|
| Anfield Iron | 
 enlarge | Author: Tommy Smith
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
List Price: £18.99
Buy New: £10.36
You Save: £8.63 (45%)
New (17) from £10.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 20586
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.7
ISBN: 0593059581
EAN: 9780593059586
ASIN: 0593059581
Publication Date: March 24, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 "quarried not born" October 26, 2008
bill shankly once said "tommy smith wasn't born he was quarried"this is the story of one of the hardest men to ever play football in england,but to call tommy just an hardman would be totally unfair cos the boy could play a bit (in fact more than a bit,he was very good).
this book charts his life from birth right upto the present day and is not only an insight into tommys football career but his life growing up in liverpool and the loving family he had as a child and the family he himself now loves as a grandad.
there are some great shankly and paisley anecdotes and tommy does not pull any punches (would you expect him too)on his dis-like of emlyn hughes however one sidenote to this is that not once does tommy bismirch hughes' achievments and prowess as a player and actually seems to go to great lengths to point out how good hughes was.
the book is anthology like as it charts tommys life and career season by season including the highs of the 65 cup final and 77 euro cup final and the lows of his dads untimely death and losing the captaincy of his beloved liverpool.
there are also some laugh out loud moments like the look on jimmy greaves face when he opened up a piece of paper tommy had given him in the tunnel before a game only to realise it was a menu for liverpool infirmary or the time as a junior he rose to meet a corner against the first eleven and in doing so beat ron yeats to the ball and as the net rippled saying to yeats "pick that out you big lumbering tw*t" and then spending the rest of the game evading yeats' attempts to launch him over the stand.
this book in a nutshell is a great read and will appeal to any football fan of any team as it tells the story of a time when the game was not run by money and was played for the love of the game by a man who simply loved the game.
THANKS TOMMY LAD
Good Read... October 16, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book, the narrative moves along nicely and chronologically follows Tommy's career at various clubs. There are some interesting recollections of Paisley and Shankly and fellow players but also some curious omissions (souness not described at all in this book!?) Some funny and whimsical moments also.
A little disappointing is the somewhat incessant criticism of Emlyn Hughes, who has no right of reply given that he is no longer with us. i thought this a little churlish, albeit that the criticisms may be perfectlty well founded. All-in-all it is a competently written account of a great player at a great club.
A Great Throw-Back to old-times Football August 16, 2008
An excellent book, giving a personal account of what it was like playing football back in the sixties and seventies. There are some great stories and anecdotes, including Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley fixing the toilets in the stands, Tommy himself taking two weeks to saw off a girder and digging out the penalty box to a depth of six feet one close season. Classic examples of what players and staff did in those days that we wouldn't dream of asking players to do these days.
An Insightful Entertaining Read August 6, 2008
Unlike the plethora of ghost-written, attention-seeking, drivel that is usually spewed out from publishers in time for the beginning of the football season, this is an intelligent, well-written autobiography of one of Liverpool's most famous and successful players, providing a fascinating and insightful trawl through the career of a player who was at the very top of his profession during the sixties and seventies.
This was a time when the British game was blessed with some of the greatest managers and players that it has ever seen; a period during which England won the world cup with players whose wages were little more than an average factory employee, even though attendances were higher than at any other time in the game's history.
As a self-styled `hard man' in a team that was to become the most successful in the history of the game, Tommy Smith takes us back to those times through a typically frank and honest account of his entire football career in a style that is literate and never anything less than thoroughly entertaining.
Tommy's memory certainly isn't as good as it used to be however, and his recollections can sometimes be riddled with errors, most notably during his account of Liverpool's failure to beat Arsenal and become league champions in May, 1972. Just for the record Tommy, Leeds United's 1-2 defeat at Wolves meant that a single goal victory over the gunners would have been enough for the reds to have clinched the title on goal average.
I'd like to think that Tommy knew that on the actual night of the match itself!
Recommended.
Anfield Iron April 28, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the first time I have ever reviewed a book, but having read this book I feel I have to write to say how much I enjoyed it. Having been born on the Wirral and a Liverpool supporter all my life I loved Tommy Smiths book. The humour and honesty throughout, especially the stories about Bill Shankly are brilliant, I could not put the book down.
|
|
|
Learn how to have your own
Amazon Shop
Travel Maps and Guides
zeugma
| | Holiday Travel |
alpharooms.com for cheap holiday deals in spain and worldwide
Disneyland Paris for a great family holiday or short break.
Holday Cottages throughout Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and France with Cottages4you
Hilton - need we say more, you will find Hilton Hotels in most areas throughout Britain, in cities and in the countryside.
Don't forget Travel Insurance
Airport Parking
|
|
|
|
