getting treatment with a specialist in America and being told: “If I’d seen you straight away [after the original injury] you’d have been back playing soccer by now,” words that Lake recalled “cut me like a knife”.
But, while Lake’s recollections of his injuries are harrowing, it is his candidness in revealing the scale of his depression that makes this far more than a run-of-the-mill autobiography.
“When full-blown depression finally hit me — in my mid-20s, when I was at my most vulnerable — the impact was devastating. With my confidence shot and my career in tatters, I found myself trapped in a world of pain where, in the words of that old Sad Safe song, every day hurt,” he wrote.
If this sounds dark then it’s probably because Lake’s life at this point was just that. He underwent 15 operations in a bid to salvage his career, his marriage crumbled; he was forced to move back to his parents as he was unable to meet his mortgage repayments, he felt like a spare part at the club he loved. It’s not all bleak though, Lake was a key part of the Manchester City side that beat Manchester United 5-1 in 1989 and while injury wrecked his playing career, Lake slowly but surely won his battle with depression.
We will never know how great a player Lake might have become, but this captivating autobiography will certainly be remembered as one of the best of recent years.
Darren Norris
John Crace
€18.99
(Constable & Robinson Ltd)
IF ever a football fan and a football club were made for each other it is John Crace and Tottenham.
This book is about one of the most dramatic years in Spurs’ history. It begins in May 2010 with Spurs securing a place in the following season’s Champions League thanks to a 1-0 win over top four rivals Manchester City and essentially ends with a 1-0 defeat by the same opponents 12 months later.
The book charts the highs and lows of an action-packed season, from beating Inter Milan, AC Milan and Arsenal to their Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid and the failure to finish in the top four. But this is more than a diary. Crace is a complex character and writes candidly, skilfully and humorously about his battle against depression. Most fans fear failure. Crace, by contrast, fears success. Not for him the perfection of Barcelona. Tottenham, like him, are flawed and imperfect. He can relate to them.
As he puts it: ‘‘Mostly my life is a succession of unheroic failures, of things I haven’t done as well as I should have done, of being a bit late for something or turning up in the wrong place. Which is just like watching Spurs.’’
Darren Norris
Ronnie Whelan
€19.99 (Simon & Schuster)
EARLY in this book, Ronnie Whelan reveals he was first approached over 20 years ago to write his autobiography but declined, feeling he wasn’t ready to tell his story.
It’s a refreshing antidote to nowadays, when Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott have books written before they’re out of short pants, and Whelan’s story is better told from this remove.
Just like when he played, he is honest and to the point. If there are to be any quibbles, it’s with the choppy narrative and the way his career away from Anfield is glided through in a matter of a few pages, but the title gives away the main subject.
Denis Hurley
Roger Hermiston
€14:50 (Mainstream Publishing)
THE amount of books on Brian Clough is rapidly reaching saturation point and there comes a point when little more can be said about any figure, regardless of how fascinating he/she may be. However, this superbly researched effort from Roger Hermiston on Clough’s rivalry with Don Revie makes compelling reading. Remarkably, in view of the acrimony that later developed between the two, Clough and Revie were the best of pals in the late 1960s, but while Hermiston fails to reach a firm conclusion as to why that changed he offers a number of intriguing suggestions. Fascinating stuff.
Darren Norris
Brian Kennedy
€19.95 (Liffey Press)
EVERY fan, whatever his or her chosen sport, has suffered that crisis of faith, when they ask if it‘s all worthwhile. The why-am-I-doing-this? moment.
For those suffering said crisis of conscience, Brian Kennedy’s Just Follow The Floodlights willbrighten the dark times.
Kennedy has painstakingly researched the history of some 47 League of Ireland clubs over 90 years of football. Along the way he tells a tale mixing heroes, heartbreak and humour tracking the highs and lows of the domestic game.
There’s something for all fans of all clubs. Athlone’s tussle with Giovanni Trapattoni and AC Milan. Alfie Hale’s great Waterford side. The making of legends at Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers. And Cork, which Kennedy calls “the chameleons of League of Ireland football”, having been represented in the various guises of 11 different clubs since the days of Fordsons, “men more attune to camshafts and gearsticks” to today’s proud Cork City.
Kennedy writes with a fondness that is infectious and players and managers have shared their memories liberally, giving depth to every story along the way.
The book also features a handy guide accompanying each chapter detailing all you need to know about the various clubs, from mascots to websites to ticket prices and food and drink options.
League of Ireland being League of Ireland, many clubs have folded along the way and Kennedy doesn’t forget these either.
In a closing chapter entitled Gone But Not Forgotten, the various clubs who have graced the League and subsequently bowed out are covered too: the likes of Bray Unknowns, Pioneers and Olympia to the rather better known St Francis; Tipperary Town, Newcastle West, St Francis and St James Gate.
Of course, Cork clubs are left out of this chapter. There is enough drama on Leeside alone for Kennedy’s sequel.
Martin Claffey
Seán Ryan
€19.99 (Liberties Press)
TIMED to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the competition, this is an updated version of a book originally published in 1985. Seán Ryan is widely regarded as a custodian of Irish football and this history of the domestic game’s glamour competition plays to all his journalistic strengths.
Superbly researched, it mixes facts and figures with colourful anecdotes to irresistible effect, bringing to life on the page great games and memorable characters from the cup’s inception in 1921 right through to Sligo Rovers’ dramatic win on penalties against Shamrock Rovers in 2010. Wonderful archive photographs and a forward by Man United and Ireland legend Kevin Moran complete the package.
Liam Mackey
Jonathan Wilson
€26.40 (Orion Books)
“I WAS asked in an interview to sum up Brian in three words,” Martin O’Neill once said. “I think he would be insulted to be summed up in three volumes.”
Jonathan Wilson hasn’t quite taken three but his meaty one-volume biography of Clough will be probably as close to definitive as anyone ever gets. Here is a forensic examination of “the greatest manager England never had” in all his baffling contradictions: tough and tender, bullying and sympathetic, inspired and erratic.
A terrible injury ended his impressive playing career — the moment when “the iron entered his soul” — but it was as a managerial miracle worker at Nottingham Forest and Derby County that he became both a popular hero and a permanent thorn in the side of the football establishment. By the bitter end, and ravaged by alcoholism, he had become a caricature of himself, yet few figures in football continue to be held in such high esteem.
Wilson, who previously authored an excellent history of tactics, ‘Inverting The Pyramid’, explains why in this compelling book.
Liam Mackey
Ronald Reng
€19.99 (Yellow Jersey Press)
ON November 10 2009, Robert Enke took his own life when he stepped in front of an evening commuter train on route from Bremen. At the time, he was established as the Hannover 96 goalkeeper and the frontrunner to stand between the posts for Germany in the 2010 World Cup. His tragic death prompted an outpouring of grief throughout the football world and shone a light on an uncomfortable sporting truth. We hear a lot about players physical health. But little of their mental state.
Enke battled depression throughout his career and that constant struggle is shaped by his friend and journalist Ronald Reng into a brilliant narrative. He chronicles the setbacks like the 3-2 Copa Del Rey defeat to lowly Novelda when Enke was with Barcelona in 2002 and the withering post-match criticism, to the wonderful renaissance he enjoyed with Hannover 96. Fond recollections of Enke’s football ability from current Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes and former German great Andreas Kopke, are interwoven with tales of domestic life with his faithful wife Teresa — their agony at the death of their daughter Lara in 2006 and the joy at their adoption of Leila in May 2009.
A Life Too Short makes for traumatic reading at times as Enke attempts to avoid being sabotaged by self-doubt. The tale of Enke’s final day, as recounted by Teresa and his supremely loyal agent Jorg Neblung, is particularly chilling. But ultimately this is gripping stuff as the murky side of the beautiful game is uncovered and it’s clear why the judges of the William Hill UK Book of the Year opted to recognise Reng’s work.
Fintan O’Toole
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