Only a Game?

Only a Game is a book about the life of a pro football player. We get to follow Eamon Dunphy and his team’s progress during a season in Millwall, an English football club that played in the second league during the seventies. The book was written by Eamon himself, a former professional Irish football player, and is based on his own experiences.

Eamon and his team have not been very successful the past few seasons but have still managed to stay in the second league for quite some time. Like most other years, they think that this will be their year, a year where they will finally advance to the Premier League. With a combination of old veterans like Eamon himself and a few new and young players, the squad is excited and have high hopes for the new season.
Unfortunately, things do not turn out the way they had hoped, and the relationship between the players and the coaches are put to the test.

While I personally did not like this book, I could definitely see someone with a bigger interest in football enjoy it. The “diary-style” in which the book is written does not appeal to me, even though I understand the point of it. Following the life of a professional football player day-by-day, every day throughout the whole season gets boring in the long run for someone that does not have a big interest in neither the player himself nor the team.

Over the course of the season, Eamon and the other characters go through a number of changes. Eamon realises that he will not be young forever and that his retirement is getting closer. This changes him and his relationships with the other players in the team when he suddenly has to fight for a spot in the team. This is an example of one of the things I like about Only a Game, the great detail in which each character’s emotions and intentions are described. Combined with the informal language, the detail gives you a personal and first-hand look at the story, which makes it easier to identify yourself with the main character and there is no doubt that the author has been a player himself once.

Despite having a serious and rather depressing feel to it, Only a Game is probably a good read for football fans interested in the life of a professional football player. Eamon Dunphy may not write the most entertaining stories, but they are rich with detail and provide realistic and unique insight into the life of a professional football player.

Nils Axelsson. Peer corrected by Cecilia Hamstedius, Axel Andersson, Filip Stenegren, and Lovisa Edblad. NATE15