Footballers' biographies are often bland affairs, but not this one.

For, in The Real McCall, Stuart McCall has written a frank and opinionated account of an eventful 18-year career, and his forthright views on the events and personalities in his life will keep readers enthralled.

The timing of the book's publication following McCall's return to Valley Parade seem certain to make it a big seller among City supporters. Whether it is the joy of promotion to the old Second Division, the grief of the Valley Parade fire disaster or the heartache of missing out on promotion, McCall describes them all graphically with a refreshing

candour, sharing with the reader the joy, sorrow, anger, passion and occasional bitterness that are all part of an eventful football career. McCall had to leave City to fulfil his potential. and there will be much interest as to how his career developed at Everton and Rangers.

But it is his origins at Valley Parade and his views on those eventful and often controversial days in the early and mid-1980s that will most interest City fans.

Some of those events still loom large in the thinking of supporters ten or more years later.

The crucial season was McCall's last at Valley Parade - 1987-88 - when City missed a wonderful opportunity to win promotion to the old First Division. This was City's big chance to make it back to the top flight after an absence of 66 years and they failed to take it, first in their inability to win one of the two automatic promotion places and then losing in the play-offs to Middlesbrough.

Even now, the bitter recriminations about that missed opportunity reverberate among City fans, and McCall's book will only fan the feelings.

He tells of the heartache of losing at Middlesbrough, and recalls: "I sat in the bath for ages, tears streaming down my face."

McCall is in no doubt as to where the blame lies. He says: "One or two new faces would have taken us over the finishing line, I am sure of it, and it nagged away.

"It wasn't about gambling, it was about lack of ambition. After all these years, I still feel a bitter disappointment and resentment.

"If I had stayed I might never have played in a cup final or made the World Cup or gone to Rangers, but nothing would have replaced playing for Bradford at the top level. If we had gone up I would have been happy to sign a ten-year contract and stay at Bradford forever."

The Real McCall by Stuart McCall with Alan Nixon is published by Mainstream Publishing, priced £9.99.

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