Those Feet

View other editions of Those Feet.
View books by David Winner.

Good book - don't let the title put you off - Rated
A book called "Those Feet" and subtitle "An intimate history of English football" - what the heck is that about??? I'd certainly glanced at the cover on the shelves of football books and not even bothered to open it - how many of you have done the same, I wonder? So I got it as a Christmas present (thank you, Corinne) and what a revelation: it wasn't a book about sporting foot fetishism or the design of football boots. Instead, it is a character study of the spirit of English football and (to some extent) the English psyche as it goes into the 21st Century, laden with the baggage of the 19th and 20th Centuries ("Two World Wars and One World Cup, doo-dah, doo-dah").

The author gives the clearest explanation of the book in the Introduction: "I'm working on a sort of sequel to `Brilliant Orange'. That was about why the Dutch play beautiful football and lose all the time. But the English have a completely different problem: we play ugly football and lose all the time." I am writing this just after Steve McLaren's England have drawn with Israel and struggled to beat Andorra so it sounds pretty damn relevant to me.

The book's ten chapters are ten loosely linked but fairly freestanding essays on different aspects of the game. If, like me, you start reading at page one you might struggle a bit as the first two chapters (`Sexy Football' which is about the Victorian view that football was a healthy alternative to masturbation - and isn't half as interesting as it sounds - and `Roys, Keens and Rovers' about footballing heroes) are two of the weakest of the whole bunch so if you find yourself struggling don't worry about skipping ahead - you won't miss anything.

The middle sections of the book are superb. `In Ancient Times' deals with the historical baggage of English football. `The Phantom Limb' extends this on to thinking about the English attitude to their place in the world since the break-up of the Empire (which sounds a bit dull but isn't). `It's Cold and We're Rubbish' deals with the strong masochistic streak in the character of many football fans - reading it reminded me of the bit in "Father Ted" when the housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, is offered a new tea-maker `to take the misery out of tea-making'. She replies, "Maybe I LIKE the misery!" That's certainly my attitude (I speak as a forest fan ..) The next chapter `Cooling the Blood' is about the influence of English pitches on the way that the game has been played in this country.

I could go on but you're probably getting the picture. Ignore the strange title (it's from the hymn "Jerusalem" in case you're wondering) and the subtitle. Ignore the first two chapters. Open this book at page 74 and enjoy the remaining 200 pages, which are worth the price on their own. This is one of the most thoughtful, original and provocative pieces I have read on English football and (to an extent) what it is to be English

Not your average footballing history... - Rated
First things first, if you want a book that tells you the story of English football in terms of who won what and when, then do not buy this book. It's not for you, it aint that sort of book. Instead it offers a more thoughtfull analysis of why the English play the game in the manner in which they do - why the archetpal English player - Pearce, Butcher, even Rooney - is seen as a solider rather than an artisan.

Winner is very good at highlighting why the English game put such an emphasis on passion, strength, courage and so on. He also traces the history of the xenophobia that still runs through the football world today - the idea that 'the continentals' are divers, cheats, who may be skilled but can't win when football becomes a battle, a war. He gives a convincing argument of why successive English managers have prefered 'physical' players over more skilled flair players such aS Osgood, Greaves, Hoddle, Le Tissier and so on.

Where this book really excels though is the way in which it exposes the English national mindset and the way in which England's post-war history, along with the loss of Empire and suppossed economic decline, has attached itself to the way in which we view football. He critiques (rightly in my view) the nostalgia that dominates football and English life, the idea that football and the nation has gone to the dogs, that we are far away from the 'Glory Days'.

The book is not perfect - a few times Winner leaves you unconvinced, especially in the chapter about Roy Keane, and some of the people he quotes seem to come from the very margains of academia, such as Cameron Kippen, "historian of footwear and eroticism and lecturer at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia". That said, Those Feet should be required reading for all football fans prior to the Word Cup!