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"Us vs Them" is a new book by Arsenal supporter Giles Goodhead,
in which he tells of his trips to 8 of the football world's
biggest derby matches.
Penguin have kindly provided Arseweb with 5 copies to give our
readers. If you want a chance of a free copy of this highly
entertaining book, just read the following review and then use the
link at the end to email us with your answer to the easy question.
"Us vs Them" is a cross between a travel book and a football book,
which is made no less entertaining by the fact that, in both
respects, Goodhead sometimes comes over as a bit of an tourist.
He tellingly admits to having previously been a West Brom fan, and
obviously doesn't get to a lot of Arsenal games these days. But in
his defence, he has lived in the US for a while. His background is
nicely summed up by the sentence, "Sadly I was required to go to school
on Saturdays for extra Latin, fencing and elocution", but to his credit
he came out of it loving football rather than rugger. Despite everything,
you can't help hoping that he fails when he naively tries to get himself
beaten up in Glasgow or mugged in Istanbul.
In places the research is strangely absent. Like the space he devotes to wondering
about the meaning of a particular Spanish insult, appearing to conclude that
it has no English counterpart despite the fact that it's the work of moments to
look it up in an English-Spanish dictionary, or to get a Spaniard to explain it
to you (shouldn't have been so hard, in Barcelona). But Goodhead makes up for it
with the sheer quantity of painstaking detail as he reels off facts and stories
about the places he visits and clubs he watches, sprinkled with stories from
hsi own life and football-playing exploits.
Goodhead takes us to the Old Firm derby in Glasgow, Milan vs Inter in Milan, America vs
Guadalajara in Mexico City, Fenerbahce vs Galatasaray in Istanbul, Boca Juniors vs
River Plate in Buenos Aires, and Slavia vs Sparta in Prague. He doesn't actually make
it to the last of these but the account of the minor league game he does get to makes
for a nice change of emphasis.
These 6 matches are topped-and-tailed by Figo's first trip back to Barcelona with
Real Madrid, and our own Sol Campbell's first trip back to Tottenham with Arsenal
(see report). When it comes
to bile, it sounds like the Tottenham fans come a poor second to the Nou Camp
faithful (for which I guess we should congratulate them). Goodhead runs the
gauntlet somewhat for the North London derby, since his ticket is provided by a
Spurs-supporting friend.
At the end of the day, it's an easy but entertaining and interesting read, and
it's a bit different to all the other football books you'll come across. And it's
not just for Arsenal fans. Actually, to be frank, fans of clubs not actually
covered might find it the least aggravating. That's not to say anyone should
avoid it: it's a great read. You might just want to take the chapter about your
own club with a pinch of salt.
If you'd like to go into the hat for the prize draw, just email Arseweb using
this link,
including your name, address (anywhere in the world, of course), and the
answers to the following 2 questions:
- Name all the goalscorers in the Arsenal game Goodhead goes to
- Which Tottenham player failed to get away with handling the ball into the
Arsenal net?
(hint: answers can be found by following the links in the review above).
The competition will remain open until after Arsenal's next Premiership match at the weekend. If you can't wait to find out if you've won, you can order it from
our Bookshop
Rupe adds...
While we're on the subject of derbies... there's an updated
St Totteringham's Day calculator on the spreadsheets page. You'll see that if Arsenal win our next match and Tottenham fail to win, they will already be mathematically unable to catch us.
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