A nostalgic look at how the beautiful game has changed
Got Not Got, by Derek Hammond & Gary Silke. Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £8.08, saving £4.91 on rrp
A❝ A book from which football fans of every age can extract something to amuse
Can I have my ball back, Mister? I want to stand, not sit, Nor advertise some oligarch On a redesigned replica kit.
S football’s European Championships career towards their finale, how refreshing to learn that a football book first published almost a decade ago, which offers up a lament for an earlier age, is being reissued. Every football fan should order a copy.
Got, Not Got, written by Derek Hammond and Gary Silke, may, at first glance, appear to be targeted at an audience of 7-14 year-old boys similar to the lads depicted on the cover in blackand-white running onto the pitch and leaping for joy following a goal.
But the book’s engaging mix of memorable cover images are cleverly designed to reignite memories of a time when we were in love with a brand of football which, ironically, had no idea what branding or merchandising was.
The book’s title comes from the words used when checking your mate’s collection of the latest football cards at break during your schooldays and the layout may give the impression of being the fruit of a glorious cut-andpaste exercise, but scratch the surface and you will discover much more.
It is, in fact, brilliantly written; an opportunity to reminisce about a time when you hankered after a Garden Goal (“Every Boy’s Dream!”), collected programmes printed in one colour and when players would sign autographs after the match with
out the ominous presence of a minder or ten.
As a clue to what lies ahead, Got, Not Got opens with a mournful poem, written by Aston Villa poet Dermot Carney:
There are five more stanzas which, while they may not satisfy literary purists, alert readers to the fact that interspersed with memories of toilet rolls being thrown onto the pitch when a goal was scored, or when FA Cup final day was a rare opportunity to watch a live game on TV, there is a deeper message.
Football’s relentless commercialisation comes, naturally enough, at a cost. It has brought us everything from the Staliniststyle obliteration of the game’s pre-1992 history to the modern player, kissing the badge, logo and sponsor’s name after scoring. This is an absolute gem of a book from which football fans of every age may extract something to amuse, recall, regret or simply enjoy.