Read as part of the sport reading journey
The secret footballer hides his (alleged) identity
as a top flight player, ostensibly to protect himself from his fellow
professionals, not to mention the managers, referees, media, agents etc. who he
exposes in his revelations on the beautiful game.
His motivation appears to be to hit back at
the industry that has stigmatised him with the marks of excess and hypocrisy
and has lured him with fame and riches away from a more rounded and fulfilling
life that he was, and remains, more than capable of attaining. It’s clearly
also therapeutic to get it all out there on paper.
The inside story holds no great surprises to
followers of the game, although some detail on the crazy financial sums earned
and squandered was noteworthy, the subject being inexplicably tiptoed around by
the otherwise intrusive press.
The writing is fine but the structure of the
book, divided into chapters such as tactics, managers, money, agents, bad
behaviour and the like, seems a bit arbitrary as he wanders off the subject
quite readily as he recounts his anecdotes. I haven’t previously followed his pieces
in The Guardian but I suspect the book recycles much of the material – but that
is no bad thing if it is new to you.
If you follow premiership football it holds
plenty of interest, and it has currency with this paperback having an
additional chapter that takes it into the 2012-13 season; for the general
reader however, it sheds little light on the human (as against celebrity)
condition.
For me the book strengthens my
disillusionment with the game at the highest levels which now is just a
television programme and a commercial enterprise; for real sporting involvement
I go to the non-league games to see people playing for the love of the game with
supporters cheering on players they can relate to and interact with on a
personal basis, cheering on their mates rather than some clay-footed hero who
will become a villain as soon as he changes clubs for that extra million.
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