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The Glory Game
The classic inside view of soccer Hailed as probably the best book about soccer ever written, The Glory Game gives a unique insight into the inner workings of a major-league soccer club. Author Hunter Davies was allowed unparalleled access to the inner sanctum of a top professional soccer team, the Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), and his pen spared nothing and no one. This 30th-anniversary edition will appeal to new and enthusiastic audiences.
352 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1972
19 people are currently reading
705 people want to read
About the author
Hunter Davies
135 books70 followersEdward Hunter Davies OBE is an author, journalist and broadcaster, and a former editor for the Sunday Times of London. He is the author of numerous books, including The Glory Game and the only authorised biography of the Beatles. He was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four years his family lived in Dumfries until Davies was aged 11.
His family moved to Carlisle in northern England when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former Royal Air Force pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career.
Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an honours degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate, where one of his fellow student journalists was the future fashion writer Colin McDowell. After completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma and avoid National Service.
He lives in London.
His family moved to Carlisle in northern England when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former Royal Air Force pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career.
Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an honours degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate, where one of his fellow student journalists was the future fashion writer Colin McDowell. After completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma and avoid National Service.
He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 18, 2013
Hunter Davies' book is based on the free access he was given to players and staff at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1970's. There are no startling revelations - apart from one of the leading striker's devotion to the drink - but it is a fascinating insight into how a top team prepares for games and how it copes with the various triumphs and disasters of a league season - as it turned out a season that proved to be a particularly successful one for Spurs.
Davies would never be given such freedom to roam these days but back in the day - before agents and Sky TV - your average footballer was much the same, which probably explains why people are still reading The Glory Game 40 years after its publication.
Here is Davies' evocative description of the team after it lost a cup match against Chelsea: "They sat like shipwrecked hulks, naked, with their heads bowed, unable to move. (Cyril) Knowles seemed to be crying. His eyes were red and swollen. His arms were shaking, No one could look at anyone else."
This was in the days when Division One players were on £5,000 a year and some of them went home on the bus and train after a game!
There are a number of interesting pen portraits here, particularly of no nonsense manager Bill Nicholson, one of the most successful in the club's history.
Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on. Haven't they? "All that was missing to have made it a really smart 1972 middle-class party would have been a few reefers, but footballers wouldn't touch such things. Some footballers might have moved into the middle classes but there are two things they won't have at their parties - drugs and homosexuals.
Davies would never be given such freedom to roam these days but back in the day - before agents and Sky TV - your average footballer was much the same, which probably explains why people are still reading The Glory Game 40 years after its publication.
Here is Davies' evocative description of the team after it lost a cup match against Chelsea: "They sat like shipwrecked hulks, naked, with their heads bowed, unable to move. (Cyril) Knowles seemed to be crying. His eyes were red and swollen. His arms were shaking, No one could look at anyone else."
This was in the days when Division One players were on £5,000 a year and some of them went home on the bus and train after a game!
There are a number of interesting pen portraits here, particularly of no nonsense manager Bill Nicholson, one of the most successful in the club's history.
Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on. Haven't they? "All that was missing to have made it a really smart 1972 middle-class party would have been a few reefers, but footballers wouldn't touch such things. Some footballers might have moved into the middle classes but there are two things they won't have at their parties - drugs and homosexuals.
January 6, 2015
A good book to read for fans of Tottenham, or English football in general. I've heard a lot of hype about this book, and in general I was let down. But, it certainly gives a good insight into the the life of a top English football club in the 1970s, and the mentality of the professionals of the game at the time.
June 30, 2019
I enjoyed this. But then, I remember this team better than I can remember the Huddersfield team I sat in the stand and cheered last season. This lot were part of what I might call my second generation of footballers. The first began with being told as a 4 year old that I had to be Ron Springett and go in goal. The second centred largely around the England team that won the world cup (beating West Germany) in 66 and the better team that got knocked out by a better German team* in 1970 and various FA Cup finals beamed live onto our black and white telly in the late sixties. Oh and the Manchester United side that won the European cup in 68. These were the only live games we got to see. Recorded games were on too late for me. So the third generation might be described as my Match of the Day teams and all had made big changes to personnel to match the new haircuts, the player interviews and the fact that we now had a telly with a reasonably clear, non-snow-storm picture.
One review on here complains that it should be about a team that was very successful and suggests Manchester United. Apart from the historical facts being against this, (United were in a dreadful slump during this period) the glory in the title is glory that is aspired to not necessarily enjoyed. Tottenham seem to me to have been an excellent choice if the aim was to capture the essence of early seventies English football. But, this was fortuitous. Hunter Davies was looking to the present for his readership and was as surprised as anyone when the book kept selling. It is still very much worth the read if you can remember the players. I think it is probably worth the read if you don't.
The best things about the book are:
1. The writer. He is present with the players and readers equally. He has just the right touch. He's aware and informed not just about the game but also about the culture. I've been a fan since I used to read his columns in Punch while waiting for a girlfriend to finish her shift at a dental practice. I've allowed our "Hunt" to tell me all about the Beatles and to guide me along Hadrian's Wall. The fellow can inform and entertain without either getting in the other's way.
2. The exposure of the dreadful state of English social attitudes; whether it be about gender roles or sexuality or race relations. This tells of a white male only world that was becoming at odds with the progressive and inclusive world that was over-taking it. There are numerous cringe-worthy sections and several that would have been indefensible even in the dark ages of 1971.
3. Nostalgia. This works better in book form than by watching old matches.
4. The remarkable appendices which list such things as the occupations of the players wives/girlfriends before they met, the values of the houses they live in. hobbies (many don't list any, plenty name golf. Mark and Lard had a good point in saying that the sole justification for golf was to keep footballers out of the pub between 9 and 5 o'clock.)
5. The pictures. Especially the ones of Alan Gilzean who was indeed as odd looking for a footballer - surely an undertaker in his forties or a seedy bank manager - as I remembered.**
6. The almost complete lack of meaningful coaching.
8. The format. A season makes for a good story. The opportunity to explore different aspects of the club and the characters therein. You get to know people and care a little about them in human terms. I've enjoyed a few books that have taken this approach and this challenges my favourite which up until now has been I Lost My Heart to the Belles by Pete Davies where Davies once again showed himself to be a generation ahead of his time.
*Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win. (Gary Lineker)
** See In Search of Alan Gilzean by James Morgan which I also enjoyed albeit a few years ago.
One review on here complains that it should be about a team that was very successful and suggests Manchester United. Apart from the historical facts being against this, (United were in a dreadful slump during this period) the glory in the title is glory that is aspired to not necessarily enjoyed. Tottenham seem to me to have been an excellent choice if the aim was to capture the essence of early seventies English football. But, this was fortuitous. Hunter Davies was looking to the present for his readership and was as surprised as anyone when the book kept selling. It is still very much worth the read if you can remember the players. I think it is probably worth the read if you don't.
The best things about the book are:
1. The writer. He is present with the players and readers equally. He has just the right touch. He's aware and informed not just about the game but also about the culture. I've been a fan since I used to read his columns in Punch while waiting for a girlfriend to finish her shift at a dental practice. I've allowed our "Hunt" to tell me all about the Beatles and to guide me along Hadrian's Wall. The fellow can inform and entertain without either getting in the other's way.
2. The exposure of the dreadful state of English social attitudes; whether it be about gender roles or sexuality or race relations. This tells of a white male only world that was becoming at odds with the progressive and inclusive world that was over-taking it. There are numerous cringe-worthy sections and several that would have been indefensible even in the dark ages of 1971.
3. Nostalgia. This works better in book form than by watching old matches.
4. The remarkable appendices which list such things as the occupations of the players wives/girlfriends before they met, the values of the houses they live in. hobbies (many don't list any, plenty name golf. Mark and Lard had a good point in saying that the sole justification for golf was to keep footballers out of the pub between 9 and 5 o'clock.)
5. The pictures. Especially the ones of Alan Gilzean who was indeed as odd looking for a footballer - surely an undertaker in his forties or a seedy bank manager - as I remembered.**
6. The almost complete lack of meaningful coaching.
8. The format. A season makes for a good story. The opportunity to explore different aspects of the club and the characters therein. You get to know people and care a little about them in human terms. I've enjoyed a few books that have taken this approach and this challenges my favourite which up until now has been I Lost My Heart to the Belles by Pete Davies where Davies once again showed himself to be a generation ahead of his time.
*Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win. (Gary Lineker)
** See In Search of Alan Gilzean by James Morgan which I also enjoyed albeit a few years ago.
October 5, 2022
Staggeringly raw and uncompromisingly revealing. I was expecting some unconvenient truths about the game to be shown, but the ammount of darkness that this book portrays still surprised me. I know that you're not supposed to apply your own moral standars on past times, and the 70's had things our time doesn't but still: the energy around Spurs in '72 comes across as outright destructive. Davies mercilessly shows how the players suffer not only from their own fears and prejudices, but also from the reactionary, judgemental and emotionally arid culture around them. As a Spurs fan I've learned to consider Bill Nicholson a "club legend", but after reading Davies' depiction of his almost pathological criticism of people around him, and his contempt of weakness and vulnerability, I feel less inclined to do so. I don't know if things have gotten better since then at Spurs and clubs like them, but in any case I'm glad I wasn't there.
If this was made into a video game it should be made into a football manager-style game but where your only tools as a manager were conservative ones such as punishments, bullying, banter and not talking about feelings.
If this was made into a video game it should be made into a football manager-style game but where your only tools as a manager were conservative ones such as punishments, bullying, banter and not talking about feelings.
November 10, 2010
A little dry, a little clinical, and outdated in a variety of ways (though that also adds to its charm as well), otherwise i would give it 5 stars. Enjoyed it thoroughly, and may well read it again at some point. Fascinating look at the players and innerworkings of Tottenham FC in the late 60's-early 70s, and indeed similar to Jim Bouton's great "Ball Four" in form, though of course hearing from a player (Bouton) is infinitely more appealing than hearing from a reporter (Davies), no matter how entrenched said reporter is. Also, there was a surprising anti-semitic presence, which isn't to say that the author or any of the players come off as bigoted, necessarily, but i did find some of the references to racism and anti-semitism interesting, and shocking. Still, excellent book. Really enjoyed it. Recommended, definitely.
November 19, 2020
This delightful book, written almost 50 years ago, offers the reader an informed look into the life of a top football club from the boardroom to the terraces during a trophy winning season. Although a fan, Davies questions what he sees, and writes objectively. He doesn't pull any punches nor does he fail to recognise each and every contribution or understand how they fit together. Our sporting heroes are pulled from one life and thrust into another full of insecurities. One we knew little of from our perches on the terrace. For my generation, for whom Bill Nicholson and his players were household names, this was the golden era of the glory game. Davies has captured this brilliantly.
January 20, 2015
I don't normally like to read nonfiction. However, Mr. Davies' account of his year spent with Spurs is fascinating and engrossing. Though at times it does show its age, those points only now work to juxtapose how much the game and players have changed and how much it hasn't. One of the best books on football/soccer as well as an engrossing story.
November 24, 2019
This is always up there as ‘the’ football book to read, and it was fascinating stuff. It’s a work of socio-anthropology as much as reportage, with the author ensconced the Tottenham dressing room for the 71-72 season. Inadvertently, a contemporary reading reveals the latent, and occasionally overt, sexist and racist attitudes at the times, while the writing has that clipped, slightly BBC tone. Class is still the definitive algorhythms of the age, the author always slightly surprised at liking some of these working class men, as well as this working class sport. But I would definitely recommend it – no Spurs allegiance is necessary.
January 15, 2017
Nice one Hunter, nice one son
Hunter Davies' book is based on the free access he was given to players and staff at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1970's. There are no startling revelations - apart from one of the leading striker's devotion to the drink - but it is a fascinating insight into how a top team prepares for games and how it copes with the various triumphs and disasters of a league season - as it turned out a season that proved to be a particularly successful one for Spurs.
Davies would never be given such freedom to roam these days but back in the day - before agents and Sky TV - your average footballer was much the same, which probably explains why people are still reading The Glory Game 40 years after its publication.
Here is Davies' evocative description of the team after it lost a cup match against Chelsea: "They sat like shipwrecked hulks, naked, with their heads bowed, unable to move. (Cyril) Knowles seemed to be crying. His eyes were red and swollen. His arms were shaking, No one could look at anyone else."
This was in the days when Division One players were on £5,000 a year and some of them went home on the bus and train after a game!
There are a number of interesting pen portraits here, particularly of no nonsense manager Bill Nicholson, one of the most successful in the club's history.
Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on. Haven't they? "All that was missing to have made it a really smart 1972 middle-class party would have been a few reefers, but footballers wouldn't touch such things. Some footballers might have moved into the middle classes but there are two things they won't have at their parties - drugs and homosexuals.
Hunter Davies' book is based on the free access he was given to players and staff at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1970's. There are no startling revelations - apart from one of the leading striker's devotion to the drink - but it is a fascinating insight into how a top team prepares for games and how it copes with the various triumphs and disasters of a league season - as it turned out a season that proved to be a particularly successful one for Spurs.
Davies would never be given such freedom to roam these days but back in the day - before agents and Sky TV - your average footballer was much the same, which probably explains why people are still reading The Glory Game 40 years after its publication.
Here is Davies' evocative description of the team after it lost a cup match against Chelsea: "They sat like shipwrecked hulks, naked, with their heads bowed, unable to move. (Cyril) Knowles seemed to be crying. His eyes were red and swollen. His arms were shaking, No one could look at anyone else."
This was in the days when Division One players were on £5,000 a year and some of them went home on the bus and train after a game!
There are a number of interesting pen portraits here, particularly of no nonsense manager Bill Nicholson, one of the most successful in the club's history.
Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on. Haven't they? "All that was missing to have made it a really smart 1972 middle-class party would have been a few reefers, but footballers wouldn't touch such things. Some footballers might have moved into the middle classes but there are two things they won't have at their parties - drugs and homosexuals.
August 31, 2012
I keep trying these forays into non-fiction only to be reminded of why I tend to stay away in the first place. That said, it was interesting to get a look at how soccer used to be played. It was funny to see the old timers in this book complaining about how pampered the players were - not even close to the standards of today.
February 29, 2016
Not a huge soccer fan, but I really enjoyed the book. The players in the 70's were much more accessible than today and it was cool to see how relaxed they were in giving Davies accounts of their personal lives. I also really enjoyed the appendix; it included information on the player's backgrounds and what they've done since that 1972 season.
December 27, 2016
For a soccer/football fan, this book is a must. A season-long view inside the locker room, on the pitch, in the heads of the (then) world-class Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. So easy to read, yet it doesn't pander or water things down.
September 29, 2022
I nice football book, but I would have liked all the game scores to have been reported. The appendices about the football players were interesting. They all seemed to read The Sun.
Second time through was not quite as good. I was confused about the Anglo-Italian Cup with Tottenham. Still am.
Second time through was not quite as good. I was confused about the Anglo-Italian Cup with Tottenham. Still am.
July 20, 2016
Great read. Obviously from a different era, but nevertheless offering great insight into the inner life and dressing room of a great football club. Not holding back any punches, even if written with lots of love for the club.
August 27, 2010
An intimate look at how a professional soccer club is run over the course of an entire season. Well written, but shows its age at almost 40.
Read
July 27, 2011Best football bookever. And it's about the world's greatest football team. Bonus.
May 27, 2012
It might just be my preference for baseball, but as an inside look at sports, I much preferred Jim Bouton's Ball Four.
January 1, 2014
Excellent read about the year of a professional football club. It also happens to be about the best club on earth, Tottenham Hotspur.
March 27, 2015
Fascinating insight in to the lives of the players and manager at my beloved Tottenham. At the time when fans and players were close. Brilliant
January 19, 2025
This book was given to me by my parents who thought I might like it as it is about Tottenham who I support (frustrating as that often is), but I think it probably works well for others interested in English football.
Hunter Davies spends a whole 1971-2 league season with the Tottenham side of the time with full access to the players (including in the changing room). He follows the arc of their season, where they don't win anything domestically but do ultimately win the UEFA Cup. Like the modern 'All or Nothing' sporting equivalents on TV, you get to see and hear the thoughts, actions, conversations that the manager and the players have as the season unfolds but Davies goes even further to convey the stories of the supporters, the footballer's families, the staff, the board and almost everyone connected to the club.
There are some great characters - particularly Bill Nicholson the manager, but also Allan Mullery who suffers injury, Joe Kinnear who gets dropped, and Cyril Knowles who is always kidding around. You get a real sense of the camaraderie of the players and Davies gets them to complete questionnaires which contain all sorts of information about their daily lives. Obviously there is a large element of nostalgia, with the contrast between what footballers earn these days laughable, but there is also evidence of horrendous racism and xenophobia - particularly from the assistant manager - which is quite shocking at times.
Davies walks a nice line between poetic description of games, explanation of the way in which the football world of the time worked, and allowing the characters involved to speak for themselves. You also see the contrast between people of the manager's age who have been through the war and great hardship and the younger players who are earning much more money, growing long hair and generally wanting to have a good time. I think it is also good because it is a picture of a team that lose as well as win but do ultimately get a trophy so it is not all plain sailing.
Anyway, if you are interested in English football and it's history and how some of that all worked (and has changed) you may well also be interested in this (probably particularly if you are a Spurs fan).
Hunter Davies spends a whole 1971-2 league season with the Tottenham side of the time with full access to the players (including in the changing room). He follows the arc of their season, where they don't win anything domestically but do ultimately win the UEFA Cup. Like the modern 'All or Nothing' sporting equivalents on TV, you get to see and hear the thoughts, actions, conversations that the manager and the players have as the season unfolds but Davies goes even further to convey the stories of the supporters, the footballer's families, the staff, the board and almost everyone connected to the club.
There are some great characters - particularly Bill Nicholson the manager, but also Allan Mullery who suffers injury, Joe Kinnear who gets dropped, and Cyril Knowles who is always kidding around. You get a real sense of the camaraderie of the players and Davies gets them to complete questionnaires which contain all sorts of information about their daily lives. Obviously there is a large element of nostalgia, with the contrast between what footballers earn these days laughable, but there is also evidence of horrendous racism and xenophobia - particularly from the assistant manager - which is quite shocking at times.
Davies walks a nice line between poetic description of games, explanation of the way in which the football world of the time worked, and allowing the characters involved to speak for themselves. You also see the contrast between people of the manager's age who have been through the war and great hardship and the younger players who are earning much more money, growing long hair and generally wanting to have a good time. I think it is also good because it is a picture of a team that lose as well as win but do ultimately get a trophy so it is not all plain sailing.
Anyway, if you are interested in English football and it's history and how some of that all worked (and has changed) you may well also be interested in this (probably particularly if you are a Spurs fan).
November 29, 2024
9/10
This is really an amazing book. A must read for football fans.
I became incredibly attached to the 1971 Spurs team, and felt like I knew each of them and their struggles on a deep level. Alan Mullery’s fall from grace and subsequent redemption was such a great arc that it almost felt like it was fiction. Ray Evans and Joe Kinnears’ struggles between fighting for their position was very engaging, and it really made you feel for their struggle when something didn’t go their way. I really enjoyed reading about each player, as well as the management staff. Bill Nicholson was a fascinating read, because Hunter Davies really portrayed him in a human light, strengths and weaknesses shining through.
My only critique would be that I wish the season was portrayed more clearly? Certain events were highlighted in a super engaging way (The Battle of Bucharest stands out as probably my favorite chapter) but I wish I had more context for the season as a whole. This is a minor nitpick though, because I felt this book achieved the goal it promised: get to know how the team works and who makes it up.
Additionally, I very much enjoyed reading the appendices at the end, as well as the 1985 and 1999 additions. The questionnaires the players answered were fascinating insights into their personal beliefs and lives, and I honestly really want to reread this with that context in mind.
There won’t be anything made like this ever again, which is a shame, because it really invested me into the team. The closest modern equivalent is Ryan Reynolds’s and Rob Mcelheny’s “Welcome to Wrexham”, and if you are a fan of that show, you will LOVE this book. This was a very different read for me, and I’m very glad I took a risk with it. Definitely recommend it to everyone, football and non-football fans.
This is really an amazing book. A must read for football fans.
I became incredibly attached to the 1971 Spurs team, and felt like I knew each of them and their struggles on a deep level. Alan Mullery’s fall from grace and subsequent redemption was such a great arc that it almost felt like it was fiction. Ray Evans and Joe Kinnears’ struggles between fighting for their position was very engaging, and it really made you feel for their struggle when something didn’t go their way. I really enjoyed reading about each player, as well as the management staff. Bill Nicholson was a fascinating read, because Hunter Davies really portrayed him in a human light, strengths and weaknesses shining through.
My only critique would be that I wish the season was portrayed more clearly? Certain events were highlighted in a super engaging way (The Battle of Bucharest stands out as probably my favorite chapter) but I wish I had more context for the season as a whole. This is a minor nitpick though, because I felt this book achieved the goal it promised: get to know how the team works and who makes it up.
Additionally, I very much enjoyed reading the appendices at the end, as well as the 1985 and 1999 additions. The questionnaires the players answered were fascinating insights into their personal beliefs and lives, and I honestly really want to reread this with that context in mind.
There won’t be anything made like this ever again, which is a shame, because it really invested me into the team. The closest modern equivalent is Ryan Reynolds’s and Rob Mcelheny’s “Welcome to Wrexham”, and if you are a fan of that show, you will LOVE this book. This was a very different read for me, and I’m very glad I took a risk with it. Definitely recommend it to everyone, football and non-football fans.
October 27, 2020
3.5 SUCKS to be stuck reading this after losing to them so badly. It's a very good book otherwise.
Football in the 1970s was a completely different beast, and that shows not only in the game and the style of play but the players and coaches themselves. As other people have pointed out, there is racism, there is homophobia, there is a lot of misogyny (Bill Nicholson doesn't let his wife go to games, for example). I hate to use the phrase 'a product of its time' and these things can't and shouldn't be excused. But I suppose they also have to be read in their context, which is contemporary attitudes and also Hunter Davies meticulously transcribing and noting down every single thing that happens.
No one's ever going to get access to a club for an entire season like that again. He's in the dressing room, he's in the hotel rooms, he's in the offices. Is he still in White Hart Lane? Someone should check. You get an insight into how a club functions down to the minutiae of pre-match meals. There are also some interesting points about the home lives of the players and the difficulty they have assimilating into upper-class neighbourhoods. The closest I've read is Pete Davies's (huh!) All Played Out, but as that was over a single tournament it makes more sense.
I will say I was hoping for something more emotional, but I guess the seventies wasn't in to that kind of thing. All Played Out will do you for that. It's still a good read, and might have been rounded up if Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min didn't exist.
Football in the 1970s was a completely different beast, and that shows not only in the game and the style of play but the players and coaches themselves. As other people have pointed out, there is racism, there is homophobia, there is a lot of misogyny (Bill Nicholson doesn't let his wife go to games, for example). I hate to use the phrase 'a product of its time' and these things can't and shouldn't be excused. But I suppose they also have to be read in their context, which is contemporary attitudes and also Hunter Davies meticulously transcribing and noting down every single thing that happens.
No one's ever going to get access to a club for an entire season like that again. He's in the dressing room, he's in the hotel rooms, he's in the offices. Is he still in White Hart Lane? Someone should check. You get an insight into how a club functions down to the minutiae of pre-match meals. There are also some interesting points about the home lives of the players and the difficulty they have assimilating into upper-class neighbourhoods. The closest I've read is Pete Davies's (huh!) All Played Out, but as that was over a single tournament it makes more sense.
I will say I was hoping for something more emotional, but I guess the seventies wasn't in to that kind of thing. All Played Out will do you for that. It's still a good read, and might have been rounded up if Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min didn't exist.
February 3, 2026
A classic book from the early 70s, which established something of a genre still popular today - the behind-the-scenes inside view of the whole season. Although at the time it seemed "modern", the game described is very dated, when footballers were nearly all British and white. There was only one substitute, the First Division was the first division, you got 2 points for a win, and players travelled by train to away games, and all got in the bath together at the end of matches. A few footballers were starting to be superstars back then, but they didn't have agents, and the commercial side of the game was in its infancy: replica shirts, pitchside advertising, and televised games were around but far from what they are today. Spurs barely had a club shop! I remember a few of the players featured later in their careers; many of them are still alive, as is the author. The world it describes will be almost unrecognisable to younger readers.
October 5, 2020
A fascinating bit of true reportage. I think we are all so used to sports being described hyperbolically. I would say Davies is after something a little more subtle, a kind of cultural study of what it means to play football professionally, the characters it draws, the monotony, the stress. I’m a massive Spurs fan, so I found it intriguing to learn about the glory days of the past, the differences compared to today. It’s a fair book, any writer of non-fiction should treat their subjects with this care.
August 13, 2022
Probably the best “fly on the wall” sports books I’ve ever read. I can’t imagine a journalist getting access ever again.
Not sure why people are knocking stars off this book for players outdated opinions on things though. It was the 1970s after allI. If anything, props to Davies for noting it for the historical record.
If you’re interested in football and want a place to start, read this. The only people who won’t like it are probably Arsenal fans, but your lot have Fever Pitch.)
Not sure why people are knocking stars off this book for players outdated opinions on things though. It was the 1970s after allI. If anything, props to Davies for noting it for the historical record.
If you’re interested in football and want a place to start, read this. The only people who won’t like it are probably Arsenal fans, but your lot have Fever Pitch.)
May 23, 2020
A tad archaic but still insightful. With all the hype surrounding it, I was anticipating something more sensational or groundbreaking, although it probably was both of these things, when it was released initially.
A quick read with a comprehensive Appendix makes this a strong 3.5.
A quick read with a comprehensive Appendix makes this a strong 3.5.
May 4, 2020
A Spurs fan asks Spurs to let him into the dressing room for a season. 50 years later it is a portal into a different world. The questionnaire at the end is illuminating, as are the conversations with the players.
June 9, 2021
COYS COYS COYS
December 31, 2019
Quoted as one of the classics on football by some, this was certainly an amazing look into the game in the 1970s. Davies certainly had unprecedented access to Spurs and really gives you the dirt and grime he encounters. Some incredibly macho and sexist views come through from the players. Interesting to compare to 'Brave New World: inside Pochettino's Spurs' which I enjoyed equally as much.
September 6, 2007
classic football literary journalism. a must read if you're into football (soccer).
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