Tony Book was rescued from the Southern League, where he was playing for Bath City, by Malcolm Allison. He would start a Football League career that led to Wembley Cup finals. Older men have played at Wembley, notably Danny Blanchflower, Leslie Compton, Joe Mercer and Sir Stanley Matthews, but it would be hard to find anybody who arrived so late on the edge of a Football League career as Book.He went on to captain, and then manage
Manchester City as well as being voted the Football Writers Association Player of the Year in 1969. We walk down memory lane with the great man.
Q: I remember you once telling me that you were so happy to get a a wage rise at Bath City, up to £6 a week, that you celebrated by getting married. True?A. To be truthful I have never really looked at the financial side of the game; but in my playing days I just looked at my heroes: people like Nat Lofthouse and Stanley Matthews.
Q: It is 40 years since Manchester City last celebrated an FA Cup final win when Neil Young's goal beat Leicester City in the 1969 victory at Wembley; but there have been plenty of high spots along the way for you?A. It was a marvellous honour being voted Footballer of the Year jointly with the great Dave Mackay in 1969, but perhaps the most memorable game I played in was when we won the old First Division championship at the end of the 1967-68 season, beating
Newcastle United at St James's Park and pushing
Manchester United and
Liverpool into the second and third places.
Q: You won twice at Wembley as a player, but I get a feeling that as a manager there was a hint that giving the sell out crowd an entertaining game worthy of the setting, was more important to you than winning?A. We won the League Cup by beating
West Bromiwch Albion in l970 and again in l976 by beating Newcastle United, but in 1972 we lost to
Wolves. But in all my big games, whether as a player or a manager, my philosophy was ‘Wembley is a show piece game’. Whether it's the League Cup or FA Cup final, I regard it as criminal for any team to go there and spoil a great occasion for the fans. Wembley matches have been ruined by rigid tactics, when teams adopt negative tactics to just cancel each other out. Then the final summing up of the entertainment value will generally be that the supporters have had a wasted afternoon.
Q: I believe you have spent the last few years scouting for various clubs. Who are the players you admire especially now?A. My first thought is
Ryan Giggs of Manchester United, who reminds me so much, in what he produces on the field, of my old City teammate Colin Bell. I don't think any club has ever had such a great trio of positive players as we had at City all those years ago with Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee. Currently in the Premiership I have great admiration for Liverpool's
Fernando Torres and
Steven Gerrard.
Q: And finally: Are you happy about the influx of foreigners into our game?A. I'm very happy about the addition of great players to our League football. Zola, Bergkamp, Ardiles, the list goes on. Men like these taught the English players so much. Just watching them play made you feel good about the game of football and playing against them must have been a great learning process for our boys.Powered by: GiveMeFootball.com,
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