First of all, a quick reminder that gift subscriptions to this site can be purchased here.

Reviews by Paul Tomkins, Chris Rowland and Andrew Beasley

Liverpool: The Complete Record, by Gudmundur Magnusson and Arnie Baldursson

Written by the two Icelandic Reds who run the magnificent www.lfchistory.net, this nicely presented hardback book is a veritable treasure trove of stories and statistics. Every season since 1892 is covered in Part One (line-ups, league table, goals, etc, plus a write-up), and Part Two looks at the records of the players. An invaluable resource.

(PT)

“Pepe – My Autobiography”, by Pepe Reina

Obviously a must-have for all Reds is the new biography from Pepe Reina; one of the must thoughtful, likable players in the club’s recent history. We’ve not had a chance to read it yet – but it’s on our own Christmas lists! (hint hint, Santa)

(PT)

“EPIC SWINDLE – 44 months with a pair of cowboys”, by Brian Reade

This book by the Mirror columnist and author of ’43 Years with the Same Bird’ is an eye-opening account of the nightmare of the Tom Hicks and George Gillett era. The title is a quote from Tom Hicks just after being shafted in court, and as the sub-title suggests, Reade is no fan of theirs – he’s a lifelong Red, why would he be?

The book contains some startling quotes and records of behind-the-scenes conversations, and there are quotes-a-plenty from the owners to make your eyes shrivel in disbelief (including the toe-curling ‘our captain is a faggot?’ episode).

We may know the ending, but like ‘Titanic’ it does not prevent that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as this wretched story unfolds. If you can tolerate the glibness that marks the book’s tone, this is a book all Reds fans should read – not least as a reminder of where we were oh-so-recently. It’s cause to be thankful.

(CR)

“MY LIVERPOOL HOME”, by Kenny Dalglish

Kenny’s account of his close and longstanding relationship with the city of Liverpool and LFC begins with his trial under Shankly in 1966 and ends in 2010 with Rafa’s appointment of him as Academy Ambassador. [A new version includes the 2010-11 season]

It takes in all his playing and management career (first time around) at Anfield and includes a few interesting insights into how the manager/board relationship used to work.

Like most football autobiographies, it’s full of dressing-room argot and not especially-clever nicknames, but Kenny’s passion for Liverpool Football Club and his concept of its standards and expectations shines through. He describes the Kop as ‘my favourite sight in football’, and makes the unexpected observation that whilst he was living the Kopites’ dream out there on the pitch, he envied them for living his dream: ‘If only I could have joined them to share the atmosphere, jokes, stories and camaraderie. Just once.’

Heysel and Hillsborough are covered in some depth, and Kenny admits ‘Hillsborough changed me.’

(CR)

“Joe Fagan: Reluctant Champion: The Authorised Biography”, by Mark Platt and Andrew Fagan

One of the problems I had when writing ‘Dynasty’ was the lack of quality material on Joe Fagan’s time at the helm. His tenure was brief, but remarkable – but until now, not well documented. That’s changed now, with this excellent tome.

He didn’t have time to make too many changes to Bob Paisley’s incredible side, but he did manage to take it to new heights in 1984, before the tragedy of Heysel in 1985. Two years of high drama. The true treasure of the book is the raft of Joe’s football/technical diaries that were discovered by his grandson, to provide genuine insight into the workings at the club. A great man and a great book.

(PT)

Now a book that’s not been released yet, but is due out in December:

On the March with Kenny’s Army is a new, independently published book that tells how Liverpool FC overcame tragedy and despair to win the League and FA Cup Double – 1985/86
 
It’s priced £13.99 and will be officially launched at the Static Gallery in Liverpool city centre on Thursday 1 December 7-9pm.
 
Authors: Gary Shaw & Mike Nevin

Publication Date: Thursday 1st December

Format: Paperback RRP: £13.99

ISBN: 978-0-9557283-2-7
 

(PT)

Then, of course, there are two of our own books. “Pay As You Play: The True Price of Success in the Premier League Era” (Reviews can be read at www.transferpriceindex.com)

And

“From Where I Was Standing: A Liverpool Supporter’s View of the Heysel Stadium Tragedy”

(Although it recently sold out its two print runs, it will remain available on Kindle)

We’d also recommend downloading The Anfield Wrap podcasts as a matter of course, and subscribing to Well Red Magazine.

Finally, TTT regular Andrew Beasley recently wrote a review of Simon Kuper’s new book, having spoken to the Dutch author.

“The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game”

“I do believe that you can access truths about the game by speaking to Arsène Wenger, if he feels like telling you. I don’t believe you can access them by speaking to Wayne Rooney.” So says Simon Kuper, in the introduction to his new book, entitled [outside of the UK] – deep breath – ‘Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World’s Most Popular Sport’, which features profiles and interviews with a variety of the game’s greats, both past and present.

The above quote is the key theme of the book; players have very little, if anything, of interest to say.

“Twitter demonstrates the problem,” Kuper told me in an interview to promote the book. “Players are constantly getting into trouble for things they have tweeted. In many countries, players have less freedom of speech now than they would have had in the Soviet Union. Players learn over time to say nothing.”
Indeed, there’s an amusing line in the profile of Freddy Adu (the only American player featured in the book) where Kuper states that the fourteen year old ‘spoke with more articulacy than I have heard from any adult England player’. But why are the English superstars so tongue-tied?

“I think it’s partly because they get teased by their peers if they sound too clever-clever or too middle-class. Their goal when speaking in interviews is to say nothing, because any interesting thoughts are liable to get them into trouble, and so inarticulacy becomes a sort of self-defence”.

The book is inspired by ‘The Football Man’, a 1968 book by Arthur Hopcraft, which Kuper admitted is “a little bit dated now”. But he felt the idea behind that book is still valid: “Portraying a series of individuals and thinking about what they have in common”.

It’s interesting then to see that the people in this book don’t actually have all that much in common. Besides being good at football and very career orientated (“In the end almost everyone in football is out for themselves” Kuper told me), there isn’t all that much that binds them based on the information that is presented here.

A chapter on a boasting Edgar Davids is followed directly by one about a shy Rivaldo; the likes of Jari Litamen and Thierry Henry are shown as being football obsessed, whilst it barely seems to register with Johnny Rep and Bernd Holzenbein (in a joint chapter) that they played in the World Cup final at all. The World Cup final!

The literary pretensions of the players themselves are entertainingly mocked in a chapter that looks at the autobiographies of England’s ‘golden generation’. Kuper confessed that no-one had ever asked him to write one, and I suspect few players will be asking him in future, if they have read this section of the book at least.

“I’d vaguely thought I’d be interested in doing it for Dennis Bergkamp but that won’t ever happen” Kuper revealed, and I wonder if, as the author of Soccernomics, he feels a connection with the Dutch legend who (as the book reveals) was teased as the dressing-room geek at Inter Milan.

Aside from looking at the players themselves, the book also covers the football cultures of different countries, which proves interesting. For example, we learn about the Argentine concept of the pibe, and that Dutch children often follow players rather than teams.

“If you grew up in Holland, you were taught an extreme interest in the actual game itself and in its tactics. So you learned to appreciate, for example, Bergkamp or Van Basten no matter which club they played for”. As an English fan of football, with all of its tribal rivalries and hostilities, this certainly seems an alien concept to me.

As the profiles date from 1997 to the present, it’s interesting to see which predictions Kuper made in his original articles came to fruition and which did not. I won’t spoil it here, but the author is honest enough to admit when he was off the mark.

It’s not just players in Kuper’s sights though; there are profiles of managers and ‘some other soccer men’ (as Part III of the book is titled).

Amongst these, there’s an interesting comparison between Glenn Hoddle and Tony Blair, from when one was England manager and the other the Prime Minister (the two most difficult jobs in the UK according to most of the natives). But who is soccer’s Barack Obama?

“Lilian Thuram is a very politically engaged man. They have something of the same aura: tall cerebral men who exude a great calm”. There you have it; look out Nicolas Sarkozy!

There’s also a fascinating portrait of Billy Beane, star of the book (and now film) ‘Moneyball’ who, it is revealed, is a soccer obsessive. With his analytical mind, I wonder if Beane could cross the divide and become a success in soccer. Kuper thinks so:

“I suspect it’s going to happen one day, that he’s going to make the leap to soccer, just because he has such passion for it and spends so much time thinking about it. Not soon, but one day”.

Whilst I very much enjoyed the book, as a fan who struggles to get tickets to see his own favoured team play, it does sometimes seem that Kuper is complaining a little too much about a life spent trying to interview players whilst going to every game imaginable, including the World Cup final itself in 2010. Want to swap places Simon?

But that’s a minor gripe. The book is very readable, obviously well written and researched, and you learn some incredible and occasionally startling facts about the stars of the game.

If nothing else, the book is worth reading to find out which World Cup winner showed his testicles to Luis Chilavert. You’re wondering now, aren’t you?

Subscribers to The Tomkins Times can download free eBooks of my four of my five main titles: “Golden Past, Red Future”, “Red Revival”, “Above Us Only Sky” and “Red Race: A New Bastion” (PDF format). Also available is the Red Race Fact Pack.

The two compilation books (“An Anfield Anthology” and “Compendium”) are excluded, as is “Dynasty”, which is now back in print and still selling fairly well, 18 months on. (Plans for an updated version have been put on hold.)

To order “Dynasty” or “From Where I Was Standing”, click on the image links on the right-hand side of the page.

More information about my books can be found here.

Late last year, Chris Rowland released From Where I Was Standing, his account of the Heysel disaster, for which I contributed the Foreword. A member of this site, I recently asked him a few questions on the experiences of 25 years ago.

What made you want to write From Where I Was Standing?

What drove me to write the book was my belief that the story had not been properly told. There was and remains a strong sense that Heysel is unfinished business. I hope it causes readers to question or re-examine what they know of Heysel.

It was the torrent of over-simplification, hypocrisy and humbug that followed, obviously from the media but also from Thatcher’s government with their anti-Liverpool, anti-football agenda. Oh, and from just about everybody you spoke to about it, in the pub, at work, and of course from rival fans. I felt a burning sense of injustice about how it was being presented – the same instinct that is still prevalent regularly on this site really – and wanted to write it out of my system. There was an element of catharsis about it I suppose. I didn’t like seeing our proud club being dragged through the mud. Still don’t.

Heysel was the first time in over 20 consecutive years of European competition that Liverpool’s supporters had been involved in any serious violence. Heysel was and still is totally alien to Liverpool football culture. If prior to Heysel Liverpool were tarred with the general English football hooligan brush, then they didn’t deserve to be. They did not fit the abusive, drunken, violent, hate-filled, racist, xenophobic stereotype, did not seek to be an all-conquering army of occupation. That’s what made Heysel especially hard to understand and to take.

Was it an easy book to write? How long did it take?

The diary part of it was fairly easy, as the outline was written in the months that followed, so I had all that down whilst it was still fresh. The analysis was harder, and I found it very difficult trying to capture the complicated emotions that were swirling around. You have no compass for a situation like that, nothing to draw upon from experience, you have to make it all up yourself as go along.

It took years for reports to be produced, courts cases and extraditions to be pursued, other accounts to appear – remember there was no internet then, it was nowhere near as easy to gather information as it is now, you had to go into libraries and pour though newspapers. As each new snippet appeared, I tried to weave it into what started as just a diary.

I thought about trying to get it serialised in the Liverpool Echo, and sent off some samples. They liked it, and asked me to send the whole thing. It duly arrived on the sports editor’s desk – on April 15th 1989, when I was on my way to Hillsborough. I got a letter back saying that in the circumstances they wouldn’t be pursuing my book any further. I’m still amazed by that today.

The book that’s out now is a very different, expanded version of what went to the Echo that day. I kept adding to it, rewriting, polishing, tightening up, adding bits and removing other bits to capture better what I was trying to say. I also had to re-enter it all on to a computer, as it was originally typewritten, which sort of dates it! Then I left it, before realising that it’s no use whatsoever sitting on my computer, I should try to get it out there into the public domain. Only now there was a new outlet – fan websites. I was familiar with your writing and books, so contacted you to ask for help. The finished version was finally approved and signed off in late summer 2008, so I guess its gestation period was just the 23 years! Can’t accuse me of rushing it.

Someone on The Tomkins Times described the book thus: “It almost 
felt like I was reading a comedy caper early on, and then slowly felt my heart unravel.” At what point did you realise that something was different with this particular trip?

Well the account part of it was just like that, it was a reflection of what happened as we saw it, so yes it started out like any other European gig, just lots of fun, laughter and drinking, funny things that happened etc. But you know the ending, it’s a bit like watching Titanic, all the fine dining and formal dress accompanied by a quartet playing Mozart and Bach takes on an altogether different hue when you know what lies ahead, how this story ends. Of course we had no idea what was going to transpire. I just tried to accurately capture the prevailing mood at each stage of the journey, so yes it changed dramatically.

The mood in the book, and in our experience, began to change in late afternoon, when there had been some trouble in the Grand Place, that fantastic square in the middle of Brussels. Not between fans, there were hardly any Juve fans in town, but there’d been some fighting between reds fans and police in and around the square. We didn’t witness it, but we saw the aftermath, the mood had changed. But don’t forget, there was an ugly mood surrounding most matches at that time, so this was no worse than what we were used to, certainly not enough to predict the cataclysmic outcome. Then again, at the time we weren’t privy to the circumstances that were allowed to prevail in the Heysel, the ticket selling arrangements for Block Z, the inadequate segregation or policing, and the condition of the stadium – not just run down, but downright dangerous.

How do you feel it could have been avoided, and how easily could it
have been avoided?

The deaths at the Heysel were wholly and easily preventable. If only the normal match day precautions had been in place – nothing special, just what we had in England for every single match in the mid 1970s – then the deaths would not just have been preventable but impossible. It would have been so easy to deny ugly primitive tribal aggression its stage.

The first and most obvious factor was the ticket sales for Block Z, where the wall collapsed and the deaths occurred. 5000 supposedly neutral tickets for that section, which was part of the same end as Liverpool’s main body of fans, had been put on open sale in Brussels, which has a large Italian ex-pat community. So Block Z was full of Juve fans. Unlike any match in England at the time, there was no segregation, no empty buffer zone between the two sets of fans, and no police cordon. Just a flimsy stretch of chicken wire and a few police at the back, who did nothing when trouble began. The police captain who had been in charge of security at the Heysel Stadium was later charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Then there was UEFA’s insistence on using that building site as a venue, despite LFC raising concerns about both that and the ticket sales in advance. There were going to be 50,000 + fans in there, most of them on terraces where there are bound to be surges and swaying, that’s what ultimately caused the deaths, you can’t use a ground that cannot take a crowd surge for a European Cup Final. Any wall at that ground could have collapsed at any time under any kind of crowd pressure, not merely hooligan-induced crowd pressure.

At no point to I seek to exonerate reds fans for their part in what happened. It’s just that if you create the circumstances that were prevalent in the Heysel, crowd trouble wasn’t a possibility, it was a certainty, given prevailing terrace culture at the time. But what distinguished Heysel’s fighting and charging from the behaviour we used to see every week without consequence was the condition of the ground. Put simply, that terrace confrontation would not have led to anything more than a bruise and a bloody nose in any ground that was fit for purpose. The game was due to be the last match ever played at the ground, as it had been condemned many years previously for failing to meet modern standards of safety and design. As a result, little money had been spent upon it, and large parts of the stadium were crumbling.

The reaction you received from the general public at the London 
train station upon returning to England shocked me. Were you expecting 
that?

No not at all, hadn’t even thought about it, although it was a foretaste of what was to come. People yelling ‘murderers’ at us on the tube escalators, that sort of thing, the British TV and news cameras waiting for our train at Ostend station in the early hours of Thursday morning, local newspapers hassling our families back home, it as an extra dimension we had to take on board, as if we hadn’t got enough to wrestle with as it was.

Obviously the death of 39 Juventus fans was a terrible thing, as
you respectfully acknowledge in the book, and something that I’m sure
every Liverpool fan wishes hadn’t happened. Did anything good
come out of the tragedy? After all, it’s after these kinds of occasions when people tend to come to their senses.

I find it hard to see any good that came out of it to be honest, just an endless procession of negatives, from the European football ban to the continuing mindless blame and abuse we get today (incidentally, since verton fans are so sure they would have been European champions the following season, they should remember that they weren’t even English champions the following season, the reds did the double, so they weren’t that bloody invincible).

I’m not sure if anyone learnt anything from Heysel. I tend to subscribe to the view that history is destined to repeat itself. Have wars stopped since the two world wars? Has UEFA learnt its lesson about being more careful about the venues it chooses to stage these high octane occasions? Istanbul, the ground 25 miles out of town on something resembling the moon and with no transport links? The chaos of Athens? Moscow? Ticket allocations, with so many shared amongst the ‘UEFA football family’ that clubs never have enough, so there’s always pressure from that direction.

All I’ve tried to do is present Heysel in a wider context; there was no murder, nothing exceptional whatsoever until a wall collapsed and changed everything.

To order the book from Amazon.co.uk, priced £5.99 (£4 discount) click on the link below:

From Where I Was Standing: A Liverpool Supporter’s View of the Heysel Stadium Tragedy

Members of the Tomkins Times can download a PDF of my 2007 book, Above Us Only Sky, for free. The book sold out very quickly, as my fastest-selling title to date (it made the top 40 on Amazon’s overall book chart, and no.2 on its Sports & Hobbies chart).

But I withdrew from a reprint after the Klinsmann affair (leading to nine months without any notable income), and since then actual copies of the book have been changing hands for upwards of £100 on eBay. (Alas, I’m not the seller.) The book was written when the fans were generally behind Gillett and Hicks, and this needs to be understood when reading it – it’s obviously pretty clear, but doesn’t hurt repeating.

I’d like to thank everyone who has signed up and contributed to the site in the past few months, to help it exceed my expectations.

As the 50th anniversary of the great man’s appointment looms, I thought I’d cobble together a selection of sample pieces from the book, for those who haven’t yet read it.

This is the book’s Introduction (essential to read first, as it explains the systems for rating players signed by the managers, and the quality they inherited).

This is LFCHistory’s abridged version of the chapter on Bill Shankly.

This is LFCHistory’s abridged version of the chapter on Joe Fagan.

This is an abridged version of the chapter on Graeme Souness.

Click here to purchase Dynasty.

I now have to consider whether or not to reprint the book – sales have obviously been very healthy in the lead up to the anniversary, and after a slow year, sales have now passed my expectations, with reserve stock running very low.

I have been approached with the possibility of an overseas publisher doing a translation, and that made me think I might update the Rafa Benítez and Conclusion chapters. With this in mind, I might make it a special gold cover version, with the updates included (seeing as I will still be writing them in English!)

It’s the one book of mine I’d like to keep in print, because seven of the eight chapters will never date (with lines drawn under the tenures of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish, Souness, Evans and Houllier).

If there’s interest, I may do a limited number with a similar box to Red Race. However, I don’t want to be left with loads of unsold stock, so I will make it very limited; to help give me an idea of numbers, let me know if that’s something you’d consider purchasing – leave me a message, either by email or by using the comments box below (if a member).

Praise for Dynasty

“Tomkins not only shows why he is a prolific, talented writer but also cements his status as very knowledgeable and passionate Red. In my opinion this is Tomkins’ best work to date; a thoroughly excellent read.”

Vic Gill, Shanks’ son-in-law and former LFC trainee

“The project that Tomkins has taken on here is highly ambitious: assessing each of Liverpool’s managers since Bill Shankly. He does this in his own irrepressible style of analyzing in detail every area that falls within a manager’s remit. And whilst Tomkins has a talent for such a task, where he excels here is in approaching each manager without any apparent pre-conceived ideas.”

Paul Grech, Squarefootball.net

“A unique analysis of the club’s managers, which is no mean feat given the extensive bibliography of the club… informative … another perspective on the last 50 years at Liverpool.”

Programme & Football Collectable Monthly

****
FourFourTwo

With that time of year approaching, here are my personal recommendations for stocking fillers, complete with brief reviews.

Dynasty: Fifty Years of Shankly’s Liverpool

I’d obviously be a poor writer if I couldn’t even recommend my own work – and so, with the 50th anniversary of Bill Shankly’s appointment a fortnight away, I’ll start with my own take on the man and his legacy. While Shankly was the founder, only one-eighth is about him, with the rest about the seven men who have succeeded him.

The book was written with reference to a couple of the other books in this list, while three other authors whose books are included below contributed to the Dynasty’s Brains Trust.

Shankly: My Story by Bill Shankly and John Roberts

A couple of years ago I was rummaging through the second-hand books in a Leicestershire Oxfam store and I found an original hardback copy of this book – for £1! It was like Charlie finding the golden chocolate wrapper.

Suffice it to say, it was snapped up, and provided excellent material when researching Dynasty. Great to see that it’s been rereleased. But you may have to pay more than a quid.

From Where I Was Standing, by Chris Rowland (Foreword by yours truly)

I clearly have a vested interest in this book, as I chose to publish it on Chris’ behalf, and upon his request, wrote the Foreword.

However, I only did this because I thought it was an important story and a well-written book, about a subject that has been almost completely overlooked. It doesn’t portray all Liverpool fans as saints, but it certainly gives a clearer insight into what took place, and the shocking reaction aimed at all Reds in the aftermath.

While it’s a personal account of the journey and the build-up to the game, perhaps the most important aspect is the research into the official inquests, etc, that pointed the finger at a lot more people than the vilified Reds.

Soccernomics, by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

I think this book is so important on a number of levels, but for me it made the ultimate connection between success and money, with its masses of data that show that the biggest wage bills win the biggest prizes, to a staggering degree.

There are lots of other gems within, about various aspects of the game. A very modern take on football, the kind that puts the majority of football journalists to shame.

Inverting The Pyramid, by Jonathan Wilson

Another hugely important book, this one traces the evolution of tactical systems and formations. Jonathan Wilson writes an excellent column in The Guardian – one of the few newspaper columnists worth reading, perhaps because he actually understands the game.

Read it and learn.

Anfield Of Dreams, by Neil Dunkin

Neil is a member of this site, and someone who had been on my mailing list long before I knew he was writing a book. Now in his 60s, this is his story of a lifetime following the Reds.

I find some fan books to be tedious and purely about machismo, but this is a wonderful weighty tome that covers all the main events of the past 50 years.

Neil also contributed to Dynasty’s Brains Trust.

;

44 Years With The Same Bird, by Brian Reade

Like the previous entry, this is a book by a long-standing Red, looking at a similar time frame, albeit not going back quite as far as Neil’s work. It covers the issues on the pitch, and off it, but also the personal nature of a father and son bonding over the game.

Brian also contributed to Dynasty’s Brains Trust.

Red Race: A New Bastion

Thought I’d slip this one in here. That’s now two books of mine I’m recommending.

Link

Liverpool – Player By Player, Ivor Ponting

This rather large book was an unexpected (and awkward) arrival through my letterbox; I appear to be on the mailing list for this publisher when it comes to their Liverpool books – following on from my praise for John Dunkin’s book – and unlike their John Wark autobiography (which may be interesting, but didn’t appeal to me), this was very gratefully received. Perhaps they think I can offer some publicity, or a review?

Well, I can. It’s a beautifully presented large-format hardback, and an up-to-date version of a book I first received as a Christmas present 15 years ago, and which I referred to when writing Dynasty with regard to the players of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The Real Bill Shankly, by Karen Gill

Another large-format, hardback book, this is also a coffee table tome that you can actually read. Put together by Bill’s granddaughter, it is a beautifully arranged collection of stories and paraphernalia, laid out in a smart, scrapbook style. Photos, newspaper clippings and photos of artefacts mix with anecdotes and personal reminiscences.

Rafa Benítez, by Paco Lloret

I read this book a few years back now, and really enjoyed the insight into Rafa’s pre-Liverpool days, covering the full range of early failures to outstanding success with Valencia. It is therefore an invaluable purchase for those who want to know more about the man at the helm. It’s on my ‘must read again’ list.

Secret Diary of a Liverpool Scout, by Simon Hughes

Still sitting on my shelf, as I plough through some other works, this is worth recommending all the same, simply because of the insight into the world of Geoff Twentyman, possibly the game’s best-ever scout.

Hillsborough: The Truth, by Phil Scraton

For obvious reasons, this is a must-read for all Liverpool fans.

Other books some Liverpool fans might like:

Torres, My Story

Fowler

Gary Neville

Carra

DVDs

With less than 90 copies of ‘Red Race: A New Bastion’ left in stock, added to the fact that I want to avoid a reprint in order to focus on this website, this is almost a final chance to order the book. (I will also stop selling the book closer to Christmas, to avoid the hassles of the Post Office – my local one is a nightmare in December.)

To order, just click the link, then on the £12.24 Marketplace book; postage will be added at Amazon’s automatic rate depending on where you live, although the books will obviously be signed and posted by yours truly. (If your country is not covered, let me know.)

Premium members will get £3.50 refunded to them via Paypal, standard members £2 – email me with your user name, or leave your details below, so that I can sort this. (The money will be sent as a personal payment, not a direct Paypal refund, as doing the latter automatically cancels the user account, as discovered recently.)

The book has today (12.11.09) received a very positive review from Neil Jones at Goal.com.

Review from David Gill (great nephew of Bill Shankly) from July 2009 (on RAWK)

If Paul Tomkins new book Red Race is anything to go by then that’s what I’ll be calling him from now on. Just like our manager Tomkins has an exemplary work ethic, this being his 8th published book in just five years.

The first thing that grabs you about Red Race: A New Bastion to give it it’s full title, which I began reading at 9 O’clock yesterday morning and finished at around 9 O’clock last night, besides the fact it’s the first book I’ve been able to read from start to finish in less than 12 hours since George Orwell’s Animal Farm 13 years previous, is how utterly up-to-date it is, including such recent signings as Glen Johnson, the arrival of the two Kings; Aaron and Kenny as well as a young kid who whilst having to live up to being labeled an ‘extra-ordinary talent’ also comes with the impossibly high expectations of being named Jesus.

Red Race like the game of football it so meticulously analyses (another Benitez trait) comes in two halves. The first as you might expect reviews the season just gone; highlighting important mile stones, marking out specific players for praise and drawing comparisons with other clubs and previous eras, as well as looking to the future and the improvements made recently at the club, but as always just like Mr Benitez and the dirty mac’d one before him (that’s Columbo not the Cardiff City manager) Tomkins sticks loyally to the facts.

The second half of the book hypothesises what it is a football club needs to have in place before being able to make significant improvements such as winning the league or loosening the stranglehold of the top four; breaking these achievements into their component parts Tomkins researches the money (transfer values, wages), age and experience aspects of a number of clubs, most tellingly those that have managed to win the league in the last 20 years with very interesting, although not entirely surprising conclusions.

What separates Tomkins from the numerous other writers out there is his ability to remain pragmatic, detached and at times almost emotionless in regards to the clubs fortunes, perhaps this is what angers some fans, although this is in stark contrast to the accusations of Liverpool bias and excuse making levelled at the writer himself. If anything Tomkins is systematically unbiased, constantly checking himself to make sure he’s being fair to all concerned, such as when calculating the rotations made by the top four teams over 2008/09 he emphasises Manchester United’s final match where Ferguson’s fielding of a team of youngsters in the final game of their season, once the league had been wrapped up, skewed the averages for their season, although the point being made in this case was still valid.

It’s the final section of Red Race that really captured my imagination and where my main motivation behind the title of this thread came from. As like the underrated Spaniard (in these Isles at least) he is at the forefront of his field, not content with simply analysing the statistics we’re normally exposed to by the mainstream media, which are often misleading anyway, Tomkins has scrutinised telling contributions, which often go unnoticed by players but which greatly impact results. Tomkins has devised a system to calculate the normally unquantifiable contributions made by players through out a match.

Just as in Dynasty with his patented Relative Transfer System, Red Race throws up some very interesting revelation for instance through this points system which as Paul himself recognises isn’t 100% fool proof, we find that Javier Mascherano has 11 ‘assists’ or rather eleven meaningful contributions in the build up to goals, making him joint 5th alongside our ‘razor elbowed’ Israeli. Who would have believed that our out and out defensive midfielder could have that much of a say towards our attacking play? Of course these could simply be an interception followed by a short pass which in three moves leads to a goal but this kind of input often goes unnoticed.

Coming out on top (not including goals scored) is one Xabi Alonso, perhaps a perfunctory look at these result tables could convince Real Madrid and/or Barcelona (although after reading this I’d rather they stayed) to pay the asking price of £35mil whilst making Liverpool revise their own appraisal to something closer to the value of Kaka as realistically with 38 assists between them over the season using this system, which I believe is a fairer indication of the value that the player has to the team.

All in all the first half of the book has the unfortunate side-effect of a stiff neck as you’ll catch yourself nodding in agreement at almost every point Tomkins makes, whilst the second half of the book (separated into 3 parts) could result in you doing a sterling impression of a venus fly trap as you find yourself open-mouthed at some of the conclusions drawn.

‘Red Race: A New Bastion’
Available only from www.paultomkins.com, released this week.

The best points haul for 21 years (86, which would have been enough to win seven of the previous 16 league titles); a thoroughly convincing double over Manchester United; a better goal difference and a greater number of goals scored than any other team; and a club record 13 away wins.

And still only 2nd place, with a points total that has never been bettered by any runner-up in a 38-game season, and the lowest number of defeats for any team that didn’t win the league in its 121-year history.

So close –– but no cigar, and, alas, no champagne.

Can’t Buy Me Leagues?

Can’t buy me love, sang Liverpool’s most famous sons, in reference to the one thing supposedly untainted by the filthy lucre. (They also sang about semolina pilchards scaling Parisian landmarks, although that’s more suited to a book about drug abuse in sport than financial doping.)

But does money buy you league titles?

More than ever before, financial power seems to be at the root of any assault on the English league championship. So while this book looks at all aspects of Liverpool’s season, from performances to tactics and off-the-pitch developments, a lot of the themes lead back to money, and how it buys you the power to compete on a level playing field in 2008/09 –– and, more importantly, beyond.

Is there a glass ceiling in the modern era, in that success cannot be achieved without a minimum spend? Certainly the clubs trying to get into the Champions League feel so, but what about those looking to be champions?

In Dynasty, I looked at the financial wherewithal of successful sides dating back to Bill Shankly’s installation as Kop chorister, but this book aims to take that one step further, with more detailed investigation into the modern era, and how the money a club spends affects its chances of winning the biggest domestic prize. Before the top division was rebranded The Premiership, some equity seemed to exist. Cheap, cleverly-assembled sides could win league titles. Teams promoted from the old Second Division could become national champions within a year or two, as seen with Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and, in the Premiership’s early years, Blackburn Rovers.

Most people feel that this is no longer the case. And they have a point. It’s now fourteen years since a team other than Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal won the league. In that time, Liverpool have finished 2nd twice. However, no other team outside of what is currently known as the ‘big four’ have finished in the top two since Newcastle, in 1997. If it seems virtually impossible that any team can break into the top four –– Everton in 2005 being the last gatecrashers –– even though only a few points often separate 4th from 5th, then why should Liverpool have been expected to break what was becoming a Manchester United/Chelsea duopoly?

Truth be told, Liverpool should not be ‘expected’ to win the league title, either now or at any time in the past decade. When people talk of Liverpool ‘blowing’ the chance to win the 2008/09 title having led the table at the mid-point, they were missing the possible inevitability of the situation, which is mirrored in the race for 4th place in previous seasons. In the past four years, either Liverpool or Arsenal have been behind in the race for 4th spot –– at times perilously so –– but each time that little extra quality saw off Everton, Spurs, Aston Villa and any other high-flying hopefuls as the 38th game approached. Did those teams ‘blow it’? Or did natural selection –– survival of the fittest –– abide?

The truth is that Liverpool should be expected to be no better than the 4th-best team in England. Based on history, tradition and both the size and spread of the fan-base, this is of course not the case –– far from it. Only Manchester United from these shores can rival Liverpool, and even they fall behind in certain areas. But those things –– history, fan-base and a magical name –– do not win you trophies. Indeed, they can sometimes even be a hindrance. The one undeniably positive thing a rich history does is keep the club as an attractive proposition, but reputation alone does not attract the best players.

In many ways, Liverpool have the right to be considered the premier English club, although it’s an honour United will obviously feel is rightfully theirs instead. However, based on facts surrounding the club’s wherewithal, Liverpool would not rank so highly. Liverpool’s squad was only the 5th-most expensive last season (2008/09). Anfield was the 6th-biggest stadium in the division, although Newcastle have since very kindly vacated one space above the Reds on that particular list, and none of the three promoted sides have grounds that exceed Anfield’s 45,362 capacity.

Liverpool, by some distance, paid only the 4th-highest wages in the land. The club’s turnover was also only the 4th-highest. These figures are based on the most recently published accounts, which don’t include last season, but there will have been no dramatic changes in the interim. As with a lot of the financial figures, Tottenham and Newcastle are actually far closer to Liverpool than the Reds are to Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Indeed, in some cases, such as squad cost, Spurs are actually ahead of Liverpool. Manchester City also feature highly, ending the season with a considerably more expensive squad than Liverpool.

So where do Liverpool match or trump their main rivals, aside from factors relating to its past? How about the passionate crowd, the famed ‘12th man’? Well, certainly on European nights against the big names it can be worth a goal head-start. But for league games, Anfield can be rather muted, and sometimes against the smaller teams you could hear a pin drop on its soft green turf.

Then there are the managers. Alex Ferguson is hardly some bumbling rookie, while Arsène Wenger is as respected as anyone in the game. Both have been in charge for what seems like forever. Chelsea have recently appointed Carlo Ancelotti, whose record in Champions League finals against Liverpool reads ‘won one, lost one’, but who also won the trophy in 2003 against Juventus. Clearly he’s one of the best around, too (although totally unproven in England), but at least Liverpool can claim to have a manager whose achievements rank alongside each of his main rivals. His career may cover different scenarios and different time-spans, but over the past eight years, Rafa Benítez has earned the reputation of a master, across the continent at least, even if he’s still not as widely respected throughout England.

Which of them is the best manager is hard to say, given their different approaches, wide-ranging budgets and time allocated to building their respective dynasties. (Ancelotti, of course, hasn’t even got started at Stamford Bridge, at the time of writing.)

But that’s about where the equality expires. When it comes to the experience of winning the English league title, Liverpool had just one such player: Jermaine Pennant –– who wasn’t even at the club from January onwards, and who has now moved to Spain. With Liverpool obviously unable to boast anyone winning the title in their colours, it’s no surprise to see such a low number, given that those who have done so in the past decade were/are at rival clubs; clubs that are certainly not going to sell directly to the Reds. Even Everton have more Premiership league winners in their ranks, although, of course, their medals were collected at other clubs. The arrival of Glen Johnson brings Liverpool’s tally back up to one.

Five different clubs have won the title since Liverpool last lifted the trophy, meaning that the Reds rank 6th in that particular list. Of course, it’s a fairly meaningless list, seeing as not one single player remains from that success, in 1990; the Reds could rank 50th and it not alter anything. But what isn’t meaningless is how the teams contesting the league title with Liverpool do have this experience, and in the case of two of the three, managers who have masterminded the most successful period in their club’s history. If experience of having won the competition you’re contesting is helpful (and surely it has to be, to some unquantifiable degree), then this is another hurdle for the Reds to overcome.

However, despite all the obstacles and handicaps, Liverpool proved themselves genuine title challengers last season. Wherewithal suggests that the Reds should have finished a distant 4th, but instead they came incredibly close to landing the club’s first title in 19 years. Why? Liverpool needed to be extremely good, and they were, but what other factors played a part in almost taking the title the wire?

Chelsea’s lack of stability at the top left a slight gap to squeeze into, and the Reds took the initiative, even though the Londoners were still strong enough to find themselves just one minute away from their second Champions League Final in two seasons. Arsenal’s inexperience and lack of mettle left a bigger opening, and Liverpool brushed past the Gunners –– a team who were still good enough to make it to the Champions League semi-final –– by a 14-point margin. Teams who were 30 points ahead of Liverpool when Benítez arrived, and after he’d spent a first season sorting Willy Wheat from Charlie Chaff, were now trailing in the Reds’ wake. But it still wasn’t quite enough. While the pressure to end a long wait for the title adds a further burden, the hunger to do so –– and the rewards on offer to the players, as overnight legends –– can make a difference; certainly when compared with Chelsea, whose own burning desire appears directed at Europe, something that may also be true of Manchester United.

The question is, with the wealth pumped into rival clubs from multi-billionaires and the far greater income they generate from much bigger stadia, can anything ever be enough?

And if it can be, wouldn’t that make it the greatest achievement in the Reds’ history?

© Paul Tomkins 2009

Yossi Benayoun’s arrival at Liverpool could be seen as something of a good omen. A £5m signing from West Ham, he became the third Israeli to join the Reds, following Avi Cohen and Ronny Rosenthal, both of whom won the league title in their time at the club. Indeed, Rosenthal had an incredible impact after arriving in late March 1990, scoring seven goals in eight league games in helping the Reds finish strongly to see off Aston Villa for the championship.

Benayoun impressed Benítez in La Liga when at Racing Santander –– a somewhat unfashionable Spanish club. Arriving in England 12 months after the Liverpool manager, the attacking midfielder enjoyed a superb first season in English football. It ended with the Israeli as one of the stars of the FA Cup Final, overshadowed only by Steven Gerrard, whose two goals, sumptuous assist and penalty success stole the headlines and cup from the Hammers and Benayoun.

Upon his signing, some Liverpool fans suggested Benayoun was not as good as Luis García, the man he effectively replaced in the squad, but the Israeli’s record in the top Spanish division, in a weaker team, was arguably more impressive than the departing no.10’s.

Also, Benayoun was only 21/22 at that time, and fresh from Israel. And before West Ham’s myriad troubles in 2006/07, which could be seen as extenuating circumstances, he had proved he could more than cut it in the more physical English game, winning rave reviews and being courted by Arsène Wenger at Arsenal. Of course, Luis García himself split the fans, between those who loved his game-winning ability and those who lamented what they saw as his sloppiness in possession.

Benayoun had begun making waves in Israeli football circles by the age of 11, and become a national celebrity by 13. At 15 he was snapped up by Ajax, recent European Champions, where he became the star player and top scorer in the youth team. As a result, he was offered a four-year professional contract. But Benayoun failed to settle in Holland, and within a year had returned to his homeland, where he would remain until his national service was complete at 21.

It’s fair to say that Benayoun is a ‘footballer’s footballer’. He’s not overly flashy, and has a low SOR (Step-Over Ratio). He hasn’t played for fashionable clubs or a major nation, and as such will never be a worldwide superstar.

But he really understands how to do those classic Liverpool-like things: find space, pass and move, and play with intelligence. He’s a team player, who should prove comfortable taking part in the fast, passing football that helps to unlock defences. Closer to a Ray Houghton than a John Barnes, he has a lot to offer, as seen against Toulouse, when he put in a fine performance topped with a canny through-ball to Kuyt for the fourth goal.

His problem will be getting a regular game on the right-hand side of midfield, where Jermaine Pennant began to really impress in the second half of the 2006/07, and where Steven Gerrard and Ryan Babel can also be utilised.

Benayoun will need to show a lot of character to keep his form when in and out of the side, as it will take exceptional performances to come as close to cementing a place as anyone can get under Benítez. But the Israeli is also a player who can cut infield from the left, or play as the second striker, so he’s not hamstrung by a lack of versatility.

Above Us Only Sky was not reprinted, despite demand, following behind-the-scenes developments at the club shortly after its initial release.

www.paultomkins.com – support my writing by buying my books.

Click here to Pre-order ‘Red Race’.

‘Compendium’ and ‘Red Race’ available only from my website, ‘Dynasty’ and other books from Amazon and most good bookstores.

“Tomkins not only shows why he is a prolific, talented writer but also cements his status as very knowledgeable and passionate Red. In my opinion this is Tomkins’ best work to date; a thoroughly excellent read.”

Vic Gill, Shanks’ son-in-law and former LFC trainee

“The project that Tomkins has taken on here is highly ambitious: assessing each of Liverpool’s managers since Bill Shankly. He does this in his own irrepressible style of analyzing in detail every area that falls within a manager’s remit. And whilst Tomkins has a talent for such a task, where he excels here is in approaching each manager without any apparent pre-conceived ideas.”

Paul Grech, Squarefootball.net

“A unique analysis of the club’s managers, which is no mean feat given the extensive bibliography of the club… informative … another perspective on the last 50 years at Liverpool.”

Programme & Football Collectable Monthly

****

FourFourTwo

I am currently working on a new Liverpool book, called ‘Red Race’, due to be released in the summer of this year. 

Unlike my other main books, it will be available ONLY via my website. 

‘Dynasty’ has sold very well via limited outlets (an incredible straight six months since its release in the top 10 of the FourFourTwo Football Book Chart), but as I’ve mentioned before, the profit margin in the retail market remains very low; so much so that I need to experiment with exclusive sales via www.paultomkins.com on this book, to see if I can generate sufficient income to live on (book sales being virtually my only source income).

‘Red Race’ will be a look at the (already) very eventful 2008/09 season, and how Liverpool have finally put up a title challenge; the denouement obviously depends on what happens between now and the end of May, but if Liverpool do miss out on the title (as still looks quite likely), I’ll be examining what is still needed to make that final push, and what it’s taken to win league titles in the Premiership era (for which I’ll be using some Dynasty-style analysis). 

The release date of the book cannot be set in stone at this stage, depending on how the season unfolds and how long it lasts. The aim is for mid-July; earlier if possible, and August at the very latest.

The book (every copy of which will be signed) will come with a special gatefold cover, to make them a bit more unique and collectable than my usual fare. The first 100 copies will also be numbered.

• ‘Standard’ (£16.99) is a signed copy of the book, which will be posted second-class; 

“From Where I Was Standing: A Liverpool supporter's view of the Heysel Stadium Tragedy”

I have also written the foreword for Chris Rowland’s book, ‘From Where I Was Standing: A Liverpool supporter's View of the Heysel Stadium Tragedy’. 

Chris, now in his fifties (and one of the ‘Dynasty’ Brains Trust), has attended all ten of Liverpool’s European finals, and over a year ago asked if I’d be interested in publishing his book, which was written largely in 1985 following the disaster, and subsequently updated in the intervening years following developments and repercussions. 

It starts as amusing account of the journey to Belgium with a motley crew of Reds, before the trip took on its dark, tragic air; from which point it examines what took place, and the aftermath. I feel it’s an important account of what took place, and sets the record straight about an event that tarred all Liverpool fans with the same brush.

This book will also be available from my website, signed by both Chris and myself. However, last year I promised Chris that I would publish it for him using the ISBN registration numbers that I own, so it will also have a retail release. It’s not really a profit-making venture, merely a chance to get his account into the public arena by the end of the year, as the 25th anniversary approaches.

“From Where I Was Standing…” will appear in the shops in the autumn, but will be available from my website at the same time as ‘Red Race’. 

To pre-order at £15.99 including first-class postage, use the link below:

Thank you for your continued support.