Product Description

From selling fruit and veg out of his car boot after training, to life under lower division eccentrics such as John Beck and Barry Fry, Tales From the Boot Camps was Steve Claridge's hugely entertaining and successful autobiography of life outside the Premiership. Published ten years ago it is still in print. Beyond the Boot Camps promises more of the same: the last decade has seen Steve Claridge finally take leave of the Football League (after turning out for half a dozen more clubs), dabble disastrously with management at Weymouth and Millwall, continue to fight his gambling addiction and become a respected Radio 5, Sky and Guardian pundit. There's a whole ten years' worth of frank and hilarious anecdotes to fit into this new volume.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21116 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'a lively and unvarnished account' (FOURFOURTWO )

About the Author
Steve Claridge has turned out for an astonishing 21 clubs. His heyday was in the mid-nineties at the likes of Birmingham City, Crystal Palace and Leicester City. A fortnight ago he scored on his debut for Ryman league side Harrow Borough (a 4-4 draw with Margate). He broadcasts regularly on Sky, Radio 5 and Channel 5. He writes for THE GUARDIAN.

Customer Reviews

Sets a cracking pace...and continues it
Throughout From Beyond The Boot Camps, Steve Claridge is keen to emphasise that perceptions of him have unduly prejudiced many people against him as he sought to gain a foothold in the arena of football management. It's impossible not to sympathise with Claridge's frustration because as anyone who has witnessed his media punditry will attest, Claridge has a shrewd and innate knowledge of football and footballers. He has got a few well-documented idiosyncracies which seem to have been instrumental in the negative perceptions but any chairman seeking a new manager would surely be tempted to give him an opportunity after having read this excellent book which contains interesting insights into the financial remunerations of many players, coaches and agents as well as maintaining the reader's interest with Claridge's perennial struggle to be taken as seriously as he deserves. This book is rather like Steve Claridge's astonishing performance in the 800 metres event of the Superstars television programme - it sets a blistering pace and manages to maintain it.

a raw look at the game in the real world
This is steve claridges second book and carries on where he left off.
He gives us a look into the real world of football away from the pampered lifestyle of the premier league.
this is a must for all followers of football in the lower leagues and true football fans.
I strongly reccomend this book.

Tales from an intelligent footballing man
This book carries on from where Steve Claridges first book `Tales from the Boot Camps' ended, but where that book saw Claridges at his footballing peak, this second book deals with the twilight of his playing career and his so far unsuccessful ventures into club management.

Anybody who saw Claridge play, and as he played over a thousand games that is a lot of people, will most remember him for his slovenly appearance- his shirt was always hanging out and his socks were forever at half mast - and his lackadaisical manner. You should never judge a book by its cover though, because behind his slightly eccentric facade this book proves him to be a highly intelligent man and a deep thinker about the game of football.

It's a slightly sombre book, because as well as his playing career being over, it obviously still rankles him badly that each of his opportunities to be a manager, at Portsmouth, Millwall and Weymouth have all ended acrimoniously and without him being given the time to have a proper shot at the job. It is also a fairly candid book as he his quite prepared to vent his spleen against those who have done him wrong, his views about ex Millwall owner and TV `dragon' Theo Paphitis, being particularly strident.

Tne book is jointly written by Ian Ridley, who was also Chairman for some of Claridges time as Weymouth manager. Ridley writes an introduction to each section of the book, but whilst this helps to give an independent view of what we are about to read, all too often Claridge will repeat an anecdote that Ridley has already related.

Tales from the Boot Camps is now regarded as being a classic football book. I doubt whether this book will be as highly regarded because quite simply it is not as good, but it still is a good read and offers an insight into the pressures of football management.