Brian GlanvilleRecensioni

A good read in preparation for the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico and for which England as holders did not have to qualify, George Best on front cover.

Brian Glanville's story of England managers from the end of the second world war to 2008; from Walter Winterbottom to the appointment of Fabio Capello. The good, the bad and everything in between. Includes a great appendix of every match played complete with line-ups, cap number etc.½

A bit of a treasure trove. G.Curtis, Southampton, was taught soccer by his mother; R.O.Ferris, 'a foraging, tireless player' - today he would have a good engine; H.Kirtley was an apprentice colliery electrician; A.Nightingale was 'one of football's many golfers'.

These are short stories about football and boxing and the book itself, this copy, was discarded by Shropshire Libraries having seen lending activity in the Cleobury Mortimer area

Blachdale Rovers - what an unbelievable name for a fictional football club. Suspend your disbelieving heart out.

This copy is dedicated to James McGillicuddy Grant (14), the craziest of them all.

A kind of a dull rendition of an exciting event. Glanville provides a cranky, disorganized narrative of each World Cup tournament confusingly jumping from match to match and referring to players by last name only. If that's not bad enough he writes from a chauvinistic British point of view and uses pejorative terms to describe players from non-Western nations. I read through the whole thing anyhow - even though what little organization he had disappeared for the 86 & 90 tourneys - because it was mindless fluff and full of interesting little historical facts. Still, I can imagine a much better book where each Cup chapter has a short outline of each team with line-ups and stats, summaries of group play, second rounds, and quarter-finals (with sidebar boxes elaborating on 3-4 of the best games), more in-depth description of the semi-finals and championship games and lots of illustrations.