With media directors rendering professional football ever more impenetrable, and press conferences subject to rigorous stage-management and censorship, it’s now extremely difficult to deliver an objective assessment of those who run our national sport.
It’s probably safe to say, then, there will never be another book written like Fingerprints of a Football Rascal. Until he went into semi-retirement just after the Millennium, sports journalist Bryan Cooney enjoyed almost unfettered access to some of the biggest names.
He walked in and out of the lives, often without invitation, of such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Alex Ferguson, Maradona, Fabio Capello, Sir David Murray, Harry Redknapp and Bobby Robson. There were unlikely scenarios, which were in turn incendiary, uproarious, frightening and deeply poignant.
Add these ingredients to his own perilous journey through the corridors of journalism and alcoholism and you have a recipe for a riveting narrative.
Cooney, former Chief Sports Writer of the Daily Star before becoming Head of Sport at the Daily Mail, delivers a raw and rather remarkable insight not only into a sport that grips the nation but also into national newspapers.
It’s probably safe to say, then, there will never be another book written like Fingerprints of a Football Rascal. Until he went into semi-retirement just after the Millennium, sports journalist Bryan Cooney enjoyed almost unfettered access to some of the biggest names.
He walked in and out of the lives, often without invitation, of such as Sir Alf Ramsey, Alex Ferguson, Maradona, Fabio Capello, Sir David Murray, Harry Redknapp and Bobby Robson. There were unlikely scenarios, which were in turn incendiary, uproarious, frightening and deeply poignant.
Add these ingredients to his own perilous journey through the corridors of journalism and alcoholism and you have a recipe for a riveting narrative.
Cooney, former Chief Sports Writer of the Daily Star before becoming Head of Sport at the Daily Mail, delivers a raw and rather remarkable insight not only into a sport that grips the nation but also into national newspapers.
