Shades of Blue

by David White

The life of a Manchester City legend and the story that shook football.

David White was born in Manchester in 1967 with football flowing in his veins. Driven by his football-mad dad, David's prodigious talent was spotted early and he soon signed coveted schoolboy forms for Manchester City, the team that he'd supported since boyhood. A meteoric rise through the club's ranks led to his first-team debut at the age of eighteen, and he continued to light up Maine Road's right wing for the next eight years. It was a career that would take him to the heights of playing for his country.

But David's performance on the pitch was frequently blighted by a lack of confidence and consistency, traits that baffled his fans and family. Only David knew the real reason behind his struggles. Only David knew who had shot his confidence to pieces. Only David knew that, aged just eleven, he had been sexually abused by his football coach, Barry Bennell.

Shades of Blue tells the story of David's extraordinary life: his passion for football, the drama of his games and his fight to outrun the shadow of that early abuse. Having spent years feeling that he had to conceal his secret in order to protect his father and his football career, it is only now that David has felt able to give a full and honest account of his life - one with a powerful message that aims to repair the damage at the very heart of the sport.

Genres: Football, Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

Published February 2, 2017

About the author

There is more than one person in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for David ^ White.

Reviews

[Steve Parcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of these footballers' autobiographies are generally generic by the numbers summaries of their playing career with a little personal details and about their childhood.

Not this one. It was an excellent account of David's career and the horrendous injury that ended his time as a professional footballer. The detail about his childhood was excellently written and then the story of his abuse. This wasn't told in great detail but it didn't need to be. You did not need to know the sordid details to see how the abuse affected David's career and personal life.

In addition the relationship with his father was strained at times depending on his form on the pitch. However David's journey to India and back to see his father (I wont say why as you will have to read it) really showed his deep love for his father.

Excellent autobiography by a Pro footballer and it exemplifies the pressure these guys go through. David's was a difficult journey to play for his boyhood heroes Man City and the abuse he suffered clearly made it difficult for him to enjoy this. Along with the constant pressure particularly from his father to perform at the highest level.

[Louise Burgess Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shades of Blue is the well written memoirs of the former Manchester City footballer, David White. He describes his rise to fame and the influences of 2 men of his life. His Dad was integral to White's football success as David's biggest fan and also his harshest critic. There was also his youth team coach, Barry Bennell, who used his position of trust to sexually abuse the young footballer.
As a Manchester City fanatic, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There was plenty of reminiscence of matches that I witnessed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The tales of matches are interspersed with anecdotes which gave an insight into the life of a professional footballer during that era. I also gained an understanding of reasons that may have contributed to the lack of consistency during the career of one of our finest ever youth products. How much could a sports psychologist have helped him? I would recommend this book to anyone who watched David White play football.

[David Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I'm not a Man City fan, I always thought highly of David White as a footballer - this is a good chronicle of his career and his heartbreaking life changing encounters with Barry Bennell - what is most alarming is that this is the perspective of one of Bennell's victims: multiply this story by the hundreds that Bennell abused and you get an idea of the monster that man is.

[Mike Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

riveting

Remember David as a fine footballer but had no idea of his back story. Shocking and very revealing. Well worth the read