Books

Reading matter for footie fans

The one and only

Andy Strickland, Mickey Thomas: Wild At Heart
(Boxtree/Goal Magazine)

The first thing to say about this short biography (156 pages) is that it is an absolute must for all Wrexham and/or Mickey fans - especially if you can pick it up in the local discount general store as I did. Biographies about characters like Mickey are too few and far between. Let’s face it...his story would make one hell of a movie. My wife thinks Dustin Hoffman’s a ringer for the great man. That said one would hope that this obvious labour of love isn’t the greatest or most in-depth book you’ll ever read and its literal flaws are as glaring as Ian Rush’s head on a ten pound note.

Most football biographies fail because they are good for accurate documentaries of matches but any analysis of the subject’s character doesn’t work. This is usually because the player is only interesting because of their achievements and their character doesn’t live up to the challenge of a biography. This is different. Mickey’s character and life seem riddled with contradictions and controversies and would hold up the greatest academic biographers’ demands. But here the author chooses not to even try and get close. The book doesn’t ask a single “why”. This is pure sentimental nostalgia where even the match facts are blurred and sketchy, indeed embellished or edited for dramatic purpose like a good film script can be. The bad bits are discussed but not in any detail - a bit like “This Is Your Life” when only the fifth wife is ever invited.

Where assertions are made about Mickey’s character, such as the title presuming he is wild at heart, they lack conviction and are written because the author thinks Mickey may like it told that way. It is never clear what access the author had to Mickey or his friends but this was probably limited and again like a true fan the author seems glad about this. Facts and heavy analysis would complicate the enthusiasm. The beauty of the book is that it captures how the fan feels about their hero. It made me feel like I did when I was a child. Facts and complicated analysis could have diluted the enthusiasm and limited the appeal so why spoil the fun. The style is easy to read and tabloid-like. By a few pages in the Optima Nostalgia score is higher than a Paul Merson free kick.

If you grew up with Mickey posters on your wall and his was the name you chose for playground commentaries then you’ll lose count of the number of times you think, “I remember that” during this read. No Reds fan old enough to vaguely recall the great cup runs of 1977-78 can fail to be moved by recollections of the 4-4 draw with Bristol City or the win against Newcastle. Or indeed the classic Mickey goal on his return to Old Trafford for the London Reds XI, or Chelsea as they were sometimes known. Or Mickey’s part in the hammering of England in 1980. I even remembered some of Mickey’s answers in the Shoot questionnaire which are re-produced in full, where our favourite Texas Chainsaw Massacre fan expresses his wish to meet the Pope. The word count and basic factual errors in these stories may frustrate younger fans and anoraks but that’s what video is for. The stories, whether deliberately or not, are recalled in a way which prompts your own coloured memories to over take the strict facts. This truly is a dictionary definition of nostalgia.

Sometimes Strickland is simply wrong. The first game against West Ham was in the afternoon not the night. And I recall Mickey getting a good reception from West Ham Fans, comparing the dodgy notes I saw Mickey autograph outside the ground to their own Bond scheme. At other times the nostalgia becomes so obviously rose-tinted that it becomes surreal - such as the notion that huge numbers of Newcastle fans turned out to the replay against Blyth at St. James’s because they were grateful for another chance to see the fantastic team that had earlier outplayed their Magpies. So nothing to do with the Spartans representing the charitable Geordies with the chance to extract a painful and humiliating revenge then. If someone wants to write the epic that Mickey probably also deserves they’d need to get closer than this to have a proper stab at it.

And Mickey deserves better than to be labelled as Wales answer to Frank Worthington or Stan Bowles. Mickey was never more in love with himself than the game and always tried to behave like a good professional. He was great because he had great natural talent carved out in Mochdre which reflected this community and values producing a Welshness very different from Michael Owen’s. Why we liked Mickey and forgive him everything was because he was so much like us, one of us, but just much better at football. Football’s need and desire for him to be different was his undoing. The pressure wasn’t for him. He was uncomfortable in the spotlight but couldn’t avoid it. He didn’t know how to act normally in these environments so he showed off and behaved in the way he thought was expected of him. But that’s not quite how this book tells it because you guess Mickey now likes his reputation as much as we do. We wouldn’t have wanted him to be any different so why try to reinvent him now. This is pure nostalgic, sentimental soap opera and it’s all the better for it.

Dean Rogers