The not so beautiful game

Same rubbish, new wrapper. This is the criticism usually levelled at those big bad soccer clubs who put out a new kit every season with minor alterations. Where the clubs lead, the publishers follow. David Winner, the author of this rambling and incoherent discussion of the national game, is a theoriser so prolific that he can prove his case on one page and refute it a few paragraphs later. To show that English football is bloodier than the continental game he quotes the Frenchman Robert Pires: ‘Some of the tackles are like rugby. People will run you over.’ A little further on we hear that Ravanelli and Zola came from Italy and ‘enjoyed English sportsmanship, the relaxed atmosphere, and the huge amount of space they had to play in’.

Winner is captivated by the idea that football of old was a sport played by gentlemanly heroes. Nat Lofthouse is offered as the embodiment of these ancient virtues, and the enumeration of his saintly deeds includes the story of his attempt to score during the 1958 cup final by shoulder-charging the Man U keeper across the line.