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Forthright, insightful and entertaining, Everton's legendary 'keeper Neville Southall tells the story of his life in football


Neville Southall's unvarnished account of his life in football is reviewed with approval by Eric Brown on the Sports Journalists' Association website.

The Binman Chronicles, written with the help of Liverpool-born journalist James Corbett, charts Southall's rise from odd-jobbing non-League goalkeeper to becoming a fixture between the sticks for Everton and Wales, in a career that saw him with two League championships, two FA Cups and a European Cup-Winners' Cup, as well as an MBE.

Brown is impressed with Southall's honest appraisal of the managers, players and officials he encountered as well as his thought-provoking views on Hillsborough and Heysel, and with how he takes no prisoners in assessing Everton's fall from football superpower to also-rans.

"His frank opinions in this book on the many players, managers and officials whose paths he crossed in 30-odd years are entertaining and insightful. Southall’s reflections on the Hillsborough and Heysel Stadium disasters and their consequences make particularly interesting reading.He pulls no punches when discussing management of the Wales team, Liverpool FC, and the reasons behind Everton’s decline from being the best team in England during the 1980s. Mike Walker look away now."

Read Eric Brown's full review.

James Corbett is also the author of two football histories, Everton The School of Science and England Expects, as well as the recently published 652-page Everton Encyclopedia.

Neville Southall: The Binman Chronicles is published by De Coubertin Books, a small London-based publisher specialising in non-fiction, particularly sport.

Visit the De Coubertin website

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