John Dennis - The Oakwell Years

Has anybody read it? http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Dennis-Sometimes-Watching-Brazil/dp/1848848471

I noticed it in Tesco yesterday, nearly bought it but then noticed it's written in conjunction with Matthew Murray - who I have to say I think is a bit of a lovely personk so that put me off.

Lovely aerial shot of Oakwell on the back though - picture probably from the 70's at the latest.

 

Are you related to hemsworth tyke?

 

It's a decent read although I would have liked more on admin and what happened in the lead up especially with PC.

 

I'll give it a go then, read most of the biography's done by people connected with the club over the last fifteen years or so (not that there has been loads) and they've generally been interesting.

Have to say the Lars Leese one has been my favourite - I can remember us thinking we had signed a top Bundesliga 'keeper when he came, the reality was he was nowhere near the Leverkusen first team, had only ever played in front of very small crowds, next thing he knows he's at Anfield playing in front of 45000+. From the book he seems like a really humble guy who was thankful to have been given such an opportunity but admits he was well out of his depth - I actually think he did OK for us, we've definitely had far worse in goal since. It was probably Lars' own lack of self-confidence that meant he went back to playing mostly lower league semi-pro football in Germany rather than any lack of ability.

 

I've just finished it. Thoroughly enjoyed the read

 

Lars is a top bloke. A real nice guy of football. I had the pleasure of meeting with him in Cologne for a piece in one of the matchday programmes a couple of years ago. He still speaks very fondly of his time at Barnsley and the people of Barnsley. He was a real gentleman and even sorted out executive tickets for us to watch a Bundesliga 1 game during our stay.

He was thrust into the limelight by Danny Wilson after the injury to Watson. From Lars' own mouth, Danny Wilson saw him catch one ball and said "you're my man".

He put in an unprecedented performance at Liverpool and a very good one at Chesterfield in the cup. Class bloke.

 

His only weakness was his kicking otherwise he could have stayed longer