Davies’s love of the game shines through the pages, and this devotion to the sport always seems to triumph over his frustrations with the immovable objects which he felt prevented him from doing his job. He’s like the fan who gets to spend time with his sporting heroes, but that may be why he was so good at his job. He was the fans’ voice within the FA, and that was partly what many of his colleagues came to resent.
He speaks highly of Terry Venables and clearly tried to persuade the FA to keep him on after Euro 96. Sadly he was not successful. How things might have been different for the national team if he had won the day. His portrait of Sven Goran Ericksson is one of the delights of the book, littered with some hilarious anecdotes.
If you’re interested in sport administration you will enjoy this book. It’s one of the best football books I have read, and I read a lot of them. I interviewed David Davies on 18 Doughty Street 18 months ago and asked him whether he would be putting pen to paper. He said he hadn’t decided and seemed rather reluctant to. I urged him to do so and and delighted he did. I’m sure he has few regrets.
Buy it HERE.
UPDATE: See my 30 minute interview with David Davies recorded in 2007 HERE.
On the same lines Iain,,,I have FA coaching badges 1 and 2,and to be honest I can think of better ways to train individuals the drills etc are dated in my opinion even this area needs change.
Gives a great insight into the sort of structure and thinking going into the push (spearheaded by Sheff Utd) to discredit the Premier League (embodied by West Ham) who aren’t much better.
This comment of course is a personal opinion and in no way represents the view of the management
I have believed for years that ‘F.A.’ stands for “F**k All”. Sir Trev’s recent (and past) comments underline that.
Thanks for the tip!
Allready in the mail.