[Podcast] The Football Book Club review “We All Live In A Perry Groves World”

Hello! Hope you guys are all keeping well and staying safe at this extremely surreal time, and that you’re coping without football. I am NOT. I’ve started turning on Fifa and letting the AI play itself just so I can watch. Not going great.

I just wanted to let you know that the Football Book Club has a new episode out that’s worth listening to if you’re a Gooner. Every week we read a footballer’s autobiography and review it on the show in a lighthearted way, playing a few games and analysing the bits that really made us laugh. This week was a bit different – we did Perry Groves’ “We All Live In A Perry Groves’ World” and we were joined by the author himself, two-time title winner Perry Groves! In this episode we talk to Perry about the time he was dropped by two OAP stretcher-carriers, how he and Paul Merson broke into a Marbella waterpark late at night and sprayed each other with ketchup, and which is the best Chelmsford based nightclub (James and Perry are from the same part of Essex so they got a little sidetracked). Plus we play a game of “Real Book Fake Book”, where Perry has to guess which of the footballers’ autobiographies we mention are real or fake! Is “MMMKop” by Alan Hansen a real book? [Spoiler, no]

The book was actually really fun to read, and I suspect a lot of people here will have read it (or at least own a copy) – it was given away by the Arsenal Membership a few years ago (something we discuss with Perry, and something he wasn’t particularly happy about…), so if you’re a Red Member chances are you have a copy somewhere. It’s got loads of great, weird anecdotes – including a CRAZY story about Anders Limpar and a pot plant – and it also gives a very vivid, honest and detailed account of an incredible time in Arsenal’s history, including a really brilliant set of chapters on the iconic 1989 Fever Pitch match, where Michael Thomas scored the winning goal to win the title against Liverpool at Anfield in the dying seconds, and where the amazing “It’s Up For Grabs NOOOOOW” moment comes from. If you haven’t read it, treat yourself – Perry writes in a very engaging and honest (although at times a little too honest) way, and despite talking for two hours, we only really scratched the surface of what is a really cracking book.

If you like it, please give us a follow and a subscription – and tell your friends! We’re going to be releasing more episodes next week (from quarantine), so if you need something to fill the football shaped hole, maybe we can be it!

OK we can’t fill it but maybe we can distract you for at least 50 minutes or so.

Also here’s a little sample from the episode – the game of “Real Book Fake Book”!