The Mavericks.
Written by Rob Steen
Pulished by Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd, 7 Albany Syreet, Edinburgh, EH1 3 HG, in 1994. 1997 reprint read.
This was another charity shop find. I had seen the book on a few shelves over recent years but always left it thinking it was too long ago to be of interest. Was I wrong. This is a fascinating book about a group of players whose skills were brilliant but their own persoalities meant that they didn’t fit in with the National team hierarchy of the time, which restricted their involvement and Englands potential in my view.
The book tells the stories of Stan Bowles, Tony
Currie, Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Rodney Marsh, Peter Osgood
and Frank Worthington.
I must apologise to Charlie George, who I always thought was arrogant, but reading this, he was far from that, sorry! I saw most of these players following Watford and Luton, and what they did was to make space and time for themselves and then ghost past defences or spray passes all over the park. You didn’t have crab like football passing with any of these.
They were all non conformist individuals. One example of this was one evening game under lights at Watford where Rodney Marsh went off the pitch for an injury, sat down leaning against advertising hoardings, chatted to some fans, got up, returned to the pitch and ensured that QPR won. I was disappointed for Watford losing, but what a memory it has given me.
The book is written, so it is entertaining and informative about not only the players but also the culture of the time in which they played, which is far apart from today.
After I read the book, I could not understand why I hadn’t read it earlier. I try not to keep looking back, sawing sawdust, but the nostalgia in this book made me smile and realise how lucky I was to live through it.
Worth a read.
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