Brilliant Orange

Just read David Winner's Brilliant Orange for my sports book group. Written in 2001 it's still a classic 17 years later. Winner writes superbly of how Dutch football relates to the uniqueness of the Netherlands as a country. In a nation that has reclaimed so much territory from the sea and has many straight lines of fields, drains and dykes, he links Dutch football to the nation's ability to find space and relate to it in new ways. 

He also puts football in the context of social movements, pointing out that Holland was quite a boring authoritarian place until the counter culture of the 1960s that took place in Amsterdam. That questioning spirit helped spark the great Dutch side of the Cruyff era and perhaps also resulted in a famously anti-authoritarian stance and numerous fall-outs with national managers. 

Winner also brings Dutch painting and architecture into the equation. There are excellent chapters on the trauma of the 1974 World Cup Final, when a kind of national inferiority complex against West Germany resulted in the Dutch side trying to humiliate their opponents, but after netting a first minute penalty they ended up losing two-one. 

The later edition also has an added chapter on the 2010 World Cup Final against Spain when the Netherlands played a heavily physical game that seemed in direct contrast to the total football of the 1970s. But for such a small nation to reach three World Cup Finals there's clearly something special going on. A fascinating read and still brilliantly Orange.

Staying Sober with Tony Adams

Sober by Tony Adams is really a follow-up to Adams’ much-praised 1999 book Addicted, both written with Ian Ridley. The moving moment he gave up booze in 1996 is still included in Sober, where Adams tells his therapist that, “I know how to get drunk and how to play football, but I don’t know who I am.” 

But most of the book is about Adams' career post-Arsenal. For the gossip-lovers he talks about dating Caprice and his eventual ending of their relationship before meeting the less celebrity-conscious Poppy. He covers his fine work with addicted sports stars at Sporting Chance and his time at Portsmouth, where it’s often forgotten that he was Harry Redknapp’s coach when Pompey won the FA Cup. When Tony took the manager’s job it proved a poisoned chalice, with the club’s financial crisis hitting home and Adams soon sacked.

He remained open to new ideas and countries and after that embarked upon an adventure, moving to Gabala in Azerbaijan and helping build the club up from a low base to a Europa League side. He’s involved in all aspects of the club’s infrastructure and the strain takes a toll; he nearly dies from a heart problem and has a stent inserted. He’s since worked in China and at Granada in Spain. Adams also deals with Arsenal’s curious reluctance to have him involved, and it seems Arsene Wenger might be a little wary of having a questioning voice on the coaching staff.

Adams comes across as an intelligent, enquiring man, and a little evangelical at times about Alcoholics Anonymous, which has left him open to the football world’s opinion that he is a bit “weird”. Perhaps he is too honest to be a manager, as his AA principles don’t allow him to tell lies. But with his defensive knowledge you do feel some club is missing out on a good coach and leader, and also a man who can really help modern footballers deal with their demons.

Regis and Cunningham were Different Class

Anyone saddened by the death of Cyrille Regis at just 59 might like to read Different Class, the excellent biography of Laurie Cunningham, the man who provided the crosses for big Cyrille at West Brom. Dermot Kavanagh's book tells the story of Cunningham's rise to stardom at West Brom and Real Madrid in an era of horrible racism. Laurie was an Islington lad and rejected by Arsenal, partly because of his poor timekeeping and also because of the myth at the time that black players were temperamental. 

There was a fine event to accompany the launch of Different Class at the New Beacon Bookshop in Finsbury Park, where Kavanagh hosted an evening with several players who grew up in the local leagues with Cunningham. They described a time when north Tottenham was a no-go area for black people, where they risked beatings-up from both the National Front and the police. Playing anywhere east of Angel, "it was a fight to get in and out" and to go the Lacy Lady nightclub in Ilford (where Cunningham liked to dance) was "taking your life in your hands". 

Cunningham, Regis and Batson at West Brom, along with Clyde Best, Ade Coker and Clive Charles at West Ham, braved horrendous abuse and every player of today owes them a debt of gratitude.