Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #304113 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Synopsis
'Football isn't a matter of life and death,' Bill Shankly once famously said, ' it's much more important than that.' In The Heart of the Game, Jimmy Greaves looks back over his long association with the sport to give his take on all things football, and attempts to make sense of our undying passion for the beautiful game. How has how the game changed from its working class roots to its current celebrity-driven image? How do managers like Sir Alf Ramsey compare to the Svens of today? Why have England stopped producing great goalkeepers? How come the football of yesteryear was more physical, yet the footballer of today is more injury-prone? Drawing on both his knowledge and love of the game, this is Jimmy at his fascinating, witty and humorous best.

Customer Reviews

Stuck in a time warp
Jimmy Greaves was a great footballer in his day. And a decent pundit at times. But with this book, he shows he really is a bit past it.

You read "The Heart of the Game" and effectively everything, according to Jimmy, was better in the "good old days". Players were better and tougher, the twin evils of TV and commercialism had not infected the game, and supporters were so much better.

Well, everyone's entitled to an opinion and one can agree that some things were better back in the day. But everything? Not even close. Jimmy is so stuck in the 60s it gets really, really tiring after a short while as he repeats his "good old days" mantra ad nauseaum.

The other huge knock I have on this book is that it was printed incorrectly - my copy runs from page 1 to page 86, then from page 263 to page 310, then from page 135 to page 406! I never do get to read pages 87 to 134 (probably for the best really) but was almost tricked into reading 263 to 310 twice! Time Warner Books should be ashamed of their abysmal quality control.

For Jimmy's incessant pining for the past and for the actual lousy printing of this book, it gets a mere one star.

A Tribute To A Great Goalscorer
I quite enjoyed reading this book by Jummy Greaves about his passion for the game which hasnt diminished years after he had retired from playing due to his alcoholism which robbed the game of such a great player at a young age.

He reveals here how the game has changed over the years, the enormous differences in playing styles; the rise of foreign players demanding huge sums of money which threatens to cripple the game in the long term. And also reminiscences about great games and great players of the past such as Nat Lofthouse, Stanley Matthews, Danny Blanchflower, Billy Bremner, Dave Mackay, the list is endless.

He also explores the differences in the way the game is played nowadays in comparison with the 1950s and 1960s when Referees were much more tolerant about physical contact, and more often than not, allowed shoulder charges which were considered fair in those days, sometimes leading to a goal such as the one Nat Lofthouse scored for Bolton Wanderers against Manchester United's goalkeeper Harry Gregg in the 1958 FA Cup Final, shoulder charging the goalkeeper into the net while he was collecting the ball. There would be a riot today if that happened!

A very interesting book which I am sure many football fans would do well to read.