Book Review: In the Crowd by Laurent MauvignierBy Redmann • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: Book Reviews
 Back
in football's golden age of the eighties when Stadiums were real
traditional grounds with atmopshere; when pies and not burgers were on
offer and when tickets cost a £5, every fan had a copy of the Shoot
annual and a half filled Panini sticker album at home on a shelf.
These early reading materials were the bible's of our childhood;
the recent renaissance and re-release of the Shoot annual shows that
many of us wish we had kept the real thing when we were given them all
those years ago.
These days pointers towards ownership of the title of 'bible of the
Football literature world' extends further than any Rothmans
Football Yearbook, Shoot annual or any fashionable football hooliganism exploration
effort of Cass Pennant. From the 1990's onwards and even through
the ground breaking All Played Out through to Fever Pitch and the modern day The Dammed United, great Football Novels have been arguably thin on the ground.
French author Laurent Mauvignier's In the Crowd
has recently been mentioned in the same breath as Peace's stream of
Consciousness soon to be movied Clough era effort. But whilst The Damned United seeks to portray Clough's
individual point of view by exporing his complex character's
thought processes in a loose monologue (and in connection to his sensory reactions to external
football occurrences) Mauvignier's effort chooses instead to concentrate on the emotions of the Heysel Stadium
disaster that killed 39 spectators after a wall collapsed during the
Liverpool - Juventus European Cup final in Brussels in May 1985. A number of voices are heard in every page as the agonised
retrospect surrounding the the charge by Liverpool fans that leaves one
of the main characters dead and the rest "unable to free" themselves
unfolds. In the aftermath of tragedy, our characters are placed
amongst a gritty story that is more than simply a ghost written
documentary catharthic blow out about hooliganism that so much of modern football
writing can be. Yes, football's masculinity and group aggressions
are evident but Mauvignier chooses to conjure up the demons of
fandom in a different way than British authors such as Brimson and King have.
As with any football match anywhere in Europe, the book
sees very different Europeans making their way to Brussels for the
European Cup final in 1985 not knowing what history has now told us;
that of the ill-fated Heysel Stadium disaster.
Specifically our characters are a pair of beery, footie-mad lads from
Paris Jeff and Tonino who venture to Brussels for the game. In
Brussels, they meet a local Belgian couple, Gabriel and Virginie, and
newly-married lovebirds Tana and Francesco from Genoa.
Three
brothers from Liverpool intimidate their fellow-travellers as they make
the pilgrimage to watch their beloved team play Juventus in the cup
final. Our English characters are Geoff Andrewson he of "everyone wants to blame the Scousers" views and
the self doubting reluctant fan on a trip from Merseyside with his
two brothers to see Liverpool play La Vecchia Signora. Laurent Mauvignier’s devastating portrait of one of European
football’s worst and most notorious tragedy and its bitter
hateful aftermath has long been a big hit on bookshop shelves
in France which may surprise many in the United Kingdom. Switching briskly from character to character and capturing
and portaying the changeable mood of a football crowd, Mauvignier
explores what all football fans have seen but rarely
experienced as those at Heysel in 1985 did. Giddy big match
excitement that we all feel quickly turns to fear and confusion as out teams loses.
This time however the fear and confusion is more than a result or
the pain of a heavy defeat when a section of Liverpool supporters
charge the fans on the terrace, forcing fans to flee back against a
wall that collapsed, horrifically and fatally killing 39 football
loving supporters.
In football terms the reality of the aftermath of Heysel was a
long term ban from European Club football for Liverpool and all
other English club sides. In the Crowd
goes further by exploring that aftermath we have seldom read or heard
about other than during 2005 when the anniversary of the Heysel disater
was remembered and recalled. That of the impact on
individuals, notably self-loathing Liverpool fans who still serve
to maintain a guilt-ridden innocence, and the emotions of
grief-stricken Italian supporters of whom we lost so many in Brussels, are explored.
Football hooliganism, like football in general (outwith our so called bible titles noted above) is a subject that is
never really adequately covered by serious writers. Modern day titles such as Top Boys or Euro Trashed
by Dougie Brimson refer and choose to explore self-glorifying modern
day organised thuggery, fashions and hooliganism. Whilst these have a
rightful place amongst the games history, it is often left to
dry-mouthed academics to pad out these books with sociological theory
and justification behind the fashion when it would be best to leave the
voices and vivid image portrayal to those that truly know best; the
perpetrators themselves. In the Crowd
though explores much more measured themes amid the horror,
thoughtlessness and inhumanity that was a football stadium disaster.
Heysel in 1985 shocked a whole generation, and it is only in the
post-hooligan era of the modern age that such emotions can be explored in Laurent Mauvignier’s characters.
Today, just as in 1985, people come from all over Europe to see
the final Champions League match as a means of exploring fandom,
loyalty or simply a love of the game. It is doubtful that such
as a tragedy will occur again which makes Mauvigniers powerful pages
of the imagination so unique.
By Redmann
We Need to Talk about Kevin Keegan by Giles Smith
By Editor • Jan 2nd, 2008 • Category: Book Reviews
Despite
its slightly pretentious title, We Need To Talk About
Kevin Keegan by Giles Smith has
its credentials rooted firmly in the football school of writing.
The pretentious accusation comes from the fact that the book gets its
title from Lionel
Shriver's 2005 Orange Prize for fiction winner 'We need to talk about
Kevin.'
Shiver's effort is about as far as you can get from this effort though, our book being a humerous and somewhat adventurous compilation of weekly columns from The
Times. Giles Smith himself is an award
winning Times sports columnist. Born in
Essex his background ranges from being the keyboard player in a pop group called
The Cleaners From Venus but it is said he reluctantly resigned himself to working
as a journalist when The Group did not go global. His failure to
make it as a musician was the topic of his first book the popular Lost in Music and this itself has been the subtext of anything he has said or done
since.
Certainly his credentials cannot be dismissed if only that these were recognised some time ago as he was named Sports
Columnist of the Year in 1998. A further collection of his sports writing, was published in 2000 this being called Midnight in the Garden of Evel Knieval. His writing has appeared in many British publications and in
The New Yorker. Outwith his own work he contributed a monologue to the Nick Hornby-edited
short story collection Speaking with the Angel. As a whole if you read Charlie Brookers Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline then our book here and its composition is in the same vein all be it that Brookers work is an unhinged and outrageous disection of British TV and its characters. Similarly Smith jabs forth with his fearless wit, forthright
view and staunchest declarations on football's biggest talking
points.
Unafraid of tackling the big issues head on with wit, wisdom and
sarcasm in equal measure what we have is a compilation of
thoughts and reactions to topics written over the course of three years. Although muddled in parts and too strung out in
others his writing style carries weight with those of us who
understand 'football' just that little bit beyond what is contained in
The Sun match reports on a Monday.
Without being too critical the pages
can feel like an assembly of bits and pieces lossely put together and
it is strange to read a book packed with so many ironic comments
which leads to many observations sounding so baffling, irrelevant and
prententious. For one, there are musings on Claudia Schiffer's
attendance at a Chelsea FC birthday party which are
unneccessary and an assessment of Lee Sharpe's appearance on Celebrity Love Island. That its itself is fine but the problem is that it happended in 2005 some three years ago. Aside from this there are observations of Premiership footballers turning up a club Christmas parties dressed as scooby doo and a humerous appendix asking where are they now of the likes of David Beckham, Jose Mourinho and Joey Barton.
If you are the type who likes to see the world of football and its personalities being the subject of biting irony, sarcasm and humerous ribbing then this is in the genre of books for you. Far from provocative Giles Smith's effort is no literary feat and award winner. Its more just a chewing over or reassessment of some of the issues that have occured over the last few years in football many of which we forgot even happended but are worth reminicing about once again.
By Redmann •
Classic Book Review: All Played OutBy Redmann • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: Book Reviews
 All Played Out: The Full Story of Italia '90 was first published in the
early 1990's long before Nick Hornby, Dougie Brimson, Cass Pennant and the current fashion for
amatuer 'Hoolie porn' writing
arrived on the Football shelves of Borders and Waterstones. This in itself means that the book was indeed ahead
of its time when compared to the
saturated world of football writing that appears to dominat football
literature today.
Historically, football writing has seen Nick
Hornby's Fever Pitch and more recently Tim Parks A Season with Verona mentioned as landmarks for writing on the
topic but All Played Out by Pete Davies can be seen as one of the first books on the topic to engage a wide audiance before any of the aformentioned came to popular approval. Naturally then All Played Out in its own way has attained
'biblical' status amongst football readers. Magically
transforming football into the fashionable academic subject matter for reading
material,
the book offers a glimpse of what it was like to be part of
English football’s finest hour since 1966 at the Italy World Cup of 1990.
Pete Davies spent nine months watching England's pampered footballers play for club and for country
as the 1990 super event in Italy, so immortalised by Pavarotti, approached and unfolded. From Milan to Rome
and Bari, Davies saw players,agents, fans and journalists from four
continents and thereby captured the full essence of planet football.
An Amusing, impressionistic and often thoughtful
author, Davies was given what would now be regarded as unprecedented access to
the England camp – he was free to talk to any players
willing to give him an interview... a state of affairs that would certainly not come about now in the Capello age of distrust and
criticism of the English national team. His story highlights many of
the
reasons why today’s players seem so reluctant to trust the press whether the reporters work for the tabloids or the more
‘respectable’
broadsheets.
The Italia 90 qualification campaign has seen the start
of the
hysterical journalism that was to hound Graham Taylor out of a job, and
many of the reporters who accompany England abroad are shown to be
philandering ego maniacs who would stop at nothing, not
even betraying confidences and publishing untruthful
stories, in a quest for an exclusive.
Chapters of the book such as Headlines on Acid and 'Frayed nerves in
Silesia' give a good and thoughtful insight into the qualification campaign of Robson's team. Meanwhile 'The Minnow Turns Pike so beautifully digests and explains the opening drama of the tournament at the San Siro between Argentina and Cameroon.....one of the greatest shocks of all time.
The extremes of British perceptions of the Italians from the mafia, poor driving and disorganisation to
the prefection in Tuscan fine wines are all expressed. Davies himself does not
include himself in the number of hacks present and he is certainly not accepted by
the pressmen who follow England, which makes reading (and writing) this book in some ways a solitary experience. He is shunned by other pressmen, not trusted by many of
the
players (despite the fact that several of them are happy to take
newspaper money for ghost-written columns) and avoided like the plague
by some supporters whose views he would like to canvas, for the simple
reason that the press (along with the Italian Police in Sardinia) and Thatcher's government
managed to convert a largely-trouble free England
fan presence in Italy into a raging, drunken mob.
Naturally, there were
ugly scenes during the tournament and the numerous hooligan groups of the day present, but Davies describes a new breed of England fan emerging that would come to the fore with Euro 1996. More over, whereas many would
have you believe that it was solely the English fans who were to blame for trouble,
Davies argues that the nasty events sprang from a combination of
ignorance on both sides and extremely heavy-handed policing
that led to confrontation.
Local hostility to England fans stemmed from weeks of
press spin and anti-football governmental propaganda from the Conservative regime of Margaret Thatcher. The friendliness of most locals on Sardinia is though carefully emphasised, as
is the work
of the emerging independent England supporters’ association and
their attempts
to keep the peace. The people who do come out of the whole affair
very
badly are the top brass at the FA. His colleagues at the FA fare little better
largely appearing to be stuck
in an aged time warp, unable to comprehend the anger or rights of fans and
unprepared to help them out.
Stadium settings offering sensory overloads; the growth of technology in football and the match dramas that
unfold and see Italy as a nation turned into a logo are also described well by Davies. The most revealing aspect of the
book though is certainly the interviews with the now Sir Bobby Robson and his playing
staff. Sir Bobby vehemently defends his prerogative in terms of selection
and tactics, and a persistent theme throughout the text (as it was at home on the BBC)
is whether or
not he will abandon 4-4-2 in favour of a sweeper system. The papers and media are
clamouring for the latter, and in the interviews with players such as
Barnes and Waddle, it becomes clear that the players would prefer
change. Davies also chooses to repeat the players comments
verbatim,
leaving in all the awkward pauses, ums and 'ers to give a truer
representation of their responses to his questions.
Indeed,
the John Barnes interview is easily the most revealing of the lot,
especially when you consider his career after 1990 and his abortive
and unsuccessful first steps into management with Celtic in 1999. Barnes says he does not plan
to go into management or coaching (although he would consider
involvement at non-league level to get some experience), and he freely admits to being so lazy that
he will sit in his flat all afternoon rather than cross the road to buy
a paper. It is easy see how that attitude transmitted into
the apparently listless performances he so often gave in an England
shirt and the crazy tactics employed by his Celtic coaching team which culminated in the Inverness Caley defeat.
As mentioned an amusing aspect of the book as a whole is
Davies’ experiences of the Italian way of life. Although his path
through Italia 90 is made a little smoother by the fact that he can
speak Italian, any stereotypes of Italy and her population are reinforced ten times over by reading the book. Trips to the
World Cup venues in early 1990 reveal cities and stadia still being
built, with seemingly little hope of meeting any deadlines...and are an
eye opener bearing in mind the current clamour and negative publicity
surrounding the venue construction for South Africa 2010. There is
chaos in the press centres and information systems - as there would be
at USA 1994 - whilst road signs point to
non-existent destinations. However, Italian verbosity and
willingness to help win
out in the end and you are left with the impression of a
nation that leaves it all to the last minute and somehow no-one
is quite sure how Italia 1990 gets there in the end.
In
amongst all this, Davies manages to be in attendance at the most
exciting games of the tournament – he spends weeks travelling
back and
forth across Italia to watch the big names and the small fry compete
for a place in the global spotlight at Italia 90. It is the way in
which the games are set into a wider perspective that elevates this
book above being merely a travelogue or a series of match reports. You
can picture the crowds, the flags, the stadia tension and emotions..... and the joy and
images
of Argentina being beaten by Cameroon came flooding back as you read
about Massing’s karate ‘tackle’ on Caniggia and the
disbelieving faces of the South Americans as they realised they had
lost to a team of unknowns called Roger Milla and Oman Biyak from Cameroon.
All in all, offering a very clear sense of top level international
footballers even today All Played Out is one of the most uplifting and refreshing
football books ever published. Today in 2008 Davies’style
still brings back the emotions of Nessun Dorma and Pavarotti and one of the greatest tournaments back
to life.
All the matches and moments any fan can remember from an excellent
tournament
find a space in Davies’ account, alongside many that slip the
mind.
Through this book Davies expresses a journalistic aptitude for asking awkward
questions and a fan's love and understanding of the game. His
writing style a breath of fresh air which allowes him to express truthful
perceptions in amongst a period of press scandel and accusation.
Gazza's tears aside, if memories of Toto Schillaci, Roberto Baggio, Cameroon and Roger Milla are what you require to pass the pre-season months then this is the book for you.
By Redmann •
|
