Overcoat Men , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Mark Hodkinson

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133 pages

English

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The story of two men who almost single-handedly saved their football club from extinction. In the early 80s David Kilpatrick and Graham Morris spied architects' plans to turn Spotland, the home of their beloved, beleaguered Rochdale AFC, into a housing estate. They set about saving the club but first had to take on the alleged 'enemy within'. They worked tirelessly, persuading companies to write off debts while securing loans and donations, a tricky proposition when your club is bottom of the Football League. Meanwhile, the town of Rochdale was on its knees, the last of the cotton mills closing down. The limit of most fans' investment in their club is routinely the price of a season ticket. Directors often risk their houses and businesses, sometimes forfeiting marriages, families and their health in the name of their club. People such as Kilpatrick and Morris - moderately wealthy local businessmen - who serve on football club boards are the unseen, unsung heroes of football, even in the modern age.

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Lancashire

Lancastre

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	12 août 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785315923
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Hodkinson has a light touch and a modest, self-effacing style. He is a fine writer. - The Daily Telegraph
His writing is free of clich and acutely on the money. - Q
His prose is never less than first-rate. - The Independent on Sunday
He writes with economy and elegance, self-deprecating but never self-pitying. - The Times
Hodkinson can weave poetry out of the mundane. - Daily Mail
If, like me, you have a habit of lending your new favourite book on the pretext of getting it back, you may think twice about letting Hodkinson s beauty out of your sight. - The Quietus
A deft writer, poignant and funny at different times. - The Guardian
He has an evocative turn of phrase with an impressive economy of language and the writing flows effortlessly. - The Observer
Hodkinson writes quite beautifully, which means that those of us with lesser gifts are given a glimpse into his soul. It is a richly rewarding place to be. - The Times

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Mark Hodkinson, 2019
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-525-1
eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-592-3
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Ebook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Dramatis Personae
1. Welcome to Rochdale
2. Under a blanket, driven into the dark
3. Catching the Rain
4. The Secret Six
5. The Spring King
6. An Act Worthy of Lazarus
7. A Tall, Lean Figure in a Trilby Hat
8. A Dangerous Precedent
9. A Hypothetical Scenario
10. The Local Ruling Class
11. Oh, Graham - What Have You Let Yourself in For?
12. A Hammer and a Bag of Nails
13. Team Ethic, Structure and Discipline
14. Sleepless Nights
15. A Most Inexplicable Affair
16. Extra time and Penalties
Bibliography
Also by the author
The Last Mad Surge of Youth (Pomona)
That Summer Feeling (Pomona)
Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men with Manchester City (Penguin/Random House)
Life at the Top (Queen Anne Press)
For George and Alec
I ve reached the stage where I don t like footballers. They re on 20- 30,000 a week [in 2007] and they re not earning it; it makes you resentful.
David Sullivan, Birmingham City owner.
If someone is a shit or a bastard, they deserve everything that comes their way. And they probably wouldn t care less. But if you are genuinely doing your best, making decisions for the right reasons and putting money in that you know you will never get back, then the unfair criticism does become hard to take.
Jason McGill, chairman, York City.
Football attracts a certain percentage of nobodies who want to be somebodies at a football club.
Brian Clough.
At a football club, there s a holy trinity - the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.
Bill Shankly.
First and foremost, the owners are the most important part of a club [Lewes is a community-owned club]. Then, the fans. The players are last because there is no loyalty in football, even at this level.
Stuart Fuller, chairman, Lewes.
The only way to make a small fortune from owning a football club is to start with a large one.
John Madejski, chairman, Reading.
We are reliant on owners, and football needs to look at how it treats the owners at some of its clubs. Fans not happy about the investment that is going into their club? Trust me, without them [the owners], they wouldn t have a club.
Shaun Harvey, ex-Football League chief executive.
We are enjoying it greatly. It s a wonderful franchise and we just love it.
Malcolm Glazer, owner, Manchester United.
Owning a football club is like drinking prune juice while eating figs. However much extra money came in, it would sift away, to players, transfers and agents.
Alan Sugar, ex-chairman, Tottenham Hotspur.
Chairmen seem to get themselves into a hole at times. They keep digging and all of a sudden the only way out is to sack the manager. There is a massive weakness in a lot of boardrooms.
Jim McInally, manager, Peterhead.
For too long, football clubs have not followed the basic principles of running any successful business.
Mark Rubin, ex-chairman, Southend United.
I ve been a football fan and a gambler since the age of about seven or eight. My interest in both developed at the same time.
Tony Bloom, chairman, Brighton and Hove Albion.
Directors should really stick to what they do best, whatever that is, and keep their noses out of the playing side of the game.
Bob Stokoe, manager.
Even if I built a 50,000-seat stadium and bought Ronaldinho there d still be complaints about crap hot dogs.
Simon Jordan, former owner of Crystal Palace.
Mr Chairman, when I want your advice I ll give it to you.
Tommy Docherty, manager.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following for their help and support in writing this book: John Abraham, Les Barlow, Sue Berry, Mark Binner, Allen Brett, Christian Brett, Mark Brierley, Rod Brierley, Trevor Butterworth, Jane Camillin, Paul Camillin, Gary Canning, Austin Collings, Tim Davies, John Dennis, George Dodds, Chris Dunphy, Lisa Edgar, Terry Eves, Fred Eyre, John Faulks, Graham Hales, Dean Rockett, David Hammond, Derek Hammond, Andrew Hindle, Charlie Hindle, Steve Harrison, James Heward, Dale Hibbert, Mark Hilditch, Judith Hilton, Jean Hodkinson, Roy Hodkinson, Trevor Hoyle, Garfield Hunter, Chris Jones, Karen Kerr, David Kilpatrick, Michael Kilpatrick, George Lee, David Luxton, Richard Lysons, Jim McCalliog, Jane McCarthy, John McDonough, Ian McMahon, David Madden, Peter Madden, Julie Matthews, Rob Meaden, Beryl Morris, Christian Morris, Graham Morris, Bill Norris, Duncan Olner, Richard Partington, Guy Patrick, Dave Picken, Godfrey Pickles, Kevin Pocklington, Dan Plumley, Geoff Read, Eric Snookes, Jim Stringer, Nige Tassell, Julie Thomas, Helen Thompson, Joe Thompson, Alex Wade, James Wallace, Chris While, Mark Wilbraham, Graham Williams, Richard Whitehead, Rob Wilson, Emily Wood, David Wrigley, Dan Youngs. And, most especially, Kellie While.
Prologue
Among its many qualities, football allows players and spectators to be resolutely in the moment . As a fan, once you re ensnared by the game in front of you, lost to it, there is no today, yesterday or tomorrow, especially when you are partisan and willing on your team, heart and soul. The noise of the crowd is all around you and you ll hear snippets of conversation, but you are elsewhere, a place where self-awareness, memory and protocol have been chased away.
All fans criticise or commend certain players or managers but they have an implicit trust in their team and everyone connected to the club; it seems part of the deal. In fact, there is a perverse pleasure in accepting that a football match and, indeed, a football club is an arbitrary concept and out of our control, much the same as the weather. A football ground, after all, is where we can stop the habitual thinking and fretting of normal life. It is leisure time. We let go of our scepticism.
Sadly, I m not sure this is true anymore, if it ever really was. Such a view seems old-fashioned and naive in a world where we scrutinise the motives and deeds of everyone in positions of authority or influence - doctors, teachers, politicians. When football clubs regularly fall foul of incompetent, negligent, profligate or downright corrupt owners, it is an absolution we can no longer confer. We need to be on our guard. We have to keep a look-out on who is passing through the reception area of our clubs and making themselves at home. Who are they? Why are they there? Where do they come from? What do they want?
My club, Rochdale, has had a long period of boardroom stability. It is an heirloom that has been handled with care and consideration for nearly 40 years, tended on a near-familial basis. It wasn t always this way. Back in the late-1970s and early-1980s the club teetered on the brink of folding and there was volatility in the boardroom, even suspicions of wrongdoing. I was a boy at the time, new to my club, but heady in love with it. I remember the carousel of faces in the local press, men in ties and jackets - directors, chairmen, vice-chairmen, life-presidents - and while I didn t understand what they did, I knew my club was in grave trouble. Many of us who are lengthy, one-club, do-or-die fans will most likely face this dreadful situation at some point in the lifespan of our support. Our clubs will be disrespected, mistreated or, at worst, pillaged from within; this is happening right now at several English clubs. Afterwards, we will still hold high the badge, the idea of the club, but the infrastructure may be devastated; several clubs have been forced to start all over again.
Rochdale AFC is a small kingdom but around it and within is the same type of person found at most clubs outside the higher echelons of football. Across more than 50 interviews, I have looked in forensic detail at Rochdale s period of great instability. I wanted to trace its origins, to understand the historical and social basis of what happened, and how it mirrored the turmoil of the town and its people. I also wanted to profile in detail the men who gravitate to the inner sanctum of football clubs, their backgrounds, their motivation, how they think, what they want to achi