The Worst of Friends: Malcolm Allison, Joe Mercer and Manchester City

by Colin Shindler

Inspired by David Pearce's bestselling The Damned United, Colin Shindler's The Worst of Friends provides a semi-fictionalized account of one of the most seminal relationships in modern British football.

Between 1965 and 1970, Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison formed the most successful managerial partnership in the history of Manchester City, winning five trophies in five seasons during a period fondly remembered as City’s Golden Age. Only two years after winning their first European trophy, however, the managerial partnership terminated abruptly when Mercer left to manage Coventry. Allison shed no tears, for by then the two men were barely on speaking terms. What Allison wanted was supreme power at Maine Road, and he was prepared to engineer a boardroom takeover to get his way. Ironically, within nine months of getting his dearest wish, Allison was also on his way out of Manchester. Without Mercer, he seemed incapable of recreating those glory days that had come and gone with breathless speed.

The Worst of Friends documents the plans Mercer and Allison hatched to make a team that had no decent players league champions in three seasons and the arguments that followed Allison’s realization that Mercer’s initial promise to let him take over in two years was never going to be fulfilled. It is a cautionary tale of how greed, ambition, double-dealing, and betrayal can dominate the Beautiful Game, but ultimately it highlights how two men touched greatness then let it slip through their fingers.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2009

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fictional look at the relationship between Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison, but with many facts thrown in. Comparisons to the Damned United are unfair. Different style of book altogether. None the worse for it though. Manchester City could have been a great team for some time to come, but for the ambition of Allison and the new board. Mercer always managed to hold back the wild moods of Allison whilst Allison saw Mercer as old school. They never really had the same success when working apart, akin to Clough and Taylor. Excellent read.

Ray Smillie

[Steven Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly a labour of love and incredibly well researched using a network of superb contacts to get first hand accounts. It will be of particular interest to Manchester City fans – especially those who don’t subscribe to the views of Shindler’s Allison who says: “Football wasn’t a game played in the past except by middle-aged supporters nostalgic for faded glories. It was about the next match, the next half-hour, the next goal.”
Despite its merits, however, this book suffers from being torn between being a novel and being reportage. Shindler does not have Peace’s skill as a story-teller nor his craft as a novelist. As a result this cannot compare to The Damned United. Over-long and inexpert in places.
Full review at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...