Product Description

Once you could ignore football, avoid the back pages, turn the telly off, leave the pub. Now that's not possible because on 4th July in Turin's Stadio degli Alpi, Gazza cried, England lost and football changed forever. Pete Davies witnessed all of this at first hand. The players, the hooligans, the agents, the journalists, the fans - the full cast of football's rowdy circus. For nine months he had access to the England squad and their manager, Bobby Robson, talking to them freely about their hopes, their fears, their methods and their lives. So this is the real story, the unedited version. All Played Out - the first and last book to give the inside story of the greatest show on earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #216114 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 476 pages

Customer Reviews

QUITE SIMPLY THE BEST FOOTBALL BOOK EVER!
I first read this book not long after it was first published and have re-read it several times. On each occasion I have been amazed by the quality of Pete Davies' writing. The excellent narrative and analysis is maintained throughout, offering an 'insiders' guide to what really happened with England at the 1990 World Cup. Davies starts by recounting the deciding qualifier in Poland and the warm-up matches, which highlight the pressure felt by Bobby Robson and the constant media scrutiny of the England team and entourage. The book then takes up the story of what it was like to follow England round Italy for a month. Davies interviews all the key figures and mingles with fans of various nationalities to discuss their experiences.

The essential strength of the book is the honesty and trust Davies received from the England manager and players. They were aware that Davies was not seeking to grab sensationalist headlines for the 'brat-pack' gutter-press back home and also that the book would not be appearing until well after the end of the tournament. This gave the major protoganists in England's tournament the chance to speak openly with the author and the results are fascinating, particularly the interview with John Barnes.

Overall, the book is a terrific reminder of England's most successful overseas World Cup. A more literary and authoritative type of football book than something like Fever Pitch, this is a must for any football lovers bookshelf.

A HEART-BREAKING, SPIRIT-LIFTING ACCOUNT OF WHAT COULD'VE BE
Reading this book almost ten years after the event took place, there's an added poignancy to the story of Paul Gascoigne. Throughout the book, I found myself comparing the then-youthful, cheeky, heart-warming and incredibly talented lad to the headline-hunted, alcohol-ravaged, manic depressive the football world has to come to pity and fear. In retrospect, his destiny was not inevitable. Scenes such as his running off from an interview to play football with children only add to the sense of early promise mishandled and misspent. Many stories remain to be written about Gazza, but this one truly captures the one unmistakable truth: no one seems to have loved the game more than Gazza.

wonderful
Davies is funny, perceptive and poignant as he describes the extraordinary adventure that was the 1990 World Cup in Italy. It might well be the best book on football ever written.