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Not for Me, Clive

Stories from the Voice of Football

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Not for Me, Clive

By: Clive Tyldesley
Narrated by: Clive Tyldesley
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About this listen

Shortlisted for the 2022 Sports Book Awards

Football changes everything. It changes how we feel, how we think, how we behave. It turns us into someone else.

You love your team first. It's tribal. Except I did love something else. I loved the idea of commentating on my team, on every team. I loved it even more than my team. I ditched the girl next door for the diva on the silver screen.

Like all true romances, it was irrational and intoxicating, it was tangled and foolish, it became addictive and occasionally heartbreaking and it kept on changing.

Two United goals inside two minutes changed it in 1999. A teenage Evertonian called Rooney twisted the plot in 2002. Three Liverpool goals in less than six minutes changed everything again in 2005. Hello, hello.

Moments. Mere blinks of wide eyes. Football happens in heartbeats. Meeting those moments is my job. Seeing them, saying them, spelling out the difference they have just made. It's all I've ever wanted to do. Probably all I can do.

Spending time in the company of the 'greats' of football like Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough and Sir Kenny Dalglish has changed everything for me and probably for you, too.

©2021 Clive Tyldesley (P)2021 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Football (American) Football (Soccer) Sports Witty Funny Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

"This is really good. Raw, funny and revealing on football, on Ferguson, Clough, Dalglish and worth getting for the Roy Keane selfie story alone. Emotional on his ITV exit. Talent like Tyldesley's appeals to all ages." (Henry Winter)

"Started reading this and couldn't stop...wise and entertaining on the big names and games. Clever work." (Paul Hayward)

"Clive Tyldesley's brilliant, emotive commentaries became the soundtrack to matches that will stay with the fans for the rest of their lives." (Oliver Holt)

All stars
Most relevant
Excellent listen, a real glance into the world of broadcasting from my favourite commentary figure. No one tells a story about quite like Clive.

Didn’t want it to end.

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a brilliant communicator. holds no punches but tells such interesting and honest stories from his excellent and long career.

thanks for sharing.

Great listen from the first whistle

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An interesting listen. always liked the author's commentating on the TV and found his approach interesting. I enjoyed his account of how he came to be a top commentator and his meetings with the greats.

it isn't just a biography in so far as it gives an analysis of commentating as both an art form and a science, interspersed with his biography

the reason why I haven't given this as five is because every now and then we get a bit of a prickly, general view of the world and politics that don't really fit with the rest of the book.

other than that an interesting listen for any football fan

An interesting insight into world of commentary

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A fascinating, outspoken insight into what it takes to rise to the top of football commentating - and stay there.

A new perspective on the last four decades of British football - from a professional who is clearly not ready to hang up the mike.

A professional job

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loved listening to this book. Really interesting format with chapters about all the great managers and how clives career intertwined with them. Made even better with clive telling the story great voice. Highly recommend

Brilliant

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