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Manchester United Ruined My Life
Colin Shindler recalls the problems of growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family in central Manchester in the 1950s and 1960s as a Manchester City fan, permanently under the shadow of Manchester United.
310 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 16, 2019
The narrative is varying... however, the details when thrown straight, are quite friendly to read. This is for a sports fan who wants to understand the pains and pleasures of being a fan.
January 22, 2014
The half of the book that was about Football was very good. Unfortunatly I didn't know that Colin Shindler is also a cricket fan, I don't understand cricket, so wading through the wickets to get to the parts I wanted to read became quite tedious.
3.5 Stars
3.5 Stars
February 14, 2011
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but feel like Shindler got lost in his details from time to time. Despite being American born, and raised on baseball, I have a strong love for football, especially the Premiership (and more precisely Manchester United). I love the way Shindler depicts the nearly "outsider" status he had growing up a City supporter, and I loved some of the playful suspicions he wove in; how the team's fate would influence his personal life and vice versa. Still, I couldn't help but feel a certain sense of dragging when he got into some of the heavier stats and mental replays of results. Yes, I know that they all reflect his obsession with the squad and their results, but as a piece of literature, it got a little rough at spots. The same can be said for much of his cricket discourse. I appreciate the important role it played in his life and the social elements of being at the cricket grounds; but at the same time, having absolutely zero concept of anything about cricket, I was completely lost.
Overall, it is still a fun read, the epilogue and post script really bring everything home in non-cheesy yet feel-good manner. For the casual football fan, it might be a bit detail-laden (I equate it to discussing baseball fandom with someone obsessed with sabermetrics) but there are enough personal stories and cultural anecdotes to carry the book for those who think a pitch is what happens during at bats in baseball games. I could just be let down because I really wanted to love this book, and only came away liking it.
Overall, it is still a fun read, the epilogue and post script really bring everything home in non-cheesy yet feel-good manner. For the casual football fan, it might be a bit detail-laden (I equate it to discussing baseball fandom with someone obsessed with sabermetrics) but there are enough personal stories and cultural anecdotes to carry the book for those who think a pitch is what happens during at bats in baseball games. I could just be let down because I really wanted to love this book, and only came away liking it.
July 11, 2025
A really lovely coming-of-age memoir via the conduit of Manchester City fandom from the late '50s/early '60s to the time it was published in 1998. From the tragic death of his mother in his early teens through his experiences at Cambridge University, often hopeless first romances and disintegrating familial relationships, Schindler offers the highs and, let's face it, mostly lows in City's case during those decades, as a touchpoint for the heaviest, funniest and most profound anecdotes of his life.
It's equal parts moving, funny (if often fairly outdated) and forensic in how much Manchester City have meant throughout his years. It's cheesy, but I think one paragraph on the penultimate page sums the whole premise, atmosphere and wholesomeness of this book up pretty well. The book...
... 'is about what sport does to people, to their friendships, to their family relationships. When I am gone and the physical memory of me has faded even from my children whom I love so deeply, there will only be the emotional triggers left to evoke my existence.' He's gone to identify those triggers as the music of Mozart for his daughter, and his 'bewailing the unfairness of the world' for his son.
A beautiful read.
It's equal parts moving, funny (if often fairly outdated) and forensic in how much Manchester City have meant throughout his years. It's cheesy, but I think one paragraph on the penultimate page sums the whole premise, atmosphere and wholesomeness of this book up pretty well. The book...
... 'is about what sport does to people, to their friendships, to their family relationships. When I am gone and the physical memory of me has faded even from my children whom I love so deeply, there will only be the emotional triggers left to evoke my existence.' He's gone to identify those triggers as the music of Mozart for his daughter, and his 'bewailing the unfairness of the world' for his son.
A beautiful read.
June 27, 2022
This book has lain unread on my shelves for the longest time, which has given the experience of reading it a rather delicious irony. For Colin Schindler is a lifelong fan of Manchester City, meaning that for most of his life he has been as likely to experience relegation as triumph. The book therefore now reads like an exercise in nostalgia, for a time when City were a 'proper club' with an unusual penchant for plucking disaster from the jaws of success.
Written when the vogue for sporting memoir, or rather my life as seen through the lens of my team, was at a peak. Schindler's book survives, because there is an easy grace and charm to most things he writes and he makes the experience of a Jewish boy growing up in 1960's Manchester genuinely interesting. The book also evokes a time when there was an almost equal interest in cricket and football, and before the days of mass away followings when it seemed the most natural thing in the world to go and see the other local team when your own team was playing away. Which in this case meant alternate weeks of Best/Charlton/Law and Bell/Summerbee/Lee. Heady times indeed.
Written when the vogue for sporting memoir, or rather my life as seen through the lens of my team, was at a peak. Schindler's book survives, because there is an easy grace and charm to most things he writes and he makes the experience of a Jewish boy growing up in 1960's Manchester genuinely interesting. The book also evokes a time when there was an almost equal interest in cricket and football, and before the days of mass away followings when it seemed the most natural thing in the world to go and see the other local team when your own team was playing away. Which in this case meant alternate weeks of Best/Charlton/Law and Bell/Summerbee/Lee. Heady times indeed.
December 11, 2022
I really wanted to like this book.
The quote on the jacket from Maureen Lipman kept me going. I was hoping it would justify her claim that the book, although ostensibly about sport, was actually about loss.
By the time I got to the halfway mark, I was skipping entire paragraphs as they were just match report after match report. I'm not a sports fan, and so I was bored and drained by the endless recaps of football/cricket matches from the 70s and 80s.
I wanted more on:
- the cultural stories (Jewish life in 1970s Manchester/Cambridge/Hollywood),
- the personal sides of the intermarriage and reactions from family, friends, and community,
- the Cambridge theater experience (which was almost ignored)
The final anecdote redeemed this book at the last moment from a 1-star to a 2-star experience. It also gave a tiny glimmer of what the quote from Maureen Lipman was aimed at. But it was far too little and too late.
The quote on the jacket from Maureen Lipman kept me going. I was hoping it would justify her claim that the book, although ostensibly about sport, was actually about loss.
By the time I got to the halfway mark, I was skipping entire paragraphs as they were just match report after match report. I'm not a sports fan, and so I was bored and drained by the endless recaps of football/cricket matches from the 70s and 80s.
I wanted more on:
- the cultural stories (Jewish life in 1970s Manchester/Cambridge/Hollywood),
- the personal sides of the intermarriage and reactions from family, friends, and community,
- the Cambridge theater experience (which was almost ignored)
The final anecdote redeemed this book at the last moment from a 1-star to a 2-star experience. It also gave a tiny glimmer of what the quote from Maureen Lipman was aimed at. But it was far too little and too late.
October 26, 2023
Quality book that covers what it was like to grow up in Manchester at a certain time perfectly.
March 19, 2017
The second time reading this. A little too much cricket. My 50oth book since moving to Santa Fe.
September 13, 2010
If anyone wants an explanation about why football rivalries have grown to be what they are - this book is unlikely to give you all the snwers you're looking for.
But if you just want a pleasant read about a nice chap growing up in Manchester in the middle of the last century, then you may well find this book quite enjoyable.
But if you just want a pleasant read about a nice chap growing up in Manchester in the middle of the last century, then you may well find this book quite enjoyable.
September 6, 2011
I was disappointed, because I felt there was too much detail of player names & match results. It also jumped backwards and forwards in time which left me confused on occasion.
As a City fan and old Clavian (I went to Bury Grammer School too), I probably enjoyed it more than somebody who has neither of these things in common with the author. If you fit those criteria, bump it up to 3 stars.
As a City fan and old Clavian (I went to Bury Grammer School too), I probably enjoyed it more than somebody who has neither of these things in common with the author. If you fit those criteria, bump it up to 3 stars.
February 15, 2022
Beautifully written from the perspective of a football fan.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews