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Book reviews

Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.

Celtic crossed

Dave Hannigan on George Best’s brief spell playing for Cork Celtic

Three days after Christmas, 1975, 12,000 fans were shoehorned into Flower Lodge to see George Best make his debut for Cork Celtic in the Bass League of Ireland. At that point in his travels through the world game, Best’s latest club had been Fourth Division Stockport County. They had reportedly paid him £300 per game. Cork Celtic had lured him across to Ireland with the offer of £1,000 per outing and, for his first game against Drogheda United, Celtic took in £6,000 at the turnstiles.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - Book reviews

Local heroes

Cornwall’s flagship team have risen quickly through the football pyramid. James Taylor reports on the challenges Truro City now face

Cornwall has never had a Football League team but this season sees Truro City playing in Blue Square South, just two steps below League Two. Since chairman and local property magnate Kevin Heaney started investing in 2004, the club have won five promotions in six seasons, collecting an FA Vase at Wembley along the way and the nickname of “the Chelsea of non-League”.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - Book reviews

Corporate chaos

Manchester City’s recently departed chief executive was offensive and distasteful, but he was also good at his job, as Tony Curran reports

During his time as chief executive of Manchester City, Garry Cook developed a reputation for making public faux pas. So it was not surprise when this propensity brought him down. Cook, should we need reminding, sent an email that he believed was exclusively directed to colleague Brian Marwood in which he mocked the cancer diagnosis of Dr Anthonia Onuoha, the mother and agent of City player Nedum.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - Book reviews

Buying British

Adam Bate questions the perception that recruiting from the lower leagues is a risk

Paul Merson risked being accused of xenophobia when he expressed the view last season that Arsène Wenger had put too much focus on buying from France or Belgium and not explored the home market effectively. While Merson could have been dismissed as a Little Englander, he found an unlikely ally in Italian football journalist Gabriele Marcotti, who noted: “Scouting in the Championship is something few clubs do well.” But is the  talent really there?

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - Book reviews

Court conspiracy

Roger Titford on the proposal to Oxford United and Reading in the early 1908s

If megalomaniac tycoon and serial football chairman Robert Maxwell had not made two monstrous errors, there could well have been a Thames Valley United in Division Three in 1983-84 in place of Reading and his Oxford United. And, as David Lacey wrote in the Guardian at the time, “as a method of killing off two Football League clubs at a stroke the scheme surely has few rivals”.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 - Book reviews

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