Product Description

At last, at long, long last - the award-winning Baker & Kelly bring you the most entertaining, radical and unreliable football book ever published. It is full of facts, near facts and 'facts'. The Two Dannys intend to argue the toss, spill the beans and heave the talcum about everything and anything from the game's biggest questions to some more middling posers right down to stuff they have frankly invented themselves. Which clubs has the handsomest fans? Who is the greatest player of all time? Pele? Maradona? Puskas? Rougvie? Have foreign players helped or hindered the English game? Well, Marco Boogers, well? Which was the most tip top ever World Cup? (the answer to which will reference Baker & Kelly's own personal adventures at each tournament, which, while narrowing it down, makes for crackerjack reading). Who was the greatest football dad, Fred Baker or Andy Kelly? What was it really like to hang out with Paul Gascoigne back in the day? And that's it. A cornucopia of footballing fun and well-crafted wisdom that is certain to make the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Shortlist and sell like beer-flavoured crisps. Who wouldn't want this book on their roster, except maybe Dick Rowe? Baker & Kelly: Sometimes right, sometimes wrong - but always certain. A new expression we are hoping to popularise. Danny Kelly is a permanent member of the William Hill judging panel. The Decca executive who turned down The Beatles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4891 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 310 pages

Review
`witty, engaging and impassioned' GQ, November 2009 --GQ

"If it's an intelligent, witty and surreal read you're after, this one beats most football books out there" FourFourTwo magazine
--FourFourTwo Magazine

"A Cornucopia of footballing fun and wisdom" --Eastern Daily Press

About the Author
Broadcast legend Danny Baker is the pioneering presenter of the original football phone-in 6-0-6 on the BBC. He also began the whole Own Goals and Gaffes Xmas video industry later jumped on by everyone from Neil Kinnock to Judge Judy and for this he apologises unreservedly. He neither likes nor cares about any other football club than his own (Millwall) and knows that's just how all other real supporters actually live their miserable lives. Publishing overlord Danny Kelly is former editor of NME, Q and Total Sport , and founder of the Football365 website. He regularly broadcasts on TalkSport and BBC FiveLive. He appals Baker by knowing 97.4% of everything there is to know about football and 85.3% about every other sport. He loves Spurs but annoys those who sit around him at White Hart Lane by booing the team as they run out just in case. Danny Baker and Danny Kelly have broadcast their award-scooping stuff for years now and have co-written a weekly sports column for the Times, until that was sacked too. Immediately after, their Baker & Kelly football podcast became the country's no.1 sports download. NUMBER ONE. There, suck that up all you lily livered hair-trigger quaking BBC execs.This is their first book.

Customer Reviews

Classic Baker and Kelly
Ahoy-hoy! (To quote the authors)

This is a classic slice of the two Dannies, a delicious serving of their old radio show made flesh. Or paper, at least. In a nutshell: two knowledgeable football punditry veterans share quips, tales and bon mots, while keeping the humour level at a page-turning high. Happily, Mr Baker elected to 'tell all' about his time with Paul Gascoigne, while Mr Kelly kept references to Over the Moon to an absolute minimum. Win/win.

The chapter on B&K's trip to the World Cup was particularly good and I sincerely hope that the 'Volume 1' subhead on the cover is a foretaste of more books to come.

Clumsy title. Plays on their celebrity
I am a big fan of Danny Baker and, to a lesser extent Danny Kelly, but this is not one of their finest hours. It is funny in places and covers some great topics, but there is too much about the book that plays on their own celebrity. I have also read the far funnier Modern Football is Rubbish.Modern Football Is Rubbish: An A-Z of All That Is Wrong with the Beautiful Game Classic Football debates covers similar themes to MFIR, some would say ripped it off, but I prefer a variation on a theme, but without as much wit or wisdom. If you want to buy a humorous football book for your Dad or brother this Christmas, avoid this and head for Moden Football is Rubbish, a cheaper, funnier and more fulfilling offering.

Back of the net!
Too little in print today tackles the crucial role played by Kabaddi in the development of televised sport. Thankfully, the two Dannys are on hand to correct this oversight, whilst delivering much that is similarly splendid besides. I wholeheartedly recommend those who take their sport seriously - and not so seriously - to 'get involved'.