How to Watch Football

Hmmm. Ruud Gullit. Fantastic player. Average manager. As an author, he's more in the latter camp, I'm afraid. I bought this book on the strength of a Guardian Football Weekly podcast interview with Gullit and the fact that it seemed to have lots of squiggles in it. Love a few squiggles, me.

The book begins with a background of Gullit's playing days. This was fine and I probably would have preferred a stock standard autobiography, actually. It loses its way when he starts going on about how he wants a team to play and why the Dutch national team has had so much trouble of late (true enough but grudge-filled as well, I reckon). This analysis style leans heavily into the "If I were still a manager, here's how I'd do it" category and pretty much does away with any objectivity. Sure, they're opinions but reading them with the knowledge of his pretty abject managerial career sheds a more critical light on things. The back page of the book has two lists of trophies/awards won - 26 as a player, 1 as a manager.

There's no denying some of his ideas make a lot of sense and the stories about Cruyff, Sacchi, etc are great to read but I found this book to be more self-serving than insightful or intriguing. AND I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO WATCH FOOTBALL!