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Burksey: The Autobiography of a Football God
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Know the Score Books (2006-04-04)
ISBN: 1905449496
EAN: 9781905449491
Paperback: 288 pages
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Customer Reviews
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Laughed Til My Belly Hurt!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-03-27
This is one of the funniest books I've read in years. Burksey is the classic modern footballer who blames everything that goes wrong in his life on someone else and takes the glory when things go right. He's an idiot who just happens to be a total genius of a footballer, and author Peter Morfoot uses his character to lampoon the direction that modern football has taken.
Morfoot brilliantly combines the real and ludicrous with the totally fabricated and just as ludicrous. For example the Chelsea biscuit rota of the early 1990s sees the protagonist, football genius Burksey, hauled over the coals by manager Glenn Hoddle for not bringing in any Hob Nobs when it was his turn. Plainly ridiculous one might think, apart from the fact that this did actually happen - only not to Burksey.
Then there's the tales of how Burksey hypnotises Ossie Ardiles and earns himself the sack at Spurs, loses thousands in a match-fixing scandal when he gets it totally wrong and a huge body count as he gets caught up with the mafia during an ill-fated sojourn playing in Italy.
The real skill in blending real life events with the course of the anti-hero's controversial career comes in events such as discovering the real reason why footballers wore such short shorts in the 1980s (all part of a drinking bet with Bryan Robson) and why Gazsa cried in Italia 90 (because in making his tackle on Thomas Berthold he grazed his inflamed, new tattoo, done the night before the semi-final after a drinking binge with Burksey and Tony Dorigo).
But it's not all lads antics. Burksey embraces the modern culture espoused by Eric Cantona and becomes big mates with Damien Hirst and, when his career nosedives, enters a rehab clinic where he meets Jack Nicholson and falls for a Feng Shui expert.
I took huge pleasure from trying to work out what was true and what was completely made up - and sometimes you just cannot see the join!
The scenarios are many and hilarious, low brow and high brow; a warts and all disection of 'the Beautiful Game'. You must, must see for yourself.
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A good read, but ...
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-03-08
This spoof 'autobiography' of world-renowned soccer ace Tristan Stephen Burkes blends the make-believe with football history very well, and seems to confirm the worst excesses of our top footballing stars as reported by the popular press.
This book will appeal to readers with an interest in the funny side of soccer in the UK. Generally well written and in places very funny, it left me however with the overall impression that the book is just too long.
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Retail Price: £9.99
Amazon.com's Price:£0.01
That's 100% Off!
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