Dons Autobiographies/Biographies and General Dons books

[swaddon2]

Aberdeen's Golden Era by Kevin Stirling

Superb reading and still manages to throw in little pieces of info that I had never heard before.

I have just finished said book. I never knew that Zbigniew Boniek was poised to join the Dons in the 1980s, or that Fergie was interviewed for the Barcelona job upon the recommendation of Terry Venables. (Spoiler: he didn't get the job).

Although that period is well covered by many books over the years, this one is a fine addition to the Dons bibliography, and I recommend it.

[TheDeeDon]

Jocky's Journey

A book about Jocky Scott. Never realised he was an Aberdeen loon, albeit fae Kincorth, but won't hold that against him.

No real revelations in it. Had forgotten all about the Calum Melville boy at Dundee. They really have had some right dodgy owners over the years.

Back to the charity shop it goes.

[TheDeeDon]

Standing Free: The Life and Times of Theo Ten Caat

He liked arguing with people at fitba clubs and appears to leave every club he played for under a bit of a cloud.

Willie Miller wasn't a fan of his, although I can't remember the cup semi against Celtic, where he had the warm up for the whole game as a punishment.

He is apparently a respected football coach and painter nowadays, as in proper artist and nae doing homers, whilst working for the Council.

I remember a decent player, but wasn't really suited to Scottish fitba. Says Aberdeen is the best club he has played for and are still his team.

Like most of these types of books, it was fairly forgettable.

[OneBrianIrvine]

Don adjacent? Ish.



In many ways not your usual football book - I mean the prologue is him “bending over and showing his asshole”.

Unfortunately not the most unsavoury tale in here, some of it is pretty bleak in comparison to its gaudy cover.

Tales of a goalie for hire travelling the world could have been an even more interesting book; the guy has had an extraordinary life, but rather than concentrating on the uniqueness of his wanderlust experience there’s still a lot given over to bog standard footballers’ arseholery. At the end of the day it IS still a footballer’s memoir and they really are stunted ****agers with the guy initially sounding a nightmare. To be fair by the end he also seems more thoughtful and deeper than the average ba player but still a ‘character”.

I’d assumed the penguin thing was part of a prank with friends during a day out. Not a get up in the middle of the night alone solely with the intention of raiding a local reserve.

Being falsely imprisoned and stealing a penguin are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s the usual litany of tedious pranks (deep heat in players underwear etc) but also numerous bizarre situations that just underlines what arseholes some footballers are. There’s a nasty scene of him stumbling into a 15 strong group masturbating over a young lassie.

To be fair Lutz (at least in his telling) is on the periphery and not directly involved in the most unsavoury incidents and he sounds more ‘colourful’ than horrible but the most disturbing was helping negotiate the pay off of a Malaysian prostitute accusing the England u20s team of gang rape (WTF?)

He also gets himself into some ridiculous situations by dint of stubbornness/machismo. He sounds a real loose cannon. Again to be fair this seems to calm down as the book progresses and it’s a better read for it. His experiences in unusual football cultures are interesting as his him not being the stereotypical pampered footballer but having to go find himself work. By the end he comes across as quite a thoughtful guy. The book concludes in 2014 so he’s had more than a decade to hopefully mature further.

I’m maybe doing him (and the book) a disservice as I’m generally revolted by young men’s behaviour and cognisant that I’m reading this with prejudice as someone already concerned by his appointment (that he’s only here for his contacts to add to the ever revolving door of projects)

I’m also not a frequent reader of sporting biographies but as a neutral I’d probably have found this one interesting enough and better than your average football biog. If they are your thing you’ll enjoy this one, it rollocks along and I read it in around an hour and a half.