The Dynamo Football Bookclub

Episode 36: Francesco Totti - Gladiator

In Episode 36, we discuss Gladiator, the autobiography of Francesco Totti. With nicknames such as The Eight King of Rome, Totti had other much better possible names for this book. And yet he went for Gladiator…
But what a career the man had, 251 goals in 619 appearances for his hometown team, Roma. He played his first game for the Giallorossi when he was only 17 years old. After becoming captain at the age of 22, he kept hold of the armband for 18 years.
With a World Cup Winners medal in his pocket to go with one eternal Scudetto for Roma, he had a brilliant excellent career and an amazing life.
Do check it out and be sure to like and subscribe.  

Injury Time 5 - the Greatest Players Never to Win the Premier League, 5-a-side draft

It’s the 5th episode of Ademola Bookmen Injury Time and this week we are choosing 5-a-side teams of the best players never to win the Premier League. To keep the golf theme of the week going, it's the Colin Montgomerie Derby. 
 
With Johnny having won the previous three encounters of these 5-a-sides (as well as the Forest-United one), Al’s pride is really what is at stake most in this particular encounter, him never having won one of these drafts. Oh the irony...
 
With thanks to listener Barry for the suggestion for this episode. Please do have a listen folks and if you have ideas for other drafts, be sure to let us know.

Episode 35: Matt Le Tisser - Taking Le Tiss

In continuation of God month on the Ademola Bookmen Podcast, we travel to the south coast to check on in folk legend Matt Le Tissier and his autobiography Taking Le Tiss
The famous one-club Le Tissier scored some cracking goals in his 16 years with Southampton. This book was written in 2009 so before Matt went off the deep end a bit with conspiracy theories and the likes. 
Please do check it out and be sure to like and subscribe. 
 

Injury Time 4 - Matchday Special - all-time Forest versus all-time Manchester United

Let’s see what our cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence machine has to say – can a team of legendary Forest players beat the mighty United?
 
Ahead of the Nottingham v. Manchester United game tomorrow night, Al and Johnny are picking draft 5-a-side teams for either club. It’s Al’s all-time Forest team versus Johhny’s all-time United.
 
This one is personal. We bought it out a day early, such is our excitement.
 
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Episode 34: Eric Cantona – The Rebel Who Would Be King by Philippe Auclair

In Episode 34, we review Philippe Auclair’s book about arguably the greatest of all Premier League players and certainly the coolest – Eric Cantona.
 
French football’s enfant terrible washed up on the shores of British football seeking refuge from the tyranny of the French FA’s capricious officials. Driven from his home country due to his uncontrollable temper, Cantona left behind Marseilles, Auxerre, Nimes, and the various other clubs he played for in France, arriving in Sheffield a desolate but still proud figure. A trial there and a brief (league winning) stint at Leeds later, he found himself in that golden city on the hill, Manchester United. There he found a home, he found a family, and he remade English football in his own divine image. Then he fucked off to go acting…
 
Tune in to find out all the things he did when he wasn’t kicking that Palace fan.

Injury Time 3: Ginger Spice - The Red Hair 5-a-side draft

In our third instalment of Ademola Bookmen Injury Time, we are doing a 5-a-side draft of red hair footballers. Yes folks, its Ginger Spice, the Red Hair Draft. Tune in to find out if Al can save some blushes and finally get a win.

Episode 33: In Search of Duncan Ferguson by Alan Patullo

In Episode 33, we review In Search of Duncan Ferguson – The Life and Crimes of a Footballing Enigma by Alan Patullo.
 
The highest scoring Scot in the Premier League, Ferguson is a folk hero on the blue half of Merseyside. As well as Everton, Ferguson had stints of varying degrees of success and failure with Dundee United, Rangers, and Newcastle United. But he is perhaps best known for his brushes with the law and with home intruders. Famously, he went to jail for headbutting Josh McStay of Raith Rovers and consigned a series of burglars to a similar fate. 
 
Tune in to find out whether we managed to find Duncan. Please do like and subscribe.

Injury Time 2 - Prison 5-a-side draft (the Joey Barton Cup)

Join us for our second installment of Injury Time, a prison 5-a-side draft.
The quality of players who have been to prison is really quite something, rich pickings indeed. Please do tune in to find out if Al can salvage some pride after his devastating loss in the previous draft. 
Music by Darragh Fenlon. 

Episode 32: Béla Guttman - The Greatest Comeback by David Bolchover

In Episode 32, we take a history lesson with David Bolchover’s book about Béla Guttman, The Greatest Comeback – From Genocide to Football Glory. This is a remarkable and very tragic story, one that is as much about the treatment of Jews in Europe as about Guttman himself.
Béla Guttman played football for mostly Jewish teams in his native Hungary and then in Austria and the US. But it’s as a coach that he found global fame, winning the European Cup two years in a row with Benfica in the early ‘60s. Beyond the football pitch, Guttman survived the Holocaust by hiding in a friend’s attic and later escaped from a labour camp as countless friends and family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
This is a long way from James Milner’s Ask a Footballer.
 
 

Injury Time 1 - Irish Premier League 5-a-side smackdown

Welcome to our first bonus episode - it's the Ademola Bookmen Podcast Injury Time [insert whistle sound here].
 
Today, Al and John are competing against each other to pick the best 5-a-side team of historic Irish Premier League players. Much less an idle barstool conversation, this discussion has an outcome. Yes, courtesy of cutting edge Artificial Intelligence technology, we can tell you whose team would have won. 
 
Music by that dastardly handsome Darragh Fenlon. 
 
Please do tune in to find out whether John knows more than Al about the Irish greats. It's Injury Time...