COHESIVE ACTION
They say all political careers end in failure. Alastair Campbell won’t give away what happens to Charlie Gordon, the hard-drinking Scottish football manager in his new novel about football, Saturday Bloody Saturday.
But he is hard pressed to come up with many managers who buck the politicians’ trend for their reigns ending in anything other than disappointment.
“Fergie obviously,” he says. Campbell interviewed Sir Alex Ferguson for another book he authored, called Winners: And How They Succeed.
Gordon Strachan was permitted to leave at the end of his contract as Scotland manager and the perception is he failed. “There are not many who leave otherwise,” says Campbell.
The 60-year-old is now forging a new life as writer, strategist and celebrity since stepping down as Tony Blair’s spokesman (he believes Blair left the prime minister post in triumph, cheered as he was outofthehouseofcommons).
Saturday Bloody Saturday is the fourth book Campbell has written, but the first he has co-authored. Football insight, at least of the type required from within the dressingroom walls, has been provided by Paul Fletcher, who played more than 200 times for Burnley and later became chief executive at Turf Moor.
But as a high-profile fan of Burnley, Campbell is eloquent on football as well as politics.
“I am a frustrated football manager basically,” he says. “The manager [in the book] is Scottish. He started at Rangers then Preston North End, Wolves, Arsenal and then he came to Hearts, where his career ended [he breaks his leg in a match against Celtic].
“In my head he is a combination of Jock Stein but with Brian Clough’s face, when drink is really getting to him.”
Campbell is a Scotland fan although he was brought up in England. He attended the World Cup qualifier against
“Any organisation will not succeed in the long term unless there is a long-term strategy and everyone is signed up for it” “Look at the rugby this weekend, and the buzz Scotland got from the rugby team doing well. The Scottish Rugby Union has been pretty strategic I’d say”
ALASTAIR CAMPBELL