This book is a "novelized" account of the period when Don Revie was the team manager at Leeds United football club, with events mostly seen through eyes of a character called Jimmy O'Rourke.
The story is told by way of two parallel threads, in a sense, two paths which occasionally overlap. We have the events in the world of Leeds United, and Jimmy O'Rourke's own life, including his footballing aspirations and his interactions with those at the club.
The language is sometimes awkward and even ungainly, but this is the type of speech which one would have expected from the time. It adds to the realism, and to the feelings of authenticity and intimacy. This impressions is most marked during the earlier stages of the tale.
It seems to me that the effect is to introduce a distinctive "voice", through the character's standpoints, and not just one of the traditional "narratives" which pertain to the Revie era. This is not just a rose-tinted perspective. There is some insight into working-class culture and sentiment, but without it becoming romanticized.
The Jimmy character is quite intriguing. He is an assertive and inquisitive young person, quite independent of mind even in those early years. His relations with his "elders" are very well rendered, from my point of view. His observations on the football scene are rather nuanced, not stereotyped.
The novel is not a strict, exhaustively detailed chronology of each stage of Revie's stewardship. Maybe the intention was more to capture the atmosphere of the time and the essence of Jimmy's nature and environs.
My impression was that Jimmy's language becomes more advanced and expressive as the story unfolds, and as he grows older. His analysis of football matters is rather more "mature" and rational than we are sometimes led to expect from football supporters, even fictional ones. He doesn't always run with the herd, basing many of his opinions on quite sound reasoning and not easy conformity or "triteness". A lively grasp of critiquing things comes through.
For myself this work serves as a kind of time capsule, harking back to a more simple, organic way of life, although it seldom descends into rose-tinted territory. Did people live less contented, less stimulating, less genuinely creative lives because they lacked some of the material and technological "advantages" which came along later?
Once again, a favourable picture emerges of 1960s and 1970s football emerges, at least in terms of the competitiveness and openness of the scene at that stage. A good deal less predictable than what was to come, let's say, about five decades or so later.
The subjective slant of the narrative is a strength, and it gradually encompasses an earthy and dry humour. An effort is made to convey the cultural and social tenor of the times, which ostensibly relates to football, but sometimes extends beyond the confines of the game itself.
We also gather some sense of how "gentrified" football has become since the 1960s. This process might be termed a symptom of progress, rather than progress per se (?)
The over-riding sensation one derives from the narrative is now "toilsome" the game was in the 60s, attritional even. We may gaze back longingly and fondly at that era, but there was also much negativity and cynicism. Areas where things have improved include the protection now afforded to creative performers and the laws now being applied to encourage enterprising and positive play.
It is noticeable to me how Jimmy's outlook becomes more analytical, less tribal even, as the years go by. He takes a critical and even detached stance at times, not always adhering to the practices of myth-making and public relations.
So, we are engaged in a journey with both Jimmy O'Rourke and Don Revie's Leeds United, whilst occasionally being reminded of football's ultimate irrelevance, and also its value as a palliative in times of adversity, and its capacity to provide meaning and purpose in a sometimes meaningless and directionless life/world. It is a reassuring constant as we undergo life's changes and trials, but it doesn't necessarily have to make people totally desert their reason and their objectivity.
The "narrator" displays an impressive and credible grasp of football tactics and theory, an appreciation of the broader picture within a match, and the ebb and flow of the contest, the switches in momentum and initiative. This book does make a nod to the intricacies, the finer points, and is not just a romanticized look at football culture. "Insight" and "analysis" did not begin during the early 1990s.
What is noteworthy is that firm opinions are invariably backed up by cogent arguments.
The end of the story is handled deftly, not over-burdened with portentous or weighty passages, but projecting the distinct feeling that an era was ending, that a watershed was at hand..
In summary, an intriguing and entertaining read.
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