Book reviews

Forty years in the commentary box
Xby John MotsonX
XVirgin, £18.99X
Reviewed by Taylor Parkes
From WSC 274 December 2009 

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If you disregard the alarming cover, on which Motty appears to be offering you outside for a fight, this exhaustive autobiography is more or less what you’d expect. Spanning a gruelling 386 pages – the last 65 just listing the games over which Motson has jabbered and chuckled – at its best it’s warm and charming. At its worst, it’s slightly deranged. Mostly, it’s boring.

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Paul Joyce reflects on the tragic death of German goalkeeper Robert Enke and examines football's poor record when it comes to helping players with mental illness

Unlike many of today's players, people felt like they genuinely knew Robert Enke. An ambassador for children's heart charities and anti-fur campaigns, the German national goalkeeper embodied a new generation who rejected the combative machismo of Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann in favour of an unspectacular integrity. Yet it turned out that no one knew Robert Enke at all, not even his Hannover 96 team-mates. "You learn over time how to trick the media," he once said, tellingly. "You talk a lot, but say nothing."

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With their big-spending years over and Champions League place under threat, Rangers' future looks grim, says Neil Forsyth

Well at least we now know what was behind Rangers’ most recent insistence that they will soon leave the SPL behind, seeking greater riches in England or the ludicrous proposition of an Atlantic League (a strange set-up involving clubs from “second tier” nations such as Portugal and the Netherlands). No sooner had any observers still paying attention wearily worked through statements such as Rangers chief executive Martin Bain’s declaration that Rangers would be out of Scottish football “within ten years”, then the real motivation for this latest attempt to escape to a bigger TV deal became clear.

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Rangers and Celtic have once again hinted that they could leave the SPL. Keith Davidson thinks it might be for the best

This autumn, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell and Rangers equivalent Martin Bain once again raised the issue of their clubs quitting Scottish football for more financially lush pastures – England or a North Atlantic League involving sides from the Netherlands and elsewhere.

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The digits on the back of footballers' shirts seem to be getting higher and higher. Seb Patrick examines a recent trend

Australia’s Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait in March of this year drew attention for a number of reasons – namely that the side was made up entirely of A-League players and that it slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat. To the eye of someone with an interest in shirt numbers, however, the game was notable in an entirely different way – as starting winger Daniel Mullen and substitutes Fabian Barbiero and Mitch Nichols took to the field sporting three-digit numbers on their backs.

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