Football:In Secret and In Fantasy

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Finished the book Tales From The Secret Footballer by The Secret Footballer. The first thing that needs to be said is that I've not read the original  I Am The Secret Footballer  by the secret soccerista. However what this sequel seems to be is some sort of mixture between gossipy autobiography, more personal accounts and his opinions on various aspects of the game that his experiences have led him to.

Given that this is it's selling point the worst parts were the gossip. There was no tale that surprised me. Secrets but no revelations. Of course the secret that could change all of this is the one our author keeps to himself. Names. Players,clubs,managers and of course him, one detail is studiously avoided I presume at the insistence of lawyers. It makes this aspect, for the reader, unsatisfactory

But the Secret Footballer is an intelligent man. His opinions are far more deeper than you would normally expect from a sportsman and the chapter on depression is worth a read by itself. If I was to give it a mark out of ten it's that chapter that pushes it to a seven.

So the library books are now read and the earliest I can possibly change them is Monday. Which means I need to get a new book from the great unread which turns out to be......

Breaking Vegas - Ben Mezrich

This is one of those books where a geek takes on the gambling house at Vegas. This time though the game isn't poker but the less sexy blackjack. Bought this book many years ago attracted as I was by it's cheapness being ex library. Didn't know about the rules of blackjack then and I still don't now. But that doesn't matter. I've found that not knowing the rules of say, poker, doesn't harm your enjoyment of  the game if the writer can tell a good story. Victoria Coren being an example of this.

When I was looking through the great unread to get the next book to read I noticed a few fantasy football books (the football here being of the American variety). Realising that the Premiership season was just a week away I suddenly thought I'd give it a go. Have tried it before. Rarely with success though. Only once,in the nineties, did it go surprisingly well thanks to Alan Shearer,a few Manchester United defenders and Dennis Wise (very quickly here I'd noticed - not analysed - that every other goal Chelsea scored at that time was either by, or assisted by the minuscule saged one).

Anyway I've made no pretence of winning for this team picked from the Daily Telegraph's Fantasy Football. Wanted to go as random as possible. Originally I'd thought of going all Dice man but that didn't work out because too many players were not assured to be in the first eleven. So instead I've deliberately picked a team that consists one player from the top eleven teams from last season with two exceptions. One is West Ham because I've a superstition that picking any man from the team I follow turns their form to mush (it's happened - trust me). So in this case I've deliberately picked a player from the team that came twelfth - Swansea City. The other is that just for fun I've picked one player outside that first eleven/twelve so another higher placed team was dropped completely.

The team called of course Sopra La Luna (which means over the moon in Italian) is:

Butland - Stoke City

Bellerin - Arsenal

Lovren - Liverpool

Stones - Everton

Morgan - Leicester City

Toure - Manchester City

Sigurdsson - Swansea City

Willian - Chelsea

Tadic - Southampton

Defoe - Sunderland

Ibrahimovic - Manchester United

The missing team here is Tottenham

No player is going to be changed whatever happens unless they are for whatever reason out of the team. In these circumstances he will be replaced by a player from that same club.

As I said before this team won't win. I will however have the comfort of knowing that it will beat at least one person who picked a team through logarithms and computer programs

We shall see how well it does. I'll probably be looking at it properly every Tuesday.

Until the next time

Howard Jacobson's New Fans, Books Borrowed Read But Not Bought Plus Swansea,Mumbles and BHS

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Before the family day trip later on I had to make a quick visit to Porthcawl library as they were due and quickly to Poundland to get razors,shower gel and some toothpaste....oh and a book.

You may remember when I'd last visited there I was surprised that Poundland were selling some quality books amongst the expected dross. Although there was a tome by Howard Jacobson for more sentimental reasons I'd picked The American by Martin Booth (A decision incidentally that wasn't wrong in itself. Spoiler alert: So far it's very good). This time though I was going to get the Jacobson.

Or I would have.....if there were any there.

To my knowledge Poundland leave books on the shelves forever. My favourite of the "dross" books was one that celebrated Irish Olympic hopefuls. All very well in itself if it wasn't for the fact that we were in Wales. So that the Jacobson completely sold out is encouraging. I suspect most of the people who bought the book wouldn't have thought to have picked it up anywhere else and some of those might be further encouraged to read more of his work afterwards,

Poundland:Encouraging reading and literature, Who would have thought it but let's celebrate it anyway.

Afterwards I went to the library. Was tempted to get the autobiography of the ex West Ham and new England manager Sam Allardyce but ultimately went for this as my football book choice.

The Secret Footballer - Tales From The Secret Footballer

This is the sequel to the original "Secret Footballer" book which apparently lifts the lid on the football world. It has the reputation. Let's see whether deserved.

The intention was to just get that book. But as you know me by now and needless to say I was tempted to borrow another which was this.

Clare Balding - My Family and Other Rambles

I took this book because I'm toying with the idea of taking up rambling. Not the sort that wanders lonely as a cloud in green places but that explores towns and villages. Rather like the day I spent going round the Valleys in May.

I have the prequel to this. My Animals And Other Family amongst the great unread.

Must admit as well to have an admiration for the author. Capable of being a broadcasting "safe pair of hands" and yet can fight for her beliefs as well. A lioness in jolly hockey sticks clothing. She also has the ability, rather like the late Alan Coren and the comedienne Linda Smith of being the sort of person you consider a friend even though you've never met them.

When I'd got home the wife decided that we should go to Swansea for the day. Given the washout of her birthday the day before I wasn't going to argue. Still though we were out of the house the car hadn't left the drive for a further ten minutes whilst she and daughter chatted to the neighbour opposite. In that time I finished a book.

It was Not A Hazardous Sport by Nigel Barley. As I was reading this it reminded me of the sort of series started by James Herriot. Take an occupation and write about your experiences in a manner which suggested that life was basically comic with occasional sad episodes. Of course we all know that life is a constant battle between the amusing and the tragic. And if you don't have an occupation tragedy always wins.

The point is that Nigel Barley is not James Herriot, and as his occupation is anthropology his style is a mixture of bad writing and patronising condescension sprinkled with a fair degree of dullness. I don't mean dull as in academic dull, more dull as in the more I read it the more fed up and uninterested I got.

To fast forward a bit when we returned took the next book from the great unread. Which turned out to be this.

H E Bates - A Little Bit of What You Fancy

This was the last book in the Larkin series. I've read the first, The Darling Buds Of May years ago and I remember thinking that the TV series was better. Mind you I didn't like the television version after the first season. Got all too predictable. I don't hold much hope, though to be fair I understand that this novel was never filmed.We shall see.

So to Swansea then. Which in the beginning got a bit damp.

Early afternoon in Swansea

We went into BHS in Swansea before it becomes a part of retail history. To be honest it was more in curiosity than anything else. Needless to say it was very sad. Everything was for sale.

And I mean EVERYTHING

What was interesting was that even with the reductions prices seemed cheaper elsewhere. I mean I wouldn't pay just under five pounds for a cereal bowl whoever made it. Perhaps that explains part of the reason for the decline of the business.

After that I spilt up with wife and daughter to go to a charity shop that just sold books. Or rather that was the intention, but for the second time today I was thwarted in buying books as it was closed for refurbishment. Other charity shops I saw didn't have Penguin/Pelican paperbacks that I didn't already own. Thwarted again.

A quick digression the worst place for me was a stall in Swansea market. Only because I don't like the price of books being stamped on the top. 

Don't like this one bit

After the ladies finished buying clothes and I finished buying nothing we went further west to the Mumbles. It wasn't really summer coastal weather being cool and cloudy. Still it can still do the views. Here are a few pictures.

Still can do vivid colours on a cloudy day

The original fifty shades of grey

Despite how it looks it didn't rain

Warm enough to have some chips whilst viewing this

And so the trip ended. It had been pleasant.

Until the next time.