Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (1992)

I'd suggested bookclubbing this but in the end I got an urge that just couldn't wait. I've just finished the first third.

And you know what? It's still really good. First thing to occur is that this isn't written for the football fan, there's too much self-justification for that; it's interesting because you forget that in 1992 most people (at least in the literati and above) weren't interested in the game; there's a fair bit of documenting an alien culture about this. I'd maybe trade some of the 'and this is what I learned from this' subtext for some more detail of the action, or what it felt like rolling around on the terraces, but you can't begrudge a book its pitch and structure.

Further thoughts as I get them, folks.

Ya you can begrudge a book its pitch and structure

Nice bit tonight on Malcolm Macdonald:

he didn't have much of a career at Arsenal. He retired with a serious knee injury after just three seasons with us, but in that last season he played only four times. He still managed to turn himself into a legend, though ... the definitive history of the club features him prominently on the cover, whereas Wilson and Brady, Drake and Compton are nowhere to be seen

So why have we let him take over in this way? ... Macdonald was, if nothing else, a glamorous player, and we have never been a glamorous team; so at Highbury we pretend that he was more important than he really was

It always bugs me when I pass the Emirates and see Pires up there on the mural. In fairness he was good and six seasons is more than three, but then there's this: On 11 July 2008, Arsenal fans voted Pirès as the club's sixth greatest player of all time.[10]

The untreated knee injury was apparently the catalyst for his drink problem during his managerial years. I try to remember that, when I recall the 10-1 defeat against Man City in front of the MOTD cameras in the 80's. According to local folklore, he took a shit on the Chairman's desk as a parting gift after his sacking.

I will continue to attend televised games at Highbury, mostly because I've already paid for my ticket. But, sod it, I'm not going to travel to Coventry or Sunderland or anywhere else if I can sit at home and watch the match, and I hope lots of other people do the same. Television will notice our absence, one day. In the end, however much they mike up the crowd, they will be unable to create any atmosphere whatsoever, because there will be nobody there: we'll all be at home, watching the box.

There's an occasional passage like this; I sympathise and agree with it, really I do, but it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he's called that one wrong.

I had planned to finish this tonight, but couldn't get past the first sentence:

In all the time I have been watching football, twenty-three seasons, only seven teams have won the First Division Championship: Leeds United, Everton, Arsenal, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and, a staggering eleven times, Liverpool.

but it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he's called that one wrong

Kind of half-wrong - the 'nobody there' bit was clearly wrong as attendances soared, the 'no atmosphere' bit was largely correct

not really