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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 11:37:11 GMT 1
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/journeyman
Former Town and Hereford midfield Ben Smith has written a book on life as a nomadic lower league player - should be a good read, be interesting to see how much of the book is about his time with us as well as reading up on his less than perfect relationship with GP compared to the excellent one he had with Turner.
Really liked Smith, who was easily our best player during the first few months back in the league IMO - shame his time with us was ruined by injury.
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Post by thesensationaljt on Mar 19, 2015 18:39:58 GMT 1
Thanks. Looks like Juan for me to take on holly day.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 23:36:54 GMT 1
A mate pointed out that its quite rare for a lower league player to write a book like this - there was an excellent book a few years by Garry Nelson called "Left foot in the grave" highly recommended.
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Post by thesensationaljt on Mar 19, 2015 23:40:28 GMT 1
A mate pointed out that its quite rare for a lower league player to write a book like this - there was an excellent book a few years by Garry Nelson called "Left foot in the grave" highly recommended.
Yep, read that Juan. Manager of Torquay, eh? Everyone's dream......
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 23:41:47 GMT 1
A mate pointed out that its quite rare for a lower league player to write a book like this - there was an excellent book a few years by Garry Nelson called "Left foot in the grave" highly recommended.
Yep, read that Juan. Manager of Torquay, eh? Everyone's dream......
Ha ha! The guy in charge there at the moment seems to like a good lock in! www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31934002
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Post by GrizzlyShrew on Mar 19, 2015 23:52:12 GMT 1
A mate pointed out that its quite rare for a lower league player to write a book like this - there was an excellent book a few years by Garry Nelson called "Left foot in the grave" highly recommended. Yep, very good read. Gives a good insight to how things are at lower league level. Every pampered Premiership player should be forced to read it
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Ben Smith
Mar 20, 2015 0:02:07 GMT 1
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Post by cheggersdrinkspop on Mar 20, 2015 0:02:07 GMT 1
The other Gary Nelson book which I think was the first one, was "Left Foot Forward" which was one of the first of its kind and an excellent read for any football fan.
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Shrewsfan1985
The Loggerheads
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My first team is..: Shrewsbury
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Ben Smith
Mar 20, 2015 0:53:16 GMT 1
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Post by Shrewsfan1985 on Mar 20, 2015 0:53:16 GMT 1
That looks a great Read. Well done Ben Smith.
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Ben Smith
Apr 30, 2015 16:44:02 GMT 1
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Post by heavyglow on Apr 30, 2015 16:44:02 GMT 1
Fired through 150 pages in my lunch break, pretty deece read. Fairly scathing of Jimmy Quinn, Gary Peters and sounds like Colin McMenamin nearly beat the s**t out of Gavin Cowan in the changing room the year we lost 4-3 to Rochdale. Clearly only one side of the story though.
Turner comes out pretty well. Pretty interesting to see how managers do their dealings lower down, even Smith notes Turner clearly hated agents.
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Post by The Shropshire Tenor on Apr 30, 2015 16:50:07 GMT 1
Smith and Peters turned up and spoke at the initial meeting to set up Shrews Trust, they seemed to get on OK then.
I can understand Smith being peeved about Peters though, I don't think he was a GP type player.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2015 17:02:56 GMT 1
I can understand Smith being peeved about Peters though, I don't think he was a GP type player. You mean he wasn't a fullback
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Post by El Huracán!!!! on Apr 30, 2015 17:16:18 GMT 1
Should be arriving today, so some interesting bits to be picked out I think for the fanzine. Might put a few choice lines on there if i find them
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2015 19:09:33 GMT 1
Should be arriving today, so some interesting bits to be picked out I think for the fanzine. Might put a few choice lines on there if i find them Got mine today - very good read. Smith comes across as being a likeable chap who admits to his mistakes in his career. Backed up much of what we thought back then - Quinn was a nice guy who still wanted to be a player and was not up to being a league manager, whereas, Peters was a bully who didn't like creative players! Also interesting to see how much he was on 10years ago. Looking forward to reading the rest of it.
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Post by theriverside on Apr 30, 2015 19:44:14 GMT 1
Just ordered for a bit of holiday reading................sounds very good.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2015 19:45:48 GMT 1
Just ordered as well
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Post by shrewsace on May 4, 2015 10:43:21 GMT 1
Have read the book up to the point where Smith leaves Town for Weymouth. Even for someone who admits they were hardly a model pro in terms of looking after themselves, Smith found the club to be unbelievably unprofessional when he arrived under Jimmy Quinn. I will always believe GP was the right man for the job at a the time, but he could also clearly be an unpleasant bully and he treated Smith shoddily to put it mildly. It also exposes the limitations of GP's obsession with analysing games on DVD and then apportioning blame accordingly. Particularly when his logic was at times more than a little convoluted. I'm not that interested in Smith's post-Town career but his book is engagingly written and insightful so I will probably finish it off sooner or later. I particularly enjoyed the line about persuading his girlfriend to join him 'on my national tour of footballing backwaters'- that was in reference to moving to Shropshire ?
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Post by dannylad01 on May 4, 2015 15:38:25 GMT 1
I've just got up to the point where he left Salop too. I found it interesting the tole his agent played (not trying to spoil it for people) It also shows how perilous a career as a lower league footballer can be, and it'd more than just talent to play professional football.
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Ben Smith
May 4, 2015 23:27:46 GMT 1
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Post by Dale on May 4, 2015 23:27:46 GMT 1
A very good read so far (I'm about halfway through), its clear to say he doesn't like GP! Always thought Ben Smith was a wasted talent in our colours, but GP preferred substance over style and Ben Smith just wasn't going to fit in for that reason, hence why it is still hard to believe now that GP signed Marc Pugh!
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Ben Smith
May 5, 2015 0:00:01 GMT 1
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Post by Southern Fried Afro on May 5, 2015 0:00:01 GMT 1
I wish he'd go into more detail with certain anecdotes, there seems to be pages and pages of him just going through, listing results from each league season. The chapters involving Steve Evans are by far the highlight, a very erratic personality as you would expect.
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Post by camdenshrew on May 5, 2015 5:26:59 GMT 1
I remember one of Peters' bizarre public criticisms of Smith amounted to the fact that he kept moving towards the ball instead of away from it. When you hear crap like that, you know your days must be numbered.
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Post by El Huracán!!!! on May 5, 2015 9:09:16 GMT 1
Later on in the book when hes back at Hereford and we played them in the year they went up to league 1 he makes a clear observation about GP and the fact he had a player of Marc Pughs talent on the bench, not building his team around him... GP went soon after if you recall.
Interesting read so far...
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Post by SeanBroseley on May 5, 2015 20:52:27 GMT 1
I could never get excited by Ben Smith. He had fat thighs too.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2015 22:39:32 GMT 1
It also exposes the limitations of GP's obsession with analysing games on DVD and then apportioning blame accordingly. He used to bang on about "Pro Zone" every week too! Did my head in! Remember one fairly awful away defeat at Macc, we had one shot go flying over the top of the away end (our best chance of the game) - in one of my few outbursts that ever got a laugh I bellowed out "Stick that on yer spreadsheet!"............well I laughed.
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Post by thesensationaljt on May 5, 2015 22:45:03 GMT 1
I could never get excited by Ben Smith. He had fat thighs too. I can't agree with that. His thighs were plumpish at best.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2015 18:40:28 GMT 1
Funny old read. One page of well written insightful information, followed by cliché ridden football autobiography fodder. In other words uneven.
Honestly written though and particularly interesting in that he records his contract details. Admits that he went to Shrewsbury for the money and he knew the move was wrong even before GP took over.
The chapters about working with GT were interesting. He acknowledged that GT was a good manager, but old school. Something highlighted during his second spell here. Trewick doesn't come out of the book every well.
Some of the incidents from his time with us I can well remember. His scuffed shot at Macclesfield and dislocating his shoulder. The most revealing thing about his time here (apart from his wages) is that Rachel the physio at the time wanted to fail his medical.....
The most entertaining parts of the book for me were the chapters about his time at Crawley. Evans comes across as bat crazy. And a utter c0ck.
It's hard from the book to form an opinion of his character, but it elicits a range of emotions. From sympathy to calling him a w@nker, particularly early on.
What I really liked were his interludes to the present day and his struggles with teaching, the juxtaposition being obvious.
As pointed out though this is only one side of the story and another view of his time here would be interesting.
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Post by vanner on May 20, 2015 19:39:47 GMT 1
Cracking interview on Talksport last week if anyone caught it, I didn't realise it was him until half way through whilst he spoke of his time on the training pitch with Bergkamp etc.
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Post by GrizzlyShrew on May 20, 2015 23:07:26 GMT 1
Have read the book up to the point where Smith leaves Town for Weymouth. Even for someone who admits they were hardly a model pro in terms of looking after themselves, Smith found the club to be unbelievably unprofessional when he arrived under Jimmy Quinn.
I will always believe GP was the right man for the job at a the time, but he could also clearly be an unpleasant bully and he treated Smith shoddily to put it mildly. It also exposes the limitations of GP's obsession with analysing games on DVD and then apportioning blame accordingly. Particularly when his logic was at times more than a little convoluted. I'm not that interested in Smith's post-Town career but his book is engagingly written and insightful so I will probably finish it off sooner or later. I particularly enjoyed the line about persuading his girlfriend to join him 'on my national tour of footballing backwaters'- that was in reference to moving to Shropshire ? Don't think many people would dispute that now, even though we are all still grateful that Quinn got us back into the FL at the first attempt by the skin or our teeth when we should have been top of the league under a decent manager.
No real interest in buying the book, but there are some sections I wouldn't mind reading. If anyone wants to pass it on when they have read it I'll take it off your hands.
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Ben Smith
May 21, 2015 7:35:19 GMT 1
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Post by theriverside on May 21, 2015 7:35:19 GMT 1
The Evans chapters are sheer madness. ...you always knew he was a wild card but he comes over as a complete schizo.
A decent read anyway.
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Post by Exkeeper on May 21, 2015 8:02:55 GMT 1
[quote author=" GrizzlyShrew" [/quote] Don't think many people would dispute that now, even though we are all still grateful that Quinn got us back into the FL at the first attempt by the skin or our teeth when we should have been top of the league under a decent manager.
To be fair to Quinn he built the team that went back up - the side he inherited would have been more likely to be in the bottom half.
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Post by shrewsace on May 21, 2015 19:31:23 GMT 1
Don't think many people would dispute that now, even though we are all still grateful that Quinn got us back into the FL at the first attempt by the skin or our teeth when we should have been top of the league under a decent manager.
To be fair to Quinn he built the team that went back up - the side he inherited would have been more likely to be in the bottom half.[/quote] Made some important signings - particularly at the back - with the likes of Tinson, Ridler and Sedgemore and later on poaching Whitehead and Challis from Telford. Not many managers inherit players of the standard of Moss, Rodgers, Edwards and Lowe to build a team around, though.
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