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A review by trnolan
The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Wildest, Richest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports by Jonathan Clegg, Joshua Robinson
3.0
Starts out really well with a solid history of the formation of the Premier League and the early years. But as the narrative gets closer and closer to the present, it feels less focused and the authors over-extrapolate to trends that haven't come to pass.
There is clearly change brewing on the horizon with things like Project Big Picture being circulated. But the authors bought in too highly to the status quo that existed when they were writing this book. Believing that Manchester City was an impossible dynasty to topple when the same things were being said about Manchester United 10 years ago. This is a shame as there are real trends taking place as the top of the league is becoming more of a closed shop. And detail on the fear that is growing among other European big clubs about the dominance of the English game would have been welcome.
All in all the first half of this book is a solid 4 stars but the history work gets a little shaky and the narrative loses cohesion in the second half as the authors report on the recent past.
There is clearly change brewing on the horizon with things like Project Big Picture being circulated. But the authors bought in too highly to the status quo that existed when they were writing this book. Believing that Manchester City was an impossible dynasty to topple when the same things were being said about Manchester United 10 years ago. This is a shame as there are real trends taking place as the top of the league is becoming more of a closed shop. And detail on the fear that is growing among other European big clubs about the dominance of the English game would have been welcome.
All in all the first half of this book is a solid 4 stars but the history work gets a little shaky and the narrative loses cohesion in the second half as the authors report on the recent past.