Book reviews

by Graham McColl
Bantam Press, £12.99
Reviewed by Jonathan O'Brien
From WSC 280 June 2010

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By the law of averages, a sizeable number of you who are reading this will be having a flutter on the World Cup. So, before you put your money down on Spain (who are forever only one Sergio Ramos backpass away from potential disaster), or Brazil (whose star playmaker has endured a poor season), or even England, have a leaf through this entertaining look back through World Cup history that passes itself off as an instruction manual for managers hoping to bring home the big one.

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When The FA Cup Really Mattered
Matthew Eastley
Authorhouse, £13.99
Reviewed by Roger Titford
From WSC 283 September 2010

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Bliss was it to be alive as a fan in the 1970s, even with a dodgy haircut and platform shoes – that's Matthew Eastley's (born in 1966) reasonable premise. His focus is on ten FA Cup finals as seen through the fans' eyes. I saw nine of them on telly and one at Wembley and this book is a decent memory-jerker that rings true despite, I suspect, some creative embellishments of his contributors' stories.

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The Inside Story of a Football Scout
by Les Padfield
Sportsbooks, £8.99
Reviewed by Pete Green
From WSC 291 May 2011

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Scouting is one of those activities that runs in the background of football, like a virus scanner, mostly unseen, but with a key role to keep the other stuff working smoothly. Les Padfield's Scouting For Moyes offers an diverting glimpse into the underworld of hastily scribbled player reports and complimentary sandwiches and, in so doing, goes further than many football books to shed fresh light on other aspects of the game.

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Arsenal Football Club
From Woolwich to Whittaker
by Brian Glanville
GCR Books, £11.95
Reviewed by David Stubbs
From WSC 296 Oct 2011

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Over The Bar
Memories of My Career with Arsenal and Wales
by Jack Kelsey
GCR Books, £12.95
Reviewed by David Stubbs
From WSC 296 Oct 2011

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Both of these titles involve journalist and lifelong Arsenal supporter Brian Glanville, who began his literary career aged just 19 when he persuaded Cliff Bastin to allow him to ghostwrite his memoirs. In 1952, aged just 21, Glanville wrote one of the first histories of Arsenal, from 1886 to 1952, when, unbeknown to the author, his team were about to embark on one of the most fallow periods of their history.

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The Tragedy of Robert Enke
by Ronald Reng
Yellow Jersey Press, £16.99
Reviewed by Mike Ticher
From WSC 297 November 2011

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Considering young men are a group at high risk of suicide, the number of active footballers who have taken their own lives is surprisingly small. Dave Clement, Alan Davies and Justin Fashanu are perhaps the best known in Britain, all in their declining football years. That makes Robert Enke a rarity among rarities: the Hannover 96 goalkeeper was at his peak, in a season that should have led to the World Cup, when he walked in front of a train in November 2009.

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