Soccer fans who may be contemplating this afternoon's low-key World Cup qualifier against Romania with a touch of wistfulness would be well advised to escape into these pages, where the heady days of Euro '88, Italia '90 and USA '94 are relived in tones so blunt that, if you look up for a second, you almost expect to see The Boss sitting opposite you, telling the tale in his no-nonsense north-of-England way. Fans of an older vintage will adore the opening chapters devoted to the development of the Leeds United line-up of the early Seventies: Gary Sprake, Norman ("bites your legs") Hunter, Peter Lorimer, Johnny Giles and (oh bliss, oh joy) Allan Clarke. An abundance of detail, whether about rows in the Charlton household, where mother Cissie was herself a creditable footballer, or about Nobby Stiles's primitive contact lenses - "great big ones the shape of an eyeball, which needed a stick with a suction pad on the end to pull them out again" - makes this an irresistible read from the kickoff right to the final whistle.
