Football and how to survive it, by Pat Nevin, published by Monoray, Price: £22
THIS is Pat Nevin’s second memoir, a follow up to his successful ‘The Accidental Footballer’.
It covers the period with his less glamorous clubs -Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell – and reflects on a time of what he calls, ‘extreme madness, higher levels of fun and deeper levels of pain…’.
Few others have seen football from as many angles as Nevin. He was a top player, international, PFA chairman, a chief executive, served on boards, a columnist and TV and radio pundit.
Nevin’s memoir is unlike many footballers’, which concentrate on the high life, the successes and dramas of being a professional footballer. He is far more insightful about the football industry and has much more to say than the average player. He is not afraid to discuss the difficult times, such as the death from cancer of his mother, the premature death of his friend Tommy Coyne’s wife and his own son’s autism.
Nevin enjoyed an eventful but enjoyable time at Tranmere under the stewardship of idiosyncratic manager Johnny King. Rovers played attractive, attacking football and went close to promotion to the Premier League on several occasions, but they couldn’t quite make the step up to round off his time at Prenton Park.
When Nevin returned to Scotland he joined Kilmarnock under manager Bobby Williamson. Everything went well until he suffered a compressed fracture of the cheekbone in training. Kilmarnock achieved a fourth-place finish in the SPL and qualified for Europe, but the directors didn’t honour their commitment to give the players bonuses and Nevin was rightly upset.
He was offered the opportunity to take over as CEO at Motherwell while continuing playing. It was the first such role in British football at the time. It was inevitably very demanding, especially as he had a long commute from his family.
Despite owner John Boyle’s initial enthusiasm, financial problems began to mount and the club was soon £4.4m in debt. The off-thefield problems, player conflicts and media attacks are recounted as well as Nevin’s earnestness and remarkable honesty.
For example, during a game against St Johnstone, Nevin tripped over his own foot in the box and the referee awarded a penalty. But Nevin told the referee it wasn’t a penalty and it wasn’t awarded, much to the shock of the players around him.
Motherwell finished fourth in the SPL as they beat Rangers 2-0 in Nevin’s last ever game, but he was asked to break up the team in the close season to alleviate the financial problems.
He also had the difficult task of sacking manager Billy Davies when, inevitably, the following season’s results weren’t good enough. The ownership had broken all their promises to Nevin, and they put the club into administration despite all his best efforts to find another solution.
He left with his head held high and with his love of the game still intact. He quotes American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who famously said, ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference’.
Nevin has managed to provide a deep insight into the workings of professional football in Britain. It is a remarkable story and thoroughly recommended if you want to know how football really operates.
Rating out of 10: 8
