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The Three Kings
Three of the greatest football Celtic, Liverpool and Manchester United. Their three greatest Jock Stein, Bill Shankly and Matt Busby.
Three men born within a 20-mile radius of each other in the central lowlands of Scotland; forged in mining communities to subsequently shape the course of modern football. From a BAFTA-winning documentary film maker and the people who brought us AMY, I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES and SENNA, this is a book for anyone who loves football and its history.
Three men born within a 20-mile radius of each other in the central lowlands of Scotland; forged in mining communities to subsequently shape the course of modern football. From a BAFTA-winning documentary film maker and the people who brought us AMY, I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES and SENNA, this is a book for anyone who loves football and its history.
- GenresFootballNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 7, 2021
The three individuals who are the subject of this book are considered amongst the top rank of British football managers. A football historian, asked to make a list of the 10 greatest of such, would almost certainly include all 3 on the list. Stein and Shankly had their heydays in the 1960s and 1970s. Busby’s stretched from the late forties to the end of the sixties. All 3 were linked by being ex-miners from a small part of West Central Scotland.
I was nearly put off this book at the beginning, as there’s an introductory chapter in which the author imagines himself in the minds of the 3 managers as they prepare for some of their biggest games - Stein before the European Cup Final of 1967, Busby before the European Cup Final in 1968, and Shankly before the FA Cup Final in 1974. This kind of thing annoys me as it’s pure speculation on the part of the author. However, after this initial chapter the book settles down to a more conventional biography. The book is strong on the early years of the 3 men, each of them leaving school at 14 to work in the mines. Busby and Shankly’s talents as footballers allowed them to escape as teenagers although Stein, a less talented player, only played part-time football until his late twenties, and continued working underground until being offered a full-time contract as a footballer.
Busby became the manager of Manchester United at the end of WW2, and by the mid-1950s they had become England’s dominant team. A tragic airplane accident at Munich airport in 1958 resulted in death or permanent injury to many of the players. Busby rebuilt his team and for several seasons in the mid-1960s they and Liverpool FC – managed by Shankly - were largely competing against each other for the title of English Champions. Busby had by this time become obsessed with winning the European Cup, something he finally achieved in 1968. Jock Stein had won it the year before with Celtic FC, who under Stein dominated Scottish football for almost a decade. The Celtic team that won the European Cup was made up entirely of players born within 30 miles of the club’s stadium, a unique achievement and one that will never be repeated. Meanwhile Shankly took over Liverpool when the club were languishing in the second division, but under him they won three English league championships and two FA cups. His trophy haul was surpassed by his successor, Bob Paisley, but many Liverpool fans feel it was Shankly who made the club what it was.
The author suggests that the background of the three men made them what they were; in particular that the mines taught them the value of teamwork. Maybe so, but I always felt they each had an air of authority to them, that hard-to-define mix of inner confidence, speech and bearing that allows some people to become leaders.
Objectively, I would say that the book is bit too hagiographic, but I sort of expected it would be, and enjoyed it anyway. It was nostalgic for someone of my age, and there’s no doubt that “The Three Kings” were incredibly successful at what they did.
I was nearly put off this book at the beginning, as there’s an introductory chapter in which the author imagines himself in the minds of the 3 managers as they prepare for some of their biggest games - Stein before the European Cup Final of 1967, Busby before the European Cup Final in 1968, and Shankly before the FA Cup Final in 1974. This kind of thing annoys me as it’s pure speculation on the part of the author. However, after this initial chapter the book settles down to a more conventional biography. The book is strong on the early years of the 3 men, each of them leaving school at 14 to work in the mines. Busby and Shankly’s talents as footballers allowed them to escape as teenagers although Stein, a less talented player, only played part-time football until his late twenties, and continued working underground until being offered a full-time contract as a footballer.
Busby became the manager of Manchester United at the end of WW2, and by the mid-1950s they had become England’s dominant team. A tragic airplane accident at Munich airport in 1958 resulted in death or permanent injury to many of the players. Busby rebuilt his team and for several seasons in the mid-1960s they and Liverpool FC – managed by Shankly - were largely competing against each other for the title of English Champions. Busby had by this time become obsessed with winning the European Cup, something he finally achieved in 1968. Jock Stein had won it the year before with Celtic FC, who under Stein dominated Scottish football for almost a decade. The Celtic team that won the European Cup was made up entirely of players born within 30 miles of the club’s stadium, a unique achievement and one that will never be repeated. Meanwhile Shankly took over Liverpool when the club were languishing in the second division, but under him they won three English league championships and two FA cups. His trophy haul was surpassed by his successor, Bob Paisley, but many Liverpool fans feel it was Shankly who made the club what it was.
The author suggests that the background of the three men made them what they were; in particular that the mines taught them the value of teamwork. Maybe so, but I always felt they each had an air of authority to them, that hard-to-define mix of inner confidence, speech and bearing that allows some people to become leaders.
Objectively, I would say that the book is bit too hagiographic, but I sort of expected it would be, and enjoyed it anyway. It was nostalgic for someone of my age, and there’s no doubt that “The Three Kings” were incredibly successful at what they did.
August 31, 2020
enjoyed this informative book at the history of the 3 managers (kings) who came from a similar area of Scotland and had success with their football clubs
January 13, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Being a Celtic fan there was obviously a lot more new material for me in the Matt Busby and Bill Shankly sections (I’m sure the wee factual errors in the Jock Stein parts of the narrative will be corrected in the second edition).
The author, Leo Moynihan does an excellent job in not only acknowledging all the outstanding achievements of these giants of the game, especially with the three greatest football clubs in Britain, but also conveys the humility they always retained and how they never lost touch with their working class roots and the kind of people they toiled underground with. You get a real understanding from the book that for Busby, Shankly and Stein probably the biggest driving force for them was the way bringing success to their clubs in a style which made their fans happy and proud also gave them a much needed release from all the hardships endured in their working lives.
For lifelong and committed socialists like Busby, Shankly and Stein, the well-being of their working class communities on the terracings was clearly of paramount importance but these very same people have of course been largely disenfranchised by a modern game which has sold its soul to satellite television and yet still persists with inflated ticket prices well beyond the reach of the majority of real fans.
(For those looking for more on Jock Stein, I would highly recommend Archie McPherson’s biography. Stephen Sullivan’s book on Sean Fallon, Celtic’s Iron Man is even better).
The author, Leo Moynihan does an excellent job in not only acknowledging all the outstanding achievements of these giants of the game, especially with the three greatest football clubs in Britain, but also conveys the humility they always retained and how they never lost touch with their working class roots and the kind of people they toiled underground with. You get a real understanding from the book that for Busby, Shankly and Stein probably the biggest driving force for them was the way bringing success to their clubs in a style which made their fans happy and proud also gave them a much needed release from all the hardships endured in their working lives.
For lifelong and committed socialists like Busby, Shankly and Stein, the well-being of their working class communities on the terracings was clearly of paramount importance but these very same people have of course been largely disenfranchised by a modern game which has sold its soul to satellite television and yet still persists with inflated ticket prices well beyond the reach of the majority of real fans.
(For those looking for more on Jock Stein, I would highly recommend Archie McPherson’s biography. Stephen Sullivan’s book on Sean Fallon, Celtic’s Iron Man is even better).
January 31, 2022
Entwining the lives of three of the great managers of what some might now term yesteryear. Each is famous for transforming a club in the midst of less successful times then leaving that club in a much better shape and with its trophy cabinet bulging.
These men with origins in broadly the same area of lowland Scotland all grew up amidst miners and all worked at the pit, a background that created three great men of similar virtue and socialist belief. Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly all have immortal status among supporters of a particular vintage and all believed that the game of football is, ultimately, about the relationship between the players and those who pay to watch them. All were driven to produce teams that entertained while bringing success and would likely be bewildered by the modern day game, where the football played is now very much a secondary concern to the wealth generated by it.
The writer draws together the strands of similarity while also making clear the ways in which these men differed. All were fatherly, but in different ways, and all were loved by many of their players and all of their supporters. This is a warming comfort read for any fan of this particular era and an informative one for anyone looking back at the success laden decades of the sixties and seventies at Liverpool, Manchester United and Celtic from the perspective of today's game.
Trails were blazed and legends were carved in stone as these men became the Three Kings.
These men with origins in broadly the same area of lowland Scotland all grew up amidst miners and all worked at the pit, a background that created three great men of similar virtue and socialist belief. Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Bill Shankly all have immortal status among supporters of a particular vintage and all believed that the game of football is, ultimately, about the relationship between the players and those who pay to watch them. All were driven to produce teams that entertained while bringing success and would likely be bewildered by the modern day game, where the football played is now very much a secondary concern to the wealth generated by it.
The writer draws together the strands of similarity while also making clear the ways in which these men differed. All were fatherly, but in different ways, and all were loved by many of their players and all of their supporters. This is a warming comfort read for any fan of this particular era and an informative one for anyone looking back at the success laden decades of the sixties and seventies at Liverpool, Manchester United and Celtic from the perspective of today's game.
Trails were blazed and legends were carved in stone as these men became the Three Kings.
December 23, 2020
A story of a bygone era
Leo Moynihan in an entertaining, insightful biography vividly recalls the common backgrounds that shaped three of the greatest football managers in the British game. The industrial West of Scotland in the first decades of the twentieth century was one of small, closely knit communities and hard and dangerous work in the coal mines. Busby (who as a 17 year old miner was involved in the General Strike) Shankly and Stein (also miners and socialists) applied the values of mutual support and loyalty (though not shrinking from harsh decisions necessary in a competitive sport) and a shrewd understanding of human nature in their careers, to great success. They each left a lasting legacy to Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic and brought pleasure to millions. Alex Ferguson, possibly the greatest of them all, also a product of industrial Scotland, owed much to Stein and Busby. We will surely not 'see their like again'.
Leo Moynihan in an entertaining, insightful biography vividly recalls the common backgrounds that shaped three of the greatest football managers in the British game. The industrial West of Scotland in the first decades of the twentieth century was one of small, closely knit communities and hard and dangerous work in the coal mines. Busby (who as a 17 year old miner was involved in the General Strike) Shankly and Stein (also miners and socialists) applied the values of mutual support and loyalty (though not shrinking from harsh decisions necessary in a competitive sport) and a shrewd understanding of human nature in their careers, to great success. They each left a lasting legacy to Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic and brought pleasure to millions. Alex Ferguson, possibly the greatest of them all, also a product of industrial Scotland, owed much to Stein and Busby. We will surely not 'see their like again'.
June 13, 2022
what a monumental heap of shit....who cares what went through busby's mind while he was eating a sandwich on a tuesday in november 1935.
it's completely unintresting to read about what anyone possibly thought about...and that's not an opinion....moreover it's pure speculations which is just wrong.
it's completely unintresting to read about what anyone possibly thought about...and that's not an opinion....moreover it's pure speculations which is just wrong.
January 23, 2021
3stars
A book that looks at the memorable achievements of three of the greatest managers ever. This book plots there careers and shows what made these men great. An interesting read.
A book that looks at the memorable achievements of three of the greatest managers ever. This book plots there careers and shows what made these men great. An interesting read.
June 4, 2021
Good enough read , little bits of interest like the man utd / Liverpool players being really close good friends , not like the rivalry today , but it's plain the writer is a Liverpool fan as there is more of Shankley in the book
December 25, 2020
Three Kings
An enjoyable book about three giants of football. Would recommend to anyone who has an interest in British football history.
An enjoyable book about three giants of football. Would recommend to anyone who has an interest in British football history.
January 28, 2021
A. Great read,
Three great football men who made Celtic, Liverpool & Manchester United the club's they are today, an absorbing read, BRILLIANT
Three great football men who made Celtic, Liverpool & Manchester United the club's they are today, an absorbing read, BRILLIANT
May 15, 2022
Intetesting and. Informative and a very good read
June 10, 2022
A lovely read. The affection and respect the author has for these three great men shines through. Highly recommended.
October 9, 2022
Interesting insight into the lives of Shankly, Busby and Stein.
January 23, 2025
Enjoyable and informative look at the careers and lives of 3 undisputed legends - linked by Geography and ideology
January 1, 2022
The Three Kings by Leo Moynihan is a brilliantly written piece of British football history's biggest trailblazers. What astounded me the most after finishing this book is that Leo Moynihan was able to fit three separate lives into a mere 260-odd pages. It's everything you want from a historical football book with references to key people and teams.
I would highly recommend people this book if they're looking for a good read on three of British football's icons.
I would highly recommend people this book if they're looking for a good read on three of British football's icons.
October 17, 2019
It took me a while to follow the different managers however the writing style is quite prosaic and easy to follow. It was fascinating to read about the different managerial styles and think about the way the contrasted and think about how they compare to modern times. I liked the fact that featuring three managers offered far more than a standard one person biography and it was great to reflect back on times when football wasn’t about money but about sport and pride
October 10, 2019
Thank you to Netgalley and the authors for the ARC.
I'm a football addict and reading a book about 3 of the powerhouses of British football management I couldn't resist.
This was most certainly more than the sum of it's parts. It's an in depth look at the young lives of three extraordinary men who came from humble backgrounds and achieved greatness in their fields.
I'm a football addict and reading a book about 3 of the powerhouses of British football management I couldn't resist.
This was most certainly more than the sum of it's parts. It's an in depth look at the young lives of three extraordinary men who came from humble backgrounds and achieved greatness in their fields.
October 14, 2019
A really enjoyable read about how three Scottish miners became the architects of modern football. Some of the writing is a bit clunky in places but it's highly effective none the less. Stirring stuff. Looking forward to seeing the accompanying film too.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews