David Conn book - Richer Than God: Manchester City.....

I finished this the other day. It's by no means a hatchet job but it is either lazy or wilfully negligent in places.

David Conn seems a decent enough bloke but he is far too idealistic in some of his assesments. For example claiming kinship for the FCUM founders to the suffragette movement (and, I think, the Todpuddle martyrs too, if I remember rightly) does him no favours. That he can so unthinkingly laud and lionise one group of football club owners (all supporter owned clubs are just super and always behave awfully decently, apparently) whilst tarring another (private investors in football) as consistently on the look-out for a fast buck and nothing more (although he does speak well of City's current owners) is a bit too adolescent for my taste. Surely, a trained solicitor such as David Conn is capable of much more rounded argument?

He plays the old journalistic trick of a la carte referencing too. For example, City in the Community gets one fleeting reference early on; yet when he needs to reference football working in the community, later in the book, he cites the example of Reading FC's community work - a strange choice of club, given the book's core subject. You can get arguably away with such a-la carte-ism when you're writing an article that is confined to a limited number of words but in a book, it often leaves the author open to those aforementioned accusations of laziness and wilfull neglect.

Strange inaccuracies abound - as others have mentioned, the "free stadium" and the supposed parading of the '99 play-off trophy are true howlers; whilst no self-respecting proof-reader should have missed that Wayne Rooney was quoted as having returned to Utd for a £180k-a-week in one chapter but for £200k in another. Combined with the anomalies mentioned above, it makes one wonder if the author wasn't forced into rushing a final draft out, to coincide with the wave of publicity surrounding City last May.

All in all, a frustrating book. Yet it does actually have a great deal to recommend it. The writing style is very easy to engage with and most of the core sentiments (the mismanagement of inner cities and how it affects sport, the alienation of the young working classes from the football etc) - although sometimes, laid on a bit thick - are certainly deserving of wider debate.

There's definitely a good book in between those covers that's trying to get out. It's just a shame that somewhere between the author, editor and publisher, somebody didn't have the wherewithall to make a stand and say, 'this needs re-working!'.
 
I'm about 30 pages away from the end.

Its a great book.I think its a bit moany for the good ole days in big chunks,nostalgia for crap football in crap stadiums and all that.

He does get into the meat of how our club was being ruined from the inside by several people,but the one that stood out worse than thaksin,and even worse than swales,was Franny Lee.

After reading this book I'm going to get my hands on him one day on behalf of our club.Conn basically says Franny knowingly manipulated the fans to get in,but did so purely for business reasons,and was hell bent on building City into something he could quickly float on the stock exchange,make a mint on,and then run.


Its terrible that as much as Conn wants to like Francis Lee,he clearly respected Swales more,and resents Lee for the ruination of our club.
 
I'm about halfway through reading this book when I stumbled upon this thread so thought I'd add my comments...

So far I found the book enjoyable and informative. I especially like the explanations of the original FA rules about e.g. clubs sharing gate receipts and the wage cap etc - aimed at keeping the competition fair and sporting - and how these principles were dismissed through the inception of the premier league. Also the explanation of forming holding companies e.g. Man City PLC which was separate from the private limited company with the ultimate aim of stock market flotation. The chapters about "Forward with Franny" also revealed in detail what I long suspected about the fans being conned.

The book is frustrating at times because it is disjointed and seems to jump around between subjects and eras and at times I got confused and thought "I don't remember that". When I read about the 1999 play off parade being rained on I thought eh ? - I'm sure City were at great pains to avoid such a parade with a minor trophy as it would have seemed embarassing relative to the rags treble.

Mr Conn is too much of an idealist, ostensibly because of his middle class upbring, edcuation and work experiences as a journalist or lawyer. He is a socialist and a supporter of a football club that is now "richer than god". He seems to be troubled by this, as if they are mutually exclusive.
 
I've not read the book so cant really comment, but I would say that I am/was happy for Franny to 'use' the fans. Peter Swales nearly killed this club and what ever it took to get rid of him was worth it IMO.
 
mad4city said:
There's definitely a good book in between those covers that's trying to get out. It's just a shame that somewhere between the author, editor and publisher, somebody didn't have the wherewithall to make a stand and say, 'this needs re-working!'.
Ric said:
Here's my review of the book, for anyone who's interested:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/Blog/index.php/2012/07/05/richer-than-god-david-conn/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/Blog/ind ... avid-conn/</a>
Both Spot on.

This guy needs to be investigating the Rangers shambles or writing about how Leeds fucked up. This book doesn't know what it is and the proof reader and editor need sacking.

This is the last time I mention this book as there are far more worthy City books available or coming soon.
 
Mike N said:
I've not read the book so cant really comment, but I would say that I am/was happy for Franny to 'use' the fans. Peter Swales nearly killed this club and what ever it took to get rid of him was worth it IMO.

If you think we got rid of Swales when Franny took over,well you really need to read the book.
 
Thaksinssoldier said:
Mike N said:
I've not read the book so cant really comment, but I would say that I am/was happy for Franny to 'use' the fans. Peter Swales nearly killed this club and what ever it took to get rid of him was worth it IMO.

If you think we got rid of Swales when Franny took over,well you really need to read the book.

I read his comment as two seperate issues. I agree with his Swales comment and was pissed off this week reading Buzzers book where i was reminded that Swales had all the 68 teams photo's taken down at Maine Road.
 
Tommy_Catons_Perm said:
I'm about halfway through reading this book when I stumbled upon this thread so thought I'd add my comments...

So far I found the book enjoyable and informative. I especially like the explanations of the original FA rules about e.g. clubs sharing gate receipts and the wage cap etc - aimed at keeping the competition fair and sporting - and how these principles were dismissed through the inception of the premier league. Also the explanation of forming holding companies e.g. Man City PLC which was separate from the private limited company with the ultimate aim of stock market flotation. The chapters about "Forward with Franny" also revealed in detail what I long suspected about the fans being conned.

The book is frustrating at times because it is disjointed and seems to jump around between subjects and eras and at times I got confused and thought "I don't remember that". When I read about the 1999 play off parade being rained on I thought eh ? - I'm sure City were at great pains to avoid such a parade with a minor trophy as it would have seemed embarassing relative to the rags treble.

Mr Conn is too much of an idealist, ostensibly because of his middle class upbring, edcuation and work experiences as a journalist or lawyer. He is a socialist and a supporter of a football club that is now "richer than god". He seems to be troubled by this, as if they are mutually exclusive.

you don't have to be middle class to be an idealist or socialist m8 I think Mr Conns issue is far from being an idealist or a socialist which implies some linkage between values and how you exercise your life he's wallowing in that hazy soft focus of left wing Tories, a hankering for the good old days . He works for the Guardian who are despite their liberal posturings ie trusts etc are as red necked as barclays about capital and money making that dichotomy explains in some part why Mr Conns book suffers from delusion and faulting thinking about success and what it means .

The bits I have read don't really add much to what we know and as hard as I tried I failed to find any new new perspectives nothing insightful, revealing or even funny a book that if never published would have never be missed
 
There is a major error of massive proportions in this book. Its not as simple as an incorrect score. Its worse than that. When he's doing his usual City United comparison he talks about their parade they organised after the treble in 99 and how sunny the weather was. He then goes on to add that it rained on the one City had to celebrate promotion from the third tier of English football. Can someone confirm this was the case as I don't know anyone who went to it and my feeling is its another one of Conn's lies when comparing city to united. It goes without question that it pissed it down all day at wembley but even Royle said he would have been embarrassed having one.
 
01282 said:
There is a major error of massive proportions in this book. Its not as simple as an incorrect score. Its worse than that. When he's doing his usual City United comparison he talks about their parade they organised after the treble in 99 and how sunny the weather was. He then goes on to add that it rained on the one City had to celebrate promotion from the third tier of English football. Can someone confirm this was the case as I don't know anyone who went to it and my feeling is its another one of Conn's lies when comparing city to united. It goes without question that it pissed it down all day at wembley but even Royle said he would have been embarrassed having one.
You're right, and there are other errors.

But its still a fantastic book.
 

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