The Final Whistle: Scottish Football - The Best and Worst of Times

by Harry Reid

CRAMMED with offbeat anecdotes and amusing stories, THE FINAL WHISTLE? is a supremely readable book about Scottish football in all its many guises - the fury and frustration of the fans; the incompetence and mismanagement in the boardroom; the chronic inability to keep our players of talent; the squandering of the many assets we used to have, and still to some extent own, in the game we gave the world.

Harry Reid's book is partly a trawl though more than 40 years of Scottish fanhood. He writes with both sentiment and candour about the club he loves, Aberdeen FC, about the national team, about the Scottish sporting press, about Scottish footballers so extravagantly talented that they were hardly real, but also about decent journeymen who deserve to be remembered too.

The book features a considered critique of the Old Firm, a comprehensive and controversial blueprint for the revival of the Scottish game, and a wide range of theories on the state of our game from players past and present, administrators, journalists, coaches and managers - and maybe most importantly - fans.

Genres: Football

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, well-argued look at the problems facing Scottish football and the possible solutions to those problems. A few years old, so some things have changed - Gretna's demise being the most notable.

A few strange idiosyncracies in Reid's style, surprising in a former editor of The Herald, were infuriating, but all in all, a worthwhile read for fans of Scottish football.