Book reviews

British Olympic Football and the End of the Amateur Dream
by Steve Menary
Pitch Publishing, £15.99
Reviewed by Tom Whitworth
From WSC 291 May 2011

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Speculation has been growing over who will take charge of and play for the Great Britain football team at the London Olympics. So it is a good time for the appearance of this book in which Steve Menary charts the varying achievements of the British side in the tournaments they entered, from London 1908, which they won, to Munich 1972, for which they failed to qualify.

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An English Club's Century in Scottish Football
by Tom Maxwell
Northumbria Press, £17.99
Reviewed by Harry Pearson
From WSC 294 August 2011

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Ninety per cent of the players in the club's history have come from another country, they play in a stadium – with "a sound system comparable to a Walkman in a bowl of soup" – that is overlooked by grain silos, one of their greatest ever players is the son of a shepherd, they are not allowed to play in their county cup competition for political reasons and they won their first ever football match by a margin of "one goal and two tries to nil".

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Robert Shaw looks at how the serious illness of a World Cup hero has brought to light the negative impact alcohol has had on Brazilian football

Brazilian football legend Socrates left hospital on September 22 after two stays for stomach haemorrhaging and liver-related problems that could yet necessitate a transplant. Given that doctors admit that the 57-year-old’s condition was life-theatening, the relief among friends, family and the better part of 190 million football fans is tangible.

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An Autobiography
by Norman Uprichard with Chris Westcott

Amberley, £14.99
Reviewed by Robbie Meredith
From WSC 300 February 2012

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It is a standard and understandable practice for footballers who played long before the Baby Bentley-fuelled Premier League age to use parts of their autobiography to lament some of the traits of the modern pro. Norman Uprichard, the notoriously brave Northern Irish goalkeeper who played for Arsenal and Portsmouth in the old Division One in the 1950s, is an exception to the rule. He has virtually nothing, negative or positive, to say about the game after his own career finished in 1961. It is a pity, as he had more right than most to regret missing out on the comparative riches available to later generations.

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Life Of A Football Legend
by John Harding 
DB Publishing, £16.99
Reviewed by Terry Staunton
From WSC 284 October 2010

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Transfer negotiations between the two world wars may not have been as rife with the creative – and occasionally dubious – wheeler-dealings of modern times, but there were still a few inspired solutions to securing the services of a top player. In 1929, when Alex James was looking for a move away from a supposedly tight-fisted Preston to what he considered a bigger and more ambitious club, he resisted overtures from both Liverpool and Manchester City before Arsenal stepped in with an ingeniously structured offer.

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