Niall Quinn, the autobiography
If talking was football, Niall Quinn would make a World XI. Fiercely articulate and patently honest, he is one of football's good guys, though he endeavours to set the record straight in his new autobiography.
He is no Mr Nice Guy, no Saint Niall, no Mother Teresa as Roy Keane once memorably called him, but a man with faults like the rest of us.
That's what he would have us believe. Drinking and gambling his girlfriend's life savings is as bad as it gets, yet he succeeds only in convincing us that he is a repentant, loveable rogue.
Quinn's book is a brilliant meditation on life and football and a class above Roy Keane's spite-filled missive. Added to Tony Cascarino's Full Time and Eamon Dunphy's Only A Game, the travails of Irish footballers is turning into a very interesting literary sub-genre.
Through all the ups and downs, the injuries and the loss of form, the highs and the lows, Quinn never loses sight of the privilege of being a professional footballer. The events of Saipan are gone into in exhaustive detail.
Quinn is still haunted by the Keane fiasco. He details the drinking sessions, the chaotic preparations, and the general air of disorganisation, which Keane railed against to such powerful effect.
He reaches different conclusions than Keane pointing out how he observed Scotland's exemplary preparations for the 1990 World Cup in comparison with the haphazard way Ireland went about theirs. Yet, Ireland reached the World Cup quarter-final; Scotland were eliminated in the first round.
His central emotion over the events of the World Cup is pride in Ireland's performance tempered by serious regrets at Keane's absence. He is unmercifully hard on himself and admits he bottled it by not taking a penalty against Spain in Suwon.
His candour only serves to remind us that, in a game populated by spivs and chancers, he is one of the more decent characters. He is also a nice guy, despite what he would have us believe to the contrary.
The review is taken from Rí-Rá, (http:www.ri-ra.co.uk) an Irish monthly magazine published in London,
Probably worth a buy. IMO a good Review.
