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The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: Robin Friday Story (Mainstream Sport)
 
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The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: Robin Friday Story (Mainstream Sport) (Paperback)

by Paul McGuigan (Author), Paolo Hewitt (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing; New edition edition (14 Sep 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1840181087
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840181081
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 53,037 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
Robin Friday was an exceptional footballer who should have played for England. He never did. Robin Friday was a brilliant player who could have played in the top flight. He never did. Why? Because Robin Friday was a man who would not bow down to anyone, who refused to take life seriously and who lived every moment as if it were his last. For anyone lucky enough to have seen him play, Robin Friday was up there with the greats. Take it from one who knows: 'There is no doubt in my mind that if someone had taken a chance on him he would have set the top division alight,' says the legendary Stan Bowles. 'He could have gone right to the top, but he just went off the rails a bit.' Loved and admired by everyone who saw him, Friday also had a dark side: troubled, strong-minded, reckless, he would end up destroying himself. Tragically, after years of alcohol and drug abuse, he died at the age of 38 without ever having fulfilled his potential. This book provides the first full appreciation of a man too long forgotten by the world of football, and will surely give him the cult status he deserves.

About the Author
Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan is the former bassist in Oasis. While on tour with the band in America, Guigsy came across a magazine article about Robin Friday and was inspired to find out more about the genius maverick player. This book is the result of his investigations. Paolo Hewitt is the author of several bestselling books, including The Looked After Kid, Heaven's Promise, The Fashion of Football, and biographies on Oasis, Paul Weller and The Jam. He is also features editor at Watch magazine.

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars If Liam Gallagher were a footballer, 7 Jan 2002
By A Customer
Co-written by ex-Oasis gutarist Paul McGuigan, a couple of chapters into the book you can see the why writing a book on an obscure 4th division footballer of the 1970's had an direct appeal to a man who had spent five years on the road with the Gallagher brothers.

Robin Friday played less than three seasons for the (old) 4th divison Reading RC and then "retired" after a short spell at Cardiff City at the ripe old age of 24. Undoubtedly of remarkable natural ability ( he could have played for England we are repeatedly told by a string of credible witnesses), it is however Friday's off field antics which hold your interest and largely explain why two decades on McGuigan chose to write a book about him.

In terms of style this is not a classic biography, relying almost exclusively on a series of interviews with family and friends and contemporary newspaper reports. But all this is put together very well by McGuigan and co-author Paulo Hewitt making the book very readable. Indeed, this somewhat hotch potch approach almost perfectly reflects the life of Robin, a man who even at the peak of his career seemed to live out of carrier bags and cheap digs with a variety of wives,women, boozers and drug dealers never far behind him.

The book is funny, intriguing and tragic - Friday died in poverty aged only 38 in 1990. But the authors succeeed in presenting Robin Friday as a genuine talent and lovable rogue that for all his obvious faults you can't help liking. A good read. You wouldn't need to be a football fan to enjoy it, and in the absence of evidence from an era when TV coverage was limited to the big clubs a fitting tribute to a player I had never heard of but wish I had.

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A cracking good read, 13 Dec 2002
As a football fan (well, barely at the moment - West Ham), and as a lover of sporting biographies, I found this book to be a cracking good read. - I was a teenage football nut in the seventies and from what it says in the book about how good Robin Friday was, it's hard to believe that I've never heard of this player. He must have occasionally featured on Big Match highlights on Sunday afternoons. I'd love to see some footage of him. Anyway, the book takes you on a journey of ambition, success, self-destruction and ultimately sadness. It's a bit slow starting and the diary format takes a few pages to get used to, but once you're into it, it's difficult to put down. At the end you're left with a feeling that maybe he truly was the greatest footballer you never saw.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars There was and is only one Robin Friday, 20 Jan 2005
First a confession. I'm an exiled Reading fan and as a 15 year old Robin Friday was my hero. I well remember standing in the South Bank at Elm Park and watching this magician beat defenders and then seemingly wait for them to catch up so he could beat them again! To me he was as good as George Best and should have been as famous. I was there against Tranmere in what was a vital promotion battle when we won 5-0 and he scored THAT goal.

This book is excellent and my only regret is that it has taken me this long to find it. For a Reading fan from the 70's it is so evocative but for any football supporter or anyone with an interest in the human condition it is a great read.

If Robin Friday was twenty five years old today he would be earning millions and would hopefully be receiving wise counsel from whichever club was lucky enough to have his services. Instead he played in an era when lower division footballers earned half the wages of scaffolders and plasterers and were largely left to their own devices off the field. With a little bit of the pastoral help that today's players get from the bigger clubs who knows....

The diary style and first hand nature of a lot of the comments in this book help to put everything in perspective and in it's own historical context. I finished the book in one gulp and put it aside with nostalgia and emotion flowing over me and an over powering sadness at the thought of what might have been.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Doubt if Robin Friday was the greatest but
still not a bad way to pass an evening. Obviously a talented bloke but dispersing the book with clippings of Best and Bowles to try and elevate him into their company is a cheap... Read more
Published 16 months ago by noggy1810

1.0 out of 5 stars Over rated
I was really looking forward to this book with the full story of the enigmatic Friday. I found it to be very disappointing. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mark Swindell

4.0 out of 5 stars -
Good football book to read, although it starts rather slow. Personally I would have liked to have read a bit more anecdotes about his off field antics than all those copy and... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Acw Schipper

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MAN , THE LEGEND.
where do you start? i met the guy several times,usually in the pub on a saturday lunchtime! he was a very aproachable guy and would have a drink and a chat with you. Read more
Published 17 months ago by R. Hollis

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius
I have been a Reading supporter since the age of 4, when my Dad used to take me to see every home game from around 1970 through to the day Neil Webb left the club to join... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. A. Pickering

4.0 out of 5 stars Life on the footballing edge
This book is written in a quite unique style which takes a little getting used to but is worth pursuing. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mr. A. J. Barrington

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hidden Wonder
This book is a must read for any true football fan. If Robin Friday was playing football in todays world not a day would go by where he would not make the back pages or the front... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2007 by M. Cox

5.0 out of 5 stars forget other fooball Bios...
Forget the boring Frank Lampard and Michael Owen books and buy this. It is a unique record of an extraordinary footballer, whom you quite literally, would never have heard of... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2007 by Mr. Rj Starkey

5.0 out of 5 stars A fitting tribute...
...to my boyhood hero. It's surprising just how many people claim to have seen THAT goal against Tranmere (I'm sure the score was 5-2 or 5-3, but not 5-0 as so many people - like... Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2006 by J. Marshall

5.0 out of 5 stars When footballers where like Rock n Roll Stars
I recommend this book 2 anyone that loves football. Robin Friday lived life 2 the full and unfortunately thats what ruined him. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2001

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