A new book about the flawed genuises of Scottish football features an indepth chapter on our very own Andy Ritchie.The book, titled Flawed Genius: Scottish Football's Self Destructive Mavericks, is written by Greenock based Daily Mail sports writer Stephen McGowan. Stephen told me that the work began life as an Andy Ritchie biography, but he decided to change direction due to his publisher's concern that there was already an Andy Ritchie book on the market - John Riddle's disappointing effort The King Of Cappielow.
Stephen makes no secret of the fact that the chapter on Morton's Idle Idol (pictured, above left) is his favourite, he said: "Flawed Genius features a number of the Old Firm guys like Di Canio, Gascoigne, McAvennie, Goram and so on - but my favourite chapter is the warts and all account of Andy Ritchie's career. It's a chapter and verse documentation detailing his early life, his days at Celtic with Burns and Stein, the move to Cappielow, his problems with attitude and various vices and the personal breakdown he suffered three years ago."
The work also contains chapters on Hugh Gallacher, George Best, Frank McAvennie, Paul Gascoigne, Andy Goram, Jim Baxter, Chic Charnley, Jorge Cadete, Paolo Di Canio, Pierre van Hooijdonk and Willie Hamilton.
The Birlinn Limited website contains the following description:
Never before have the individual stories of these mavericks of Scottish football’s past been collated and told in one place. Flawed Genius does just that. Through the words of the men themselves – allied to testimonies from friends and close colleagues – Stephen McGowan recounts the in-depth stories of Gascoigne and Goram, Best and Baxter, Charnley and Cadette and the equally wayward figures of Paolo Di Canio, Andy Ritchie, Pierre can Hooijdonk and Willie Hamilton. Here, together for the first time, the colourful contributions of each and every player in the Scottish game’s rich tapestry of flawed genius are brought vividly back to life.
I'll be reviewing the book in the near future so watch this space.
birlinn.co.uk - Flawed Genius (Description)
amazon.co.uk - Flawed Genius (Two customer reviews)
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