Golden Past, Red Future: Liverpool FC - Champions of Europe 2005 [Paperback]

The book, mirroring the main events of the last 12 months for Liverpool Football Club, is split into three sections - a short section detailing Houllier's and Owen's leaving of Liverpool, the main body of the book detailing the turbulent and ultimately victorious first year of Rafa Benitez's reign, and concluding with a look at what the future holds for Rafa's reds and for that magnificent cathedral of football, Anfield. An excellent account of the final in Istanbul acts as an emphatic epilogue.

You the reader may feel that, amply supplied with information by newspapers and the wider media over the course of the season, you don't need to read what may appear to the overly cynical as a dry and plodding overview of the season. Nothing could be further from the truth. This book is the literary version of a gust of wind blowing away the mists of hyperbole, falsehood and malice laid down in equal measure by the national press towards LFC over the course of the past season.... What became clear to me while reading this book was the realisation as to how much our national newspapers actually toe the party line, each one following the other like a flock of cloned sheep - here we instead see LFC, and football in general, from a myriad of completely new, revealing and frankly refreshing angles.

The author writes passionately about his subject, with a clarity of thought and pin-point, razor-sharp analysis matched by few if any of his peers, no doubt assisted by his first-hand experience at the rock-face of football. The prose, even when dealing with complex and potentially dry subjects such as the UEFA rule-book and suchlike, succeeds in being entirely accessible yet delivered with a flow and verve which keeps the pages turning at a prodigious rate. On the subject of football, I have yet to come across a writer of such succintness, who emanates such an in-depth understanding of the game yet (and this is the important part) is able to convey it so clearly to the average trigger-happy, gnat's-attention-span, armchair / matchgoing fan such as myself. Such are the effects of his wise words that I can now feel superior to the next fan (and often the next TV pundit or newspaper columnist) armed with my new-found knowledge. Anyone who has argued about footy over a pint with his mates will know that this is a good thing!

I'll leave a more detailed summary of the book's contents to other reviewers... Suffice to say that if you have anything more than a fleeting interest in Liverpool Football Club and its tremendous achievements both in Europe and in the face of adversity this past season, you MUST buy this book! Read more ›