Book reviews

Tipped to be a star at Everton, Graham Ennis remembers why Nick Barmby couldn't fulfil his potential

On the day Joe Royle signed Nick Barmby from Middlesbrough he made a curious admission: that he wasn’t quite sure where he was going to play him. Obviously then, he just kinda hoped that he’d get lucky and things would work themselves out. We all kinda hoped too. Choosing to ignore the fact that Royle had just off-loaded the highly promising Daniel Amokachi because he didn’t know quite where he fitted into his plans.

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Lots of players are expected to have big futures but never justify the hype. Cris Freddi profiles some of the game's biggest underachievers

Edu, (Jonas Eduardo Américo)
The first ‘new Pelé’, he scored in his second international and became an immediately controversial figure by being included in the 1966 World Cup squad at the age of 16 but not playing a match while Brazil picked a string of knackered veterans. A skilful winger, he played in the 1970 & 1974 finals, but only against the weakest opposition (Romania & Zaire), and was always a peripheral figure despite winning 42 caps.

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There are big plans afoot for football in a corner of Greater Manchester, Ashley Shaw explains

“Tameside is the largest Metropolitan Borough in England without a League team, that is a fact that we intend to correct as soon as possible.” This was how Peter Barnes, chairman of Conference hopefuls Stalybridge Celtic, helped kick up one hell of a stink in Tameside, East Manchester.

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Matt Nation believes that if players were knocked off their pedestals occasionally football as a whole would benefit

Every team has done it at some point; a goal ahead with five minutes left, a defender reaches a dangerous-looking through-ball from the opposition and attempts to welt it into a neighbouring county in order to waste a few more minutes. Although not laudable in itself, playing for time really is a great leveller.

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Sir John Hall has claimed that he is proud of his achievements with Newcastle. Harry Pearson disagrees

“I have achieved everything I set out to achieve,” Sir John Hall told journalists with typical self-confidence when he announced his retirement on September 15th. That the Newcastle chairman’s ambition for his club did not include winning any trophies will no doubt come as a surprise to many Newcastle fans.

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