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Title: Caesar & The Assassin – Managing Celtic after Jock Stein
Author: Billy McNeil & Davie Hay with Alex Gordon
Published: Oct 2014
Synopsis
CAESAR & THE ASSASSIN – MANAGING CELTIC AFTER JOCK
Author: Billy McNeill & Davie Hay with Alex Gordon
Published: 00-00-0000 [HARDCOVER]
480 pages
Buy Now (UK / EIRE) – £18.99
Buy Now (Rest of World) – £24.99
Caesar & The Assassin – Managing Celtic after Jock Stein. Billy McNeill & Davie Hay with Alex Gordon
Published 31-10-2014 (Hardcover) N.B LIMITED NUMBER OF PERSONALLY SIGNED COPIES
480 pages
Caesar & The Assassin provides a compelling and fascinating insight into life as a Celtic manager for two of the club’s true giants.
During an extraordinary, tension-laden thirteen-year period, following in the legendary footsteps of Jock Stein, Billy McNeill and Davie Hay were the individuals entrusted to continue the unique tradition of one of the world’s most famous and romantic football clubs.
There were spectacular highs and heartbreaking lows throughout a remarkable and turbulent period in the club’s history. Unforgettable League Championship triumphs and dramatic near misses, breathtaking Cup Final successes laced with suspense and controversy, European nights that, for better or worse, which will live long in the memory banks.
This is the vivid diary describing the delight and the despair of managing Celtic, the club that was always closest to the hearts of Billy McNeill and Davie Hay.
The suspense on the field was often matched by the strain off it during a tumultuous, pressurised thirteen-year span for the two leading characters.
Caesar & The Assassin is published by CQN and is essential reading for Celtic supporters.
Review
(by JoeBloggsCity)
Alex Gordon has been a busy man, involved with a trio of books this year, and this is his biggest effort of the lot. You get a lot of bang for your buck here with this meaty tome as Alex takes us through the difficult managerial runs of McNeill (Cesar/Caesar) and Hay (the Assassin). This book really helps to fill in the major gap that is coverage of the 1980’s which for whatever reasons has been generally poorly served until this book appeared.
First things first, Alex is a fine writer, and his style is easy going. Makes me feel that he was wasted being a tabloid journalist and editor. Anyhow, here he shows his real writing talents. He takes us on a chronological trek on the two managers’ reigns but tweaks the format so avoiding the traps that have made other books in the same vein quite a dry read.
Each chapter generally begins rather than ends with the big occasion of the moment and then elaborates on how we got there. This format works well. He peppers the reviews with anecdotes and quotes which gives a genuine flavour of the times and the feelings of the teams and manager, and this provides a valuable insight to the development of the season being written about. Lots of good humour too, especially the one on Jimmy Johnstone’s nephew (I won’t spoil it by detailing it here).
Some quotes from papers and interviews were fascinating, and I found that Alex does a genuinely great job to find the right notes that succinctly wrap up what others would fail to write in pages of text. Excellent, but also necessary as else this already large book would have been too much to attempt to get through. Especially in the chapters in Davie Hay’s reign we really get a insight into his psychology in his reign (possibly no surprise as Alex did write Hay’s biog).
There are separate chapters on certain events and matches, and this allows for a greater focus (e.g. Ajax matches 1982, centenary final 1988) which is a welcome note. The chapter on the infamous Rapid Vienna matches has little been bettered anywhere else, and make this book worth buying even just for that.
There are a few problems in my opinion. His write-up on David Hay is a bit too partisan, and really I think is too heavy handed on the board and way too uncritical of Davie Hay (maybe the author is too close to him). It is nonsense that there was no reason for Davie Hay to be removed from his role and a bit more balance would have been of benefit to the reader. I can think of enough arguments why it was right to replace Davie, although I agree that there were bigger problems in hand of which Davie was least of them. Similar points can be made about the chapters on McNeill but not to the same extent.
It also feels as though the supporter on the terraces is too often treated as peripheral. You won’t find many supporters’ views or anecdotes in this book, and that marks this book down. Possibly it reflects the author’s journalistic background where supposedly they are meant to keep an arms length from their readers. I think this issue could easily have been addressed. Think he might have been able to come up with a better title too for the book if you want to be picky.
Despite those notes, it doesn’t detract from the rest of the book. It is great value, and is as great a reference on Celtic in the 1980’s as you’ll ever find anywhere (possibly will be a go to book on the era). Deserves all the plaudits I’m sure it will get along the way. Looking forward to more from the already very productive Alex in the coming years, especially as his follow-up will be on the 90s covering the much avoided reigns of Brady & Macari. Will be one book to watch out for.
Product Details
480 Pages
CQNBookstore.com
Oct 2014
CQN Books. Price £18.99