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Average Customer Rating:

John Furness loved Dynasty

Customer Rating:

An absolutely outstanding read, and the best attempt I've ever found (by a long chalk) to bring some science to the evaluation of team performance / achievement, individual player contribution and managerial capability. It generated some fascinating findings and interesting discussion points. The anecdotes were excellent too, and even for an avid fan like me of over 40 years standing there was information I hadn't been aware of and stories I hadn't heard. Congratulations on an amazing piece of work, that should be made compulsory reading for lazy journalists and TV pundits so that they might base their opinions on facts. John Furness

Essential Reading

Customer Rating:

Given the volume of material available on the unique history of Liverpool Football Club, it was difficult to imagine that a book celebrating 50 years of `Shankly's Liverpool' could offer such a fresh view of the goings-on at the club throughout that period. This idea of the book is not simply to discuss the many, many events that helped shape the `Dynasty', but to focus on the main people involved, and how each of them have contributed in their own way, to compare and contrast the reigns of each of the eight men in charge, but also to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals at each time and put the successes and failures into their historical context. Each of the managers are analyzed in an extremely comprehensive manner in several different categories, including the strength of the team they inherited, their record in the transfer market, their record on the pitch and, ultimately, their legacy. In order to help contrast the transfer records of the managers, he uses what I found to be a superbly detailed scoring system which helps to rank the best and the worst of each manager. Also on offer here is key information relating to spending power of the club as well as that of their rivals during each reign which leaves the reader with no doubt as to the difficulties facing each manager, without ever stopping to use the greater financial power of other clubs as an excuse for relative failure. Another key point of the book is that none of the men under discussion are ever glamorized. While the strengths are discussed, so too are the weaknesses, none of which slip under the radar in a bid to compare one manager favourably against another. Despite the large quantity of data and statistics on offer in this book, it's main strength is in the narrative. Never does the reader feel weighed down by the data coming their way, rather, the facts and figures come in a manner that is extremely easy to follow and at times utterly fascinating. The structure of the book leads to a very comfortable read that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in football.

Dynasty - a brilliant read

Customer Rating:

I've got all of Paul Tomkins' book and I have to say this is my favourite by far. Where previous books like Golden Past, Red Future and Red Revival used specific seasons as the background topic, Dynasty uses a few decades from the start of the Shankly era to the present day. I make a living working in statistics and whilst this book uses stats as evidence behind every point I particularly enjoyed this book purely as a review of the last 40 odd years in Liverpool history. Well written and nothing like as annoyingly partisan as a lot of books written by Liverpool fans this is a great read, one that I'd highly recommend

Superb Stuff for LFC die hard fans

Customer Rating:

I am one of the fans of Paul Tomkins books and one of the lucky receiver of the pre-released signed copy. I just couldnt put it down, and for the LFC fan out there, this book really can give us knowledge of what have been done from scratch before by Shankly and Paisley to bring LFC to the golden era in footballing sense, and what is being done by the latest manager, Rafa, to bring us back to the place we, LFC all around the world belong. I just hope this book is thicker than it is!

A must read for all LFC fans. Simple as that.

Customer Rating:

I had a pre-release copy of this and couldn't put it down. Great detail and analysis from Paul as ever and some very surprising details of signings that LFC missed out on or just crazy of turn down! A great detailed breakdown of the past great (and not so great) managers since Shankley was installed and started the process of making this club the world recognised great that it is. Looking forward to Compendium coming out in December.