My friend Alex Fynn has co-written a new book, Arsènal : The Making of a Super-Club
When I saw that his book was the No.1 Arsenal book and the No.1 Football Club book, I emailed my congratulations.
Alex doesn’t reply to my occasional emails, but when we talk on the phone he thanks me for them .
His co-author is Kevin Whitcher, a good guy, the editor of The Gooner.When The Professor first came out, he interviewed me for the fanzine. He asked me a very penetrating question about something somebody said in my book, which was not attributed in the text. His question proved that Kevin had read the book very closely.
Arsènal with a grave accent is a brilliant idea for a book title.
Must admit was surprised when I saw the sub-title. I thought : Berlusconi, Maldini, Gullit, van Basten – AC Milan is a Super-Club.
Busby, Munich, Sir Alex- another super-club.
Liverpool FC, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Kenny Dalglish, the Kop, five European Cups. That is undeniably a super-club.
Real Madrid, backed by the King, the banks, the government and the referees ? Not my kind of super-club. But some people love them.
Arsènal : The Making of a Super-Club obviously describes a work-in-progress, an outfit that wants to be up there. Although some Gooners will say, “Look at the history, look at the stadium- we ARE a super-club.”
I haven’t read the book. Even if I had, I wouldn’t criticise something written by a guy whose has been my friend for years. I suppose I first met Alex at Spurs.We sometimes chat at Arsenal AGMs.
One night we were sitting together at Wembley and the England game was really boring and we started talking about other stuff and Alex said he listened to Bob Harris on Radio 2.
“I like some of this New Country music, like Iris DeMent,” he said.
“I’ve got her phone number in Missouri,” I replied. “You could give her a call and tell her you’re enjoying the album ! Her old man’s a fireman.”
Quite a while later I took Alex to see Iris DeMent and John Prine at the Festival Hall. He picked me up his old Jag and before the gig we bumped into Nick Lowe, whom I’d known since I did an interview with Brinsley Schwarz for Rolling Stone. We saw a good gig and afterwards we chatted to Iris or John, or maybe both of them – I can’t remember. Then Alex drove me home. He later said, “That was one of the best nights of my life !”
Alex grew up with Irving Scholar and David Dein and has been a consultant to the both clubs and to the Premier League when it started. Alex used to be a director of Saachi & Saachi. He’s an expert on TV deals and branding.
Once he persuaded me to interview him for ANR, talking about one of his books. He took me to a restaurant near Totteridge, where the owner, a jolly Italian, told us that one night Arsene Wenger had come in for a meal. The owner said, “I asked him, have you ever thought of playing Suker and Kanu up front, with Bergkamp just behind? He said No. And he never came back.” We were not surprised to hear that Arsene never went back there.
I don’t think The Professor and Arsènal : The Making of a Super-Club are in competition with each other. Because the latter is much more about the business side, which is very interesting. And important.
Whereas The Professor is mostly about 12 years of footballers playing for Arsenal, and what Arsene Wenger has done with his players as each season has unfolded, year after year up till May 2008, and pages 35 to 343 cover the years 1996 to 2004, the golden seasons of Wenger’s tenure.
Those 300 pages include a lot of original insights, mountains of game-to-game detail, and tons of stuff from the manager about his players, his opponents, and many key quotes from Bergkamp, Vieira, Adams, Henry, Ljungberg, Hleb and many others. A big emphasis is placed on turning points in each season. Also, many pages are devoted to the big games, especially those against Manchester United. It’s chronological and opinionated, and it was updated mainly for ANR readers, who will know what to expect.
That’s it, really. I’m glad Alex and Kevin’s new book is doing very well. Because I know that writing books is not easy. And I believe that only an author knows what another author goes through.
If you haven’t read either of these books, Amazon offer a cheap deal on the pair.