In what will become a regular feature, Footballsup will review a football related book – playing to our mantra of ‘everything football’.
As an initial offering, we’ll use our recent favourite (that’s not strictly true – it’s certainly a favourite but not actually that recent)…
1. David Peace – The Damned Utd
David Peace tells the story of Brian Clough’s 40 day reign at Leeds in 24-style real time. A work of fiction, but based on real events, it’s a fascinating insight into Clough the man as seen by his contemporaries (Peace’s interpretation, but based on interviews with scores of Clough’s associates while researching the book).
This book will not only interest football fans (which I expect most people reading this will be, as you’re on a site called Footballsup) but also those who enjoy a great character – just how accurate Peace’s Clough is, is debatable; but it’s a super read nonetheless.
Those who remember Clough, or knew him, might have issues – his widowed wife certainly did – but suspend your disbelief, and enjoy this for the excellent work of fiction that it is.
9/10 – A real page turner – for the football and non-football fan alike. Buy it and read it now, if you haven’t already. And definitely read it before the film comes out next year.
The book is a joke and would not have been allowed if Clough was alive. Real fans will stay away from this garbage.
I am not in the enviable position of ‘knowing’ Clough or of having had the privilege of enjoying his prominence in the game.
The point I was trying to make is that the character ‘Brian Clough’ could be a fictional John Doe and the fantastic characterisation would still make it a great read.
Undeniably the fact it is Clough give the book far more weight, and attention; but if you, as I say, ‘suspend your disbelief’ – forget its Clough, forget what you know of him – and just enjoy the book, you will find it entertaining!
If like me you know nothing of Clough, and have no disbelief to suspend, it’s just a damned good novel.
Also I’d like to apologise for the unusually shoddy editorial that sat on this page for a few hours before our proofreader and the spell-checker got their hands on it.