Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22548 in Books
• Published on: 1997-12-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Synopsis
For fifteen years, Michael Francis and his brothers headed the Guvnors - one of the toughest and most notorious gangs of football hooligans to soil the streets and football terraces of Britain. Now out of prison and willing to break his silence, Francis comes clean and reveals the inside story of his life.

Customer Reviews

good honest read
Quite simply the best book on the subject of working class lads fighting for their team I've read. And I've read most of them. Not a Man city fan wrong colour rose for me, but a good read and very believeable. Was at a couple of games he mentioned though on the white rose side.

Not bad but I wouldnt go too far.
I guess this book should get a but more praise because it is one of the earlier 'hooligan' books but the simple fact of the matter is if you have read one you have read them all.

Story begins with his childhood, born in rough working class area, dad used to slap him around, mum worked her guts out but both were the salt of the earth. Joined a firm, was a life long fan, police make an operation against the firm, court case goes on, gets sent down, comes out becomes a bouncer yeh you have just about read the same thing with just about every hooligan book around.

Still, this does have some things of interest. Francis is pretty honest with his many encounters with rival firms describing how he and his firm were not only turned over more than once but that on many occasions he had the living daylights kicked out of him. He is honest about his own firms use of knives and how other firms also used them recounting occasions when the City firm have slashed a few people. He is honest about the thieving that went on how they were far from the best dressed people around (in fact being honest enough to say they dressed like scruffs) Which is a damn site more honest than some of the books you will find out there with there obligatory chapter dedicated to nothing more than designer labels and myths about how they were such 'dresses' (Anyone seen the pictures in the Birmingham Zulus book? V-Neck jumpers with black suit jacket, yeh lads you were the height of fashion)

Mickey was a mixed race lad and is not daft enough to think that racism didn't exist on the terraces. He more than once tells us how his firm fought City firms who were NF and some of the racist abuse that the Cool Cats received in Liverpool (From both Liverpool and Everton) Leeds, Millwall and Chelsea and even more so the shock value a mixed race firm received in places like Newcastle and Leeds.

Not a bad read, you will probably get through it in about an hour at best.

Cool Cats
I travelled with MCFC in the 70's and 80's and with The Cool Cats a few times. The coaches used to pick up under Piccadilly Station at Store Street and Donald would pull guys off the train to join the coaches he laid on. Nice SHOPPING trips using bin liners as bags lol. I lived next door to Donald too for a short while in Openshaw.

The Mickey Mouser is right.....at some games we didnt take many, especially to Liverpool/Everton as it was full of scum with stanley knives. They all knew Donald and The Cool Cats too and targeted him.

We did travel in numbers though quite a lot but most were just normals, not fighters.

I was very close to the Nottingham Petrol Station Robbery and was even arrested by mistake lol

CTID. What happened to the good old days....