John McGovern's book

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Quick note to say that John McGovern is releasing his autobiography From Bo'ness To the Bernabeu. We get a 15-page chapter – although a couple of those pages are about his love of and friendship with AC/DC, whose singer Brian Johnson lent his face to the Lifeline launch as a favour to his mate McGovern.

The Bolton bit is humbly honest and a startling reminder: midnight calls telling him to sell a player or the club will go bust; another player being sold without his knowledge; wage bills being reduced across the board; having to organise a pre-season tour himself and fund it out of his own pocket. Some chuckles there too, including the club must-wear-suit rule being flouted by George Oghani 'cos he didn't own one, and a nice little aside about Jimmy Phillips being so polite that he'd apologise to opponents he'd tripped.

Obviously Bolton is far from the main story of his life but from the other bits I've read he seems commendably honest and likeable, and you're rarely far from the endlessly interesting Brian Clough (who signed McGovern four times). I doubt anyone will buy this just for the Bolton chapter – as it's being initially released in hardback, that would run at north of a quid per page – but it could be a goer if you've a relative who habitually buys you a Christmas book... or one to store in the memory banks for a couple of year's time, trawling Amazon and eBay for second-hand paperbacks...

[Martin_Cruise]

We were doing ok his first season until the club decided to destroy our midfield by selling Peter Reid and Tony Henry.
It's fair to say with 99.99% certainty John McGovern would have kept us up in 1982/83 if the club hadn't sold even one of those two players.
Peter Reid, Tony Henry, John McGovern....that's a better midfield than we have now.

[CAPSLOCK]

Well, you're almost certainly wrong

The 18k we got for Henry stopped the bank shutting us down, so there'd have been no club to keep up

[Bruce Rioja]

He used to live at the bottom of our Fold and I got to know him fairly well. He'd give me a lift down to my mates / into town whenever he drove past as I was walking / stood at the bus stop. He told me one or two tales, all with evident exasperation. He used to have a champagne coloured Granada. Anyway, one day he pulls up in a brand new XR3i. So, I dived in and, amazed at his sporty new motor asked "Decided to shell out?", he replied, half laughing "No, it's my new club car". "I thought we were skint" says I. "We are, I asked them to give me the money for a player instead but they wouldn't".
He may, of course, have made it up in the hope that I might spread a bit of goss amongst the Paddock faithful, of which he knew I was one, of course, but in the short time I knew him he never came across as being the kind of a guy that would do that kind of thing.

[BL3]

Some chuckles there too, including the club must-wear-suit rule being flouted by George Oghani 'cos he didn't own one

I remember him promising to buy Oghani a suit if he ever scored a hat-trick, which he promptly did when we demolished PNE 4-0 at Burnden. There was a photo in the BEN on Monday of McGovern and Oghani stood outside Burtons with George in his new suit!

McGovern was given an impossible task when he took over. First job in management, absolutely no money to spend and our best players being sold left, right and centre. Yet he still managed to unearth rough diamonds like Caldwell and Oghani from non-league.

He was on Talksport recently and told a story about Warren Joyce rubbing whiskey into his legs because he thought it made his muscles stronger. The club put a stop to it because they couldn't afford a the cost of a bottle of whiskey every other game!

Lovely bloke as well. I met him when our supporters coach returned to Burnden after travelling to Notts County to see us lose 6-1 in a League Cup tie. He came over to us and personally apologised for the performance.

[CAPSLOCK]

I hated McGovern

Week in week out, I travelled up and down the country to see us lose 3-2

Caldwell, Oghani and Chandler all getting 20 goals and finished 17th!

[Il Pirate]

Quick note to say that John McGovern is releasing his autobiography From Bo'ness To the Bernabeu. We get a 15-page chapter – although a couple of those pages are about his love of and friendship with AC/DC, whose singer Brian Johnson lent his face to the Lifeline launch as a favour to his mate McGovern.

The Bolton bit is humbly honest and a startling reminder: midnight calls telling him to sell a player or the club will go bust; another player being sold without his knowledge; wage bills being reduced across the board; having to organise a pre-season tour himself and fund it out of his own pocket. Some chuckles there too, including the club must-wear-suit rule being flouted by George Oghani 'cos he didn't own one, and a nice little aside about Jimmy Phillips being so polite that he'd apologise to opponents he'd tripped.

Obviously Bolton is far from the main story of his life but from the other bits I've read he seems commendably honest and likeable, and you're rarely far from the endlessly interesting Brian Clough (who signed McGovern four times). I doubt anyone will buy this just for the Bolton chapter – as it's being initially released in hardback, that would run at north of a quid per page – but it could be a goer if you've a relative who habitually buys you a Christmas book... or one to store in the memory banks for a couple of year's time, trawling Amazon and eBay for second-hand paperbacks...

I was at the Queen's Hall Leeds, when the team went to watch AC/DC. Magnificent concert. Angus Young came out of a side door next to a table selling bottled water, atop the shoulders of some big roadie playing the solo to 'Whole lot of Rosie'. I was the first person he met and he almost kicked me in the mouth. (Well he did really) Accidental or not, I still don't know, but later, I did get a pleck he threw from the crowd. The band let off massive cannons at the end of the encore and half the feckin' ceiling fell down! McGovern later said he took the team to show them how teamwork, all serving as one ,can get great results. And I remember not long after, AC/DC being pictured and interviewed in 'Sounds' all wearing BWFC Sweatshirts.

[Wandering Willy]

And I remember not long after, AC/DC being pictured and interviewed in 'Sounds' all wearing BWFC Sweatshirts.

This is correct - been looking for that picture for ages so if anyone has a copy please let me know.

Not sure about the cannons bit - wasn't that a lot later?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

The 18k we got for Henry stopped the bank shutting us down, so there'd have been no club to keep up

McGovern confirms it (but puts the price at £20k).

I remember him promising to buy Oghani a suit if he ever scored a hat-trick, which he promptly did when we demolished PNE 4-0 at Burnden. There was a photo in the BEN on Monday of McGovern and Oghani stood outside Burtons with George in his new suit!

That's the game. Says Oghani presented him with a receipt for £100, "more than I ever spent on a suit"...

Lovely bloke as well. I met him when our supporters coach returned to Burnden after travelling to Notts County to see us lose 6-1 in a League Cup tie. He came over to us and personally apologised for the performance.

Yep, that game's in there. It was the debut of a young player who went on to make a fair few appearances for the club, some as captain...

And I remember not long after, AC/DC being pictured and interviewed in 'Sounds' all wearing BWFC Sweatshirts.

There isn't a pic of that but there is one of gurning hat-botherer Brian Johnson holding a Lifeline pennant (with McGovern in an AC/DC T-shirt).

Those of you who were around at the time will enjoy the chapter – if "enjoy" is the right word for a terrible time in the club's existence when bankruptcy lurked and the spiral continued.

[Gary the Enfield]

The 18k we got for Henry stopped the bank shutting us down, so there'd have been no club to keep up

McGovern confirms it (but puts the price at £20k).

I remember him promising to buy Oghani a suit if he ever scored a hat-trick, which he promptly did when we demolished PNE 4-0 at Burnden. There was a photo in the BEN on Monday of McGovern and Oghani stood outside Burtons with George in his new suit!

That's the game. Says Oghani presented him with a receipt for £100, "more than I ever spent on a suit"...

Lovely bloke as well. I met him when our supporters coach returned to Burnden after travelling to Notts County to see us lose 6-1 in a League Cup tie. He came over to us and personally apologised for the performance.

Yep, that game's in there. It was the debut of a young player who went on to make a fair few appearances for the club, some as captain...

And I remember not long after, AC/DC being pictured and interviewed in 'Sounds' all wearing BWFC Sweatshirts.

There isn't a pic of that but there is one of gurning hat-botherer Brian Johnson holding a Lifeline pennant (with McGovern in an AC/DC T-shirt).

Those of you who were around at the time will enjoy the chapter – if "enjoy" is the right word for a terrible time in the club's existence when bankruptcy lurked and the spiral continued.

I've seen a pic of Brian Johnson wearing a top with the old style BWFC roundel with Wanderers underneath. Could have sworn it was on here or WW's

Must find it.

[CAPSLOCK]

The 18k we got for Henry stopped the bank shutting us down, so there'd have been no club to keep up

McGovern confirms it (but puts the price at £20k).

McGovern is wrong

[CAPSLOCK]

Meant to add, you can find the podcast of McGoverns chat with Danny Kelly recorded earlier this year on itunes

While you're there, get the ones with Brian Moore (Ruggerbugger) and Craig Johnston

[Enoch]

Just finished reading this, a cracking book from one of my favourite players, he had all the time in the world and made the game look so easy.

I was at The Valley to see us relegated to the third division, I'm sure he was crying, I know I was.

[coffeymagic]

I heard him interviewd on Radio Manchester a while back and he spoke with a fair amount of sense.

He said he was '..never the best player in the team but he did what Brian Clough told him to do.' He continued 'If you did what Brian said you'd generally do all right. And because I did that I lifted two European Cups.'

Good advice for any young player I think.