Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Years Later and it Still Reads Wonderfully, 17 May 2007
With Athens looming, I pulled this out recently to try and help relive some of the memories of Liverpool's last Champions League victory, and I had forgotton just how good it really was. Every single aspect of that remarkable and unforgettable season is captured and even two years after the events of that amazing night in Istanbul, the book has lost none of its appeal. The inevitable end of the Houllier campaign, the Michael Owen transfer saga and all the other comings and goings, the arrival of Rafa Benitez, the Carling Cup final, the early FA Cup exit, the very poor league campaign and the night of May 25th are all covered with honesty, humour, integrity and passion. Paul Tomkins is clearly a man who loves Liverpool Football Club. I have read opinions before that claim this to be a problem. Yes, there is a bias towards the club, but I don't recall reading the line where he claims to be anything other than a passionate supporter. In fact, one of the most remarkable things about this book is that despite this bias, the book is very balanced. He remains very objective and doesn't shy away from any of the problems that had to be addressed. Nor does he see the problems that were at the club at the time as been akin to an end-of-the-world scenario. He puts the shortcomings of that season into perspective and explains his faith in the manager's abilities. Since the book was written, Liverpool have won an FA Cup, had their highest ever Premiership points tally and are now less than a week away from a second European Cup Final appearance in three seasons, which to me proves that he was right to display the level of faith he had in the club's direction; the proof is there for all to see.
Obviously, fans of Liverpool Football Club will find more to enjoy in this book than most. But I would also suggest that anyone who has any interest in a story, well told, about triumph in the most unlikely of circumstances, should also have a read. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant and absorbing read, 13 Jun 2005
Reader - I beseech thee - Do NOT dismiss this book as the work of a bandwagon jumper written in haste after the European Cup Final. The author, Paul Tomkins - a consistently excellent and prolific columnist at www.redandwhitekop.com - began penning this magnum opus as dawn was breaking on the 04/05 season. In his own words, "A book I'd chosen to write last autumn about a season of transition had been gradually turning, since February, into a book documenting the lead-up to the most amazing night in the club's history (and over the years there has some competition for that honour)." I managed to pick up one of the very few pre-press copies floating around, and boy am I glad I did.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!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five stars for five star triumph, 12 Oct 2006
This is an superb account of the recent history of Liverpool FC. As with its excellent follow-up, Red Revival, this book takes a balanced look at the club's recent fortunes. In the case of this book, it starts with the demise of Gerard Houllier and looks at the simultaneous rise of Rafael Benitez at Valencia. The book then follows the progress of the 2004/05 season, including all the off-the-pitch activity like investment, proposed stadium move, Gerrard to Chelsea, and Owen to Madrid. It then details the lows in the league and FA Cup, and the hysterical reaction to them in the media, and the heady highs of Istanbul, with a eye-witness account of the occasion in Turkey and the famous game itself. There are some excellent books on that incredible triumph, but this is easily up there with the best.
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