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Product Description
Product Description
KEITH GILLESPIE is renowned as a footballer who liked a bet. And lost a lot.
One afternoon he added up how much he had squandered during the course of his professional career. It made for uncomfortable reading...
Manchester United £60,000
Newcastle United £1,102,000
Blackburn Rovers £3,510,000
Leicester City £1,050,000
Sheffield United £670,000
Bradford City £15,000
Glentoran £43,875
Total (plus extras) £7,215,875
That day seemed a world away from 1993 when he burst on to the scene as a fresh-faced young star with Manchester United. A dark-haired lad from the streets of Northern Ireland with a God-given talent, he was dubbed the new George Best.
One of the famous Fergie fledglings, he made his debut aged just 17 before moving on to Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle where he came so close to landing a Premiership title winner’s medal. International caps piled up too.
It was a thrilling adventure. Flying down the wing and sharing pitches and dressing rooms with legends, but behind the success and glamour, it was a different story.
Like Best, Gillespie had a talent for self-destruction. He liked a drink and there were women but they weren’t causing a big problem – it was keeping hold of the millions he had earned from the game that ultimately proved his downfall.
It wasn’t just about gambling. A nightmare ordeal during a training break in La Manga landed him in jail for a crime he did not commit. Then, in 2010, Gillespie became headline news again when a series of flawed business deals saw him declared bankrupt.
How Not To Be A Football Millionaire is one of the most honest autobiographies you will read, about a player who lived the football life to the full.
It tells a fascinating and moving human story of the darker side of the glory game.
About winning and losing, fortune and fate, hope and heartache...
About having the world at your feet and being left to ask yourself: ‘Where did it all go wrong?
One afternoon he added up how much he had squandered during the course of his professional career. It made for uncomfortable reading...
Manchester United £60,000
Newcastle United £1,102,000
Blackburn Rovers £3,510,000
Leicester City £1,050,000
Sheffield United £670,000
Bradford City £15,000
Glentoran £43,875
Total (plus extras) £7,215,875
That day seemed a world away from 1993 when he burst on to the scene as a fresh-faced young star with Manchester United. A dark-haired lad from the streets of Northern Ireland with a God-given talent, he was dubbed the new George Best.
One of the famous Fergie fledglings, he made his debut aged just 17 before moving on to Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle where he came so close to landing a Premiership title winner’s medal. International caps piled up too.
It was a thrilling adventure. Flying down the wing and sharing pitches and dressing rooms with legends, but behind the success and glamour, it was a different story.
Like Best, Gillespie had a talent for self-destruction. He liked a drink and there were women but they weren’t causing a big problem – it was keeping hold of the millions he had earned from the game that ultimately proved his downfall.
It wasn’t just about gambling. A nightmare ordeal during a training break in La Manga landed him in jail for a crime he did not commit. Then, in 2010, Gillespie became headline news again when a series of flawed business deals saw him declared bankrupt.
How Not To Be A Football Millionaire is one of the most honest autobiographies you will read, about a player who lived the football life to the full.
It tells a fascinating and moving human story of the darker side of the glory game.
About winning and losing, fortune and fate, hope and heartache...
About having the world at your feet and being left to ask yourself: ‘Where did it all go wrong?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Keith was my hero as an 8 year old boy after watching him train at Durham, and here 20 years later I'm reading about his "fall from grace" as they call it. But I think it's and excellent book and so refreshing to hear a story that isn't all self promotion and "oh look at me, look how well I did"
All you get here is the truth and despite all his faults and mistakes he's still my hero, for being himself and telling it how it is, when he could have hid like most people would.
All you get here is the truth and despite all his faults and mistakes he's still my hero, for being himself and telling it how it is, when he could have hid like most people would.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Big Jim
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
This book comes as a welcome antidote to the recent splurge of "celebrity" managers' accounts. It's not a hagiography, equally it's not one of those books that describes the roister doistering high jinks of a third division hard man. It is a tale of a young man who had it all, lost it, regrets it and is trying to get his life back on track. He's actually one of us, and perhaps the problems he faced at the height of his fame was this very fact. How many of us could cope with the riches and adulation that are thrust upon a young man away from home? This book goes some way to showing how it might go as Gillespie comes across as a very decent, if some times misled, young man. I'd happily buy him a pint becuase as he says himself early on, he can't afford a round himself.
One last point, whilst this is a 5 star story I'm afraid for me the "voice" of the ghost writer is all too apparent and some passages just don't flow as I'd like. Phrases such as "...raiding the left flank" reek too much of a Red Top's back pages but I appreciate this is a matter of personal taste so don't let this foible of mine put you off buying and enjoying this book.
One last point, whilst this is a 5 star story I'm afraid for me the "voice" of the ghost writer is all too apparent and some passages just don't flow as I'd like. Phrases such as "...raiding the left flank" reek too much of a Red Top's back pages but I appreciate this is a matter of personal taste so don't let this foible of mine put you off buying and enjoying this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Nicky b
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Very honest and sometimes very serious while amusing too,would recommend this book.
Hope everything works out for Keith. Good luck.
Hope everything works out for Keith. Good luck.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Colin s
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Excellent read. Very open and honest insight into the highs and lows of a pro footballer. Some great stories and his love of playing for N.Ireland is obvious. Hope it works out well for Keith in the future.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Reg Meaney
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
A well written book. A fair amount is given to football, a balanced account of his family and of the women in his life and his children.He has no self pity but realises that a god given gift and the financial rewards it brings can be negated by an addictive personality. A sad,but certainly not maudlin, book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By MrMatt
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I loved this book, you get a real feel of what Keith is all about and has been during his footballing career and beyond. It covers the early years right through to the troubled relationships, Newcastle, Blackburn and the latter years in NI. It has laugh out loud moments, ridiculous stories and crazy bookie anecdotes. It reads like a thriller, novel and autobiography all rolled up in one. Having read both this and Alex Ferguson's recent biography, whilst it's unfair to compare both books, Keith seems to have bared all in a cathartic manner, and Alex just gives shallow glimpses into his psyche and life story.
There's something heartwarming about this book, and sometimes you can almost compare some of his 'faults' with our own or people we know. A must read, for and about a seemingly top bloke.
There's something heartwarming about this book, and sometimes you can almost compare some of his 'faults' with our own or people we know. A must read, for and about a seemingly top bloke.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Bill
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
This is a real football book not the ghost written sugar coated nonsense most of them churn out.
I saw many of Keith's games as a Sheffield United player and have great respect for him as a wonderful player who never hit the heights he should have. This book goes a long way to explaining why...the drinking culture is a real eye opener. Of course Keith's biggest problem was the gambling and the vast amounts of money he squandered is truly shocking. Hard for an ordinary working bloke to feel sorry for someone who could throw away 60000 on a single days gambling but hopefully he will get his life back on track.
I saw many of Keith's games as a Sheffield United player and have great respect for him as a wonderful player who never hit the heights he should have. This book goes a long way to explaining why...the drinking culture is a real eye opener. Of course Keith's biggest problem was the gambling and the vast amounts of money he squandered is truly shocking. Hard for an ordinary working bloke to feel sorry for someone who could throw away 60000 on a single days gambling but hopefully he will get his life back on track.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I been lucky to see the man play but to read how he wasted money and good advice seems tragic but at least he seems on the right track now without the trappings of a top footballer. Good luck Keith.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
One Star
Perfect condition
Published 8 days ago by Phyllis Cregan
5.0 out of 5 stars
honest
Thought I wouldn't enjoy this, a very honest account of his life. Would recommend this.
Published 9 days ago by Mr. P. Humphreys
5.0 out of 5 stars
brutally honest
It's great to read a brutally honest account of a lad who had the world at his feet for it to go pear shaped and who didn't blame anyone but himself. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Blefuscu
2.0 out of 5 stars
Generally quite poor
There didn't seem to be much strong content regarding stories, which was what I wanted to hear. He talked about the various clubs in different ways and how he felt about them but... Read more
Published 27 days ago by dg
5.0 out of 5 stars
great read
A great player form an era of fantastic football, a real insight into how things are for the life of a footballer. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Chris Brickwood
5.0 out of 5 stars
If I was he I would be ashamed to let ...
If I was he I would be ashamed to let people know what a self centred overpaid idiot I am. Thank goodness Fergie got rid.
Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars
gilly
Good insight into a very complexed man gambler drinker womaniser fighter depressed impulsive yet most of all a very honest man
Published 1 month ago by carl whiting
4.0 out of 5 stars
good read
Very good read about the roller coaster life of a quite likeable fella who made a lot of bad decisions
Published 1 month ago by Daniel Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cracking read !
Cracking read , read it in a week , very honest .Amazing how someone can blow so much money before thinking i.m not very good at betting and i.m down to my last million .
Published 2 months ago by STEPHEN KAY LTD
5.0 out of 5 stars
Apt title.
An exellent, honest book. For someone who made so many bad decisions, you find yourself warming to him and hoping something good is around the corner...
A great holiday read.
A great holiday read.
Published 2 months ago by Tony2569
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