David O'Leary

The astonishing thing is that this book was ever published: although it contains a fair amount of information relating to the trial of several Leeds United footballers as they had embroiled themselves in an alleged assault on someone in Leeds city centre. O’Leary presents his side of that story pretty well I would say and he offers some sagely advice to other football managers on how to deal with such events.

As for the rest of the book, it’s virtually a blow by blow account of a whole string of football matches! I am not a Leeds United fan but I did like to watch O’Leary as he worked his way up from never having managed anything to taking over at the helm at Leeds and doing rather well. Nevertheless, what I read just was not interesting for an outsider.

Quite why this book is supposed to have hastened O’Leary’s departure from Leeds is also beyond me as what he has to say about his club, his players and the world in general are neither that startling nor that revelatory.

Fortunately, the book is only 177 pages long and the type is quite big so it didn’t occupy a massive part of my life. I imagine many people will not persevere with what O’Leary has to offer and I don’t recommend anyone to buy it.

 

Duncan Williamson
22 May2003