A great listen from two amazing broadcasters

At time hilarious but also educational. Highly recommended. Lineker is interesting, and Baker is hilarious.

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What an absolute gem!

The audiobook is as entertaining as it is informative. The juxtaposition experiences of Danny Baker and Gary Lineker may be a world a part but their love of football certainly has it's parallels.
An absolute must for any football fan.

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some funny bits but lots of old stories retold

I love Danny baker and his work, and I really enjoyed this podcast when it was in do I looked forward to this book. Sadly there is not a lot of new material in here and although it's nice to hear some of the old stories again, it does seem a bit of a let down when you are expecting something new.

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Baker & Linaker are top drawer.

What a fantastic book! I very much hope they think about doing a second one.

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Nice listen

Enjoyed the listen! Love the history of Gary’s past but felt didn’t need some of Danny’s stories in there other than that great purchase

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brill

absolutely loved it from start to finish, the stories were enlightening and made you wonder and say God I remember that

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A great idea to hear from both the footballer & fan.

A good mixture of serious & funny stories. Listen for free to the behind closed doors podcasts first, to find out if it would be something for you...

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Funny and Insightful

I feel it is important to open with a statement. I haven't listened to the podcast this book was born from. There I've said it. It isn't much of a revelation, I generally don't listen to podcasts anyway. Not out of any dislike for them - there's one or two that I dip into every now and again but I have all but given up hope of ever catching up with them. What does this all mean for the review? Well one thing really, at the start of the book it is revealed that some information is new to the book, while some are stories they have discussed previously in the podcast. So by not listening to the podcast EVERYTHING was new. I like that.

I find that recently every time I am reading a memoir or non-fiction book that I choose to listen on audio, especially when the narration is done by the author. Here the audiobook is narrated by both Gary and Danny in (mostly) alternating chapters, and I think it probably added a lot to the story. 

Over the course of  almost 8 hours Gary and Danny regale us with tales of football as a player and as a fan. 

Gary brings us some of the highlights from his career, including "poogate" (is that a highlight or a lowlight I wonder?). During the course of a career which included stints at various clubs in the UK as well as with Barcelona in Spain and Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan, Gary earned a number of honours, but unfortunately not the league or World Cup. He is one of very few players to have never received a single red or yellow card in his career - earning him a reputation of Mr. Nice Guy, although through the course of the book we learn one or two things that he might not get away with these days. Once we get beyond his playing days he also talks about how he became a pundit, and later a TV presenter. These sections are somehow more interesting to me, perhaps because I remember very little of Gary's playing career, he moved to Japan when I was 7 and retired two years later, so he wasn't exactly around when I was paying attention to the game. I found the sections with Gary very interesting, but also incredibly funny. He certainly knows how to laugh at himself, but also has one or two jokes at the expense of former colleagues.  

For me though the real gems come from Danny. He tells stories from the viewpoint of a true football fan. It is clear to see that he has a great love of the game. He speaks quite often about his beloved MIllwall, and how he came to support them, and I listened with a certain jealousy. To have such strong ties to a team from birth seems amazing to me. As mentioned, I think his sections are the best part of the book, and he had me in tears of laughter at various points. I especially enjoyed his tale of hitching to Italia 90 and his other work during the world cups - although I can't agree with his opinion on Vuvuzelas. 

All in all, I loved this book. Of course, my opinion is largely skewed by my love of football, so I'm not sure how much there is here for you if you don't like the sport. I definitely recommend it to other fans though.  

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Excellent anecdotes of football past

Loved this book. Very true to their weekly podcast. If you like football, then listen.

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Super Smashing Great

What a cracker of a book.
2 men with insight into football that stretches over many years and many different view points.
Well written and well read.

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