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My Idea Of Fun
Lee Sharpe burst onto the scene at Manchester United Football Club as a 17 year old winger. Here, in his autobiography, he describes what it was like to be a Premiership player and provides fascinating insights into the personalities of United legends such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham.
Paperback
First published August 25, 2005
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About the author
Lee Sharpe
1 book1 followerLee Stuart Sharpe (born 27 May 1971 in Halesowen, West Midlands) is a retired English football player. Predominantly a left winger, Sharpe once played for Manchester United and was a promising young player in English football, but his career went into rapid decline while he was still in his twenties.
Sharpe finally retired from professional football in 2003, and since then he has achieved renewed fame by appearing on reality television shows.
Sharpe finally retired from professional football in 2003, and since then he has achieved renewed fame by appearing on reality television shows.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 4, 2021
Lee Sharpe’s rise to the top was sudden, and his career seemed to decline just as fast. I’ve often thought many great footballers don’t make it just because the current staff don’t like them for whatever reason, or an injury at the wrong time can hinder a career; and Lee Sharpe’s story really shows that.
When he signed for Torquay, he seemed to be used sparingly with only 6 starts and a handful of sub appearances before Alex Ferguson personally came for him at age 17. Despite him being told he would be in the reserves for 2 years, he got straight into the Manchester United first team at left back, before later moving to his preferred position on the left wing. So he bypassed most of the Youth Academy training and was more of a “raw talent”.
As a Leeds United fan, people have heard of Marcela Bielsa’s training idea of Murderball, but Sharpe mentioned he played it at Torquay.
It seemed a common practice that non-local youths would be instructed to rent rooms with the locals near the training ground which he refers to as “digs”. His experience of the Manchester digs seemed horrible, especially when there seemed a bit of a bullying culture among the youth teamers - stealing people’s possessions. He managed to get the permission of Alex Ferguson to move into a house with his girlfriend. However, Ferguson later ordered him to move back into the normal academy “digs” due to an apparent drop in form. Later, Ferguson suggested Sharpe should settle down, worrying about the laddish party culture that Lee seemed to be involved in - so this seemed a mistake on Ferguson’s part.
All the academy players that Sharpe worked with didn’t make an impact at Manchester. Some players had success later on like Shaun Goater. The “Golden Generation” with the likes of Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles, Butt came through after. Sharpe states all these players lived with their parents rather than having the struggle of life in the “digs”. Maybe there is something in that.
Sharpe speaks highly of Ferguson but there’s definitely flaws in his management. Ferguson brought Sharpe into his office to shout at him about doing an interview with a newspaper after he scored a hatrick. He shouted at him on the team bus in front of the entire team for his goal celebration, and came round to his house when he found out he was about to party with Ryan Giggs and some other lads.
Sharpe felt Ferguson was very protective of Giggs who he perceived to be a model professional that Sharpe was corrupting; however Sharpe said Giggs was worse than him, but he was just better at hiding his party life-style from the manager.
Sharpe felt like Ferguson knew a lot about tactics but never passed it onto players directly. He thought it was the wrong approach with him given that he was a “raw” footballer since he went from Torquay to Manchester and bypassed academy and reserve training that the likes of Ryan Giggs had. Ferguson’s praise was limited to a pat on the back, then criticism was a tirade. Ferguson didn’t criticise players publicly in the press though.
I thought it was interesting how Sharpe seemed to often go out drinking, but he says he was always professional enough to adhere to the club rules of not drinking less than 2 days before a game. Rumours went around about him taking all kinds of drugs but he said he only smoked weed until a player was banned during a drug test.
After Sharpe’s first team appearances started dwindling, or he was used out of position in the likes of central midfield, Sharpe put in a transfer request and moved to Leeds United. Shortly, Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson was sacked and replaced with George Graham who played dull football and started using Sharpe out of position. After a good first season (but with a few injuries), a severe injury then ruled him out for a full season. Then when David O’Leary took over, he was frozen out of the team - the manager just didn’t seem to want him for some reason. Then the career decline happened. He moved on to Sampdoria on a 6 month loan, but outlasted the manager David Platt and was out of the team again. He then went to Bradford City on loan and helped them secure promotion to the Premier League, and after signing permanently, helped them avoid relegation. However, bad management and dire financial position meant players were forced out, and he dropped down a division by going on loan to Portsmouth. He had a brief spell at Exeter before moving to Grindavik in Iceland. He hoped to get fit over their summer season, but he was prevented from drinking so quit. It seemed he was losing enjoyment in football but yet had another brief spell at Garforth before officially retiring. He had some stints employed in Television, and a failed venture in being a Pub landlord.
Sharpe uses a very poetic metaphor on page 209 which sums up his achievements at Manchester United, and his career moves after that period:
“Somebody said to me, people spend hours, days, years, struggling to climb a mountain, overcoming all challenges to get to the top, the crags, the ice, the storms, the jagged rocks. When they finally haul themselves up that last guelling stretch and onto the summit, it’s their ultimate achievement, the culmination of everything they’ve worked for, elation, incomparable, unbelievable and they can’t take it in. They sit down, shades on, snow flecks in their beard, gazing out at the magnificent freezing blue on top of the world, awestruck. It’s truly wondrous, but, after just a few minutes, it's a bit chilly too. Slowly they realise they are hungry, and they need the loo too. Gradually they run out of things to do: they’ve seen the view and it’s great, but they can’t stay up there all day. So they look around them, gather up their stuff, and begin the journey all the way down again.
I really enjoyed Sharpe’s story. I thought he gave some good insights on life as a Youth Player, the struggles to handle fame, the pressure of the media, and gave some good opinions on certain players and managers. Other football biographies can waffle about their upbringing and jump about too much chronologically. This was well written, and told a coherent story.
When he signed for Torquay, he seemed to be used sparingly with only 6 starts and a handful of sub appearances before Alex Ferguson personally came for him at age 17. Despite him being told he would be in the reserves for 2 years, he got straight into the Manchester United first team at left back, before later moving to his preferred position on the left wing. So he bypassed most of the Youth Academy training and was more of a “raw talent”.
As a Leeds United fan, people have heard of Marcela Bielsa’s training idea of Murderball, but Sharpe mentioned he played it at Torquay.
It seemed a common practice that non-local youths would be instructed to rent rooms with the locals near the training ground which he refers to as “digs”. His experience of the Manchester digs seemed horrible, especially when there seemed a bit of a bullying culture among the youth teamers - stealing people’s possessions. He managed to get the permission of Alex Ferguson to move into a house with his girlfriend. However, Ferguson later ordered him to move back into the normal academy “digs” due to an apparent drop in form. Later, Ferguson suggested Sharpe should settle down, worrying about the laddish party culture that Lee seemed to be involved in - so this seemed a mistake on Ferguson’s part.
All the academy players that Sharpe worked with didn’t make an impact at Manchester. Some players had success later on like Shaun Goater. The “Golden Generation” with the likes of Beckham, Scholes, the Nevilles, Butt came through after. Sharpe states all these players lived with their parents rather than having the struggle of life in the “digs”. Maybe there is something in that.
Sharpe speaks highly of Ferguson but there’s definitely flaws in his management. Ferguson brought Sharpe into his office to shout at him about doing an interview with a newspaper after he scored a hatrick. He shouted at him on the team bus in front of the entire team for his goal celebration, and came round to his house when he found out he was about to party with Ryan Giggs and some other lads.
Sharpe felt Ferguson was very protective of Giggs who he perceived to be a model professional that Sharpe was corrupting; however Sharpe said Giggs was worse than him, but he was just better at hiding his party life-style from the manager.
Sharpe felt like Ferguson knew a lot about tactics but never passed it onto players directly. He thought it was the wrong approach with him given that he was a “raw” footballer since he went from Torquay to Manchester and bypassed academy and reserve training that the likes of Ryan Giggs had. Ferguson’s praise was limited to a pat on the back, then criticism was a tirade. Ferguson didn’t criticise players publicly in the press though.
I thought it was interesting how Sharpe seemed to often go out drinking, but he says he was always professional enough to adhere to the club rules of not drinking less than 2 days before a game. Rumours went around about him taking all kinds of drugs but he said he only smoked weed until a player was banned during a drug test.
After Sharpe’s first team appearances started dwindling, or he was used out of position in the likes of central midfield, Sharpe put in a transfer request and moved to Leeds United. Shortly, Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson was sacked and replaced with George Graham who played dull football and started using Sharpe out of position. After a good first season (but with a few injuries), a severe injury then ruled him out for a full season. Then when David O’Leary took over, he was frozen out of the team - the manager just didn’t seem to want him for some reason. Then the career decline happened. He moved on to Sampdoria on a 6 month loan, but outlasted the manager David Platt and was out of the team again. He then went to Bradford City on loan and helped them secure promotion to the Premier League, and after signing permanently, helped them avoid relegation. However, bad management and dire financial position meant players were forced out, and he dropped down a division by going on loan to Portsmouth. He had a brief spell at Exeter before moving to Grindavik in Iceland. He hoped to get fit over their summer season, but he was prevented from drinking so quit. It seemed he was losing enjoyment in football but yet had another brief spell at Garforth before officially retiring. He had some stints employed in Television, and a failed venture in being a Pub landlord.
Sharpe uses a very poetic metaphor on page 209 which sums up his achievements at Manchester United, and his career moves after that period:
“Somebody said to me, people spend hours, days, years, struggling to climb a mountain, overcoming all challenges to get to the top, the crags, the ice, the storms, the jagged rocks. When they finally haul themselves up that last guelling stretch and onto the summit, it’s their ultimate achievement, the culmination of everything they’ve worked for, elation, incomparable, unbelievable and they can’t take it in. They sit down, shades on, snow flecks in their beard, gazing out at the magnificent freezing blue on top of the world, awestruck. It’s truly wondrous, but, after just a few minutes, it's a bit chilly too. Slowly they realise they are hungry, and they need the loo too. Gradually they run out of things to do: they’ve seen the view and it’s great, but they can’t stay up there all day. So they look around them, gather up their stuff, and begin the journey all the way down again.
I really enjoyed Sharpe’s story. I thought he gave some good insights on life as a Youth Player, the struggles to handle fame, the pressure of the media, and gave some good opinions on certain players and managers. Other football biographies can waffle about their upbringing and jump about too much chronologically. This was well written, and told a coherent story.
December 8, 2025
This would probably be great for properly intense football fans, but as someone who was more interested in Lee Sharpe’s own personal story it felt a bit lacking.
It mostly feels like a reaction to bad press - constantly bringing up what was said about him and how untrue it was; I have no doubt that must be an incredibly difficult situation to navigate especially for a young person and one who grows up with less stability in authority (far from parents etc.) but I wanted to hear more depth and reflection rather than (what felt like) him trying to prove that actually Fergie was a complicated manager (he absolutely sounds terrible I’ll be honest) and that he wasn’t the only one.
I suppose what I’m getting at is that this book felt like it wasn’t defensive and thus coming from a place of insecurity rather than true ownership. I’d love to see another autobiography with a less superficial narrative, but equally I’m sure this would be great book for someone who wants to know the who, what’s and when’s of his career.
It mostly feels like a reaction to bad press - constantly bringing up what was said about him and how untrue it was; I have no doubt that must be an incredibly difficult situation to navigate especially for a young person and one who grows up with less stability in authority (far from parents etc.) but I wanted to hear more depth and reflection rather than (what felt like) him trying to prove that actually Fergie was a complicated manager (he absolutely sounds terrible I’ll be honest) and that he wasn’t the only one.
I suppose what I’m getting at is that this book felt like it wasn’t defensive and thus coming from a place of insecurity rather than true ownership. I’d love to see another autobiography with a less superficial narrative, but equally I’m sure this would be great book for someone who wants to know the who, what’s and when’s of his career.
July 7, 2023
Very good, I absolutely flew through this one. Interesting, detailed, honest.
Highly recommend!
Highly recommend!
January 15, 2008
Buku ini bikin saya tau tentang kehidupan Sharpey dari kecil sampai saat ini. Sayang sekali karirnya sebagai pemain sepakbola tidak secemerlang Ryan Giggs --pemain fave saya--. Tapi terus terang, saya surprise sekali dengan pengakuan Sharpey tentang Sir Alex Ferguson --pelatih MU-- yang sering ngamuk besar terhadap Lee Sharpe. Even gaya setelah mencetak gol pun selalu dikomentari dengan kasar... Ada kesan bahwa SAF membenci Lee Sharpe. Tapi, kalo memang benci, kenapa dia begitu ngotot untuk bawa Sharpe ke MU? Tanda tanya besar nih...
Dari sini juga saya tau ke mana Lee Sharpe pergi setelah bermain di MU & Leeds Utd. Saya kangen sekali dengan cowok satu ini. Giggsy & Sharpey memang pemain fave saya di MU sono. Bahkan karna Sharpey inilah maka saya jadi ngefans sama tim Inggris. Dia pemain Inggris pertama yang saya liat pas Inggris melawan Swedia di Euro '92. Entah apa yang buat saya tertarik pada Sharpey...
Dari sini juga saya tau ke mana Lee Sharpe pergi setelah bermain di MU & Leeds Utd. Saya kangen sekali dengan cowok satu ini. Giggsy & Sharpey memang pemain fave saya di MU sono. Bahkan karna Sharpey inilah maka saya jadi ngefans sama tim Inggris. Dia pemain Inggris pertama yang saya liat pas Inggris melawan Swedia di Euro '92. Entah apa yang buat saya tertarik pada Sharpey...
September 18, 2012
This is a well written book of the like of a footballer that has given me must pleasure. His time at Manchester United was good until he tired of Alex Furguson and left. A big mistake. No other club or manager could live up to his time at United and Lee experienced ups and downs with lesser clubs like Leeds and the financially squeezed (illegally) Bradford. In the end his main aim in life was to have fun. I am not sure his idea of fun would be "My Idea of Fun".
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews