At over 100,000 words, ‘The Return of King Kenny’ is the most comprehensive guide yet published to Liverpool Football Club’s 2010-2011 season, arguably the most tumultuous of any in the club’s history. The previous lacklustre year had ended with the sacking of Rafael Benitez, which led the author of this book to believe that things could only get worse… Of course, Benitez was replaced by Roy Hodgson, who had achieved the phenomenal feat of getting Fulham to the 2010 UEFA Europa League final. To his credit, Oliver had doubts from the start that Roy Hodgson could successfully make the step up to a bigger club such as Liverpool FC, and Oliver’s ideal appointment at this time would have been a certain ‘King Kenny’… Yet Liverpool were still owned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who were certainly not a “safe pair of hands”, as under their stewardship, Liverpool FC came dangerously close to the brink of administration… Oliver Smith cuts through the broken promises, the bluster, and the red tape to provide a scintillating account of the events that could have wrecked Liverpool FC forever. With the stunning purchase of Liverpool FC by John W. Henry’s New England Sports Ventures (NESV), Oliver was finally able to detect a little bit of that “golden sky’ so promised by the Kop’s famous anthem. However, with Liverpool FC having the worst start to the season since the 50s, with an accompanying drop into the Premier League relegation zone, more drama was to come, culminating in the crowning of a legendary Anfield hero as King…
Oliver Smith is 17. He is currently attending college with plans to study Politics at University. He loves playing, watching and writing about football. Oliver’s obviously a Liverpool fan, but he also has a special place in his heart for his hometown team Ipswich Town, and also for Birmingham City, because he enjoyed his time with them on trial as a youngster. His favourite aspect of the beautiful game is that two people can watch the same match and have completely different opinions. After years of discussing the Reds on the web, Oliver’s come to the conclusion that ultimately, however much he disagrees with someone, he’ll respect their right to an opinion. Oliver is a Christian, but this doesn’t mean that he pulls his punches when writing about Liverpool FC.
‘The Return of King Kenny’ has been published as an ebook, which is available on the Kindle, and the iPad iBookstore:
lacklustre years ??? If we were Newcastle Utd it would have been the Golden age
I’ve just bought this book on iTines, I hope it’s worth the £3.
I read the book today, it’s very easy to forget that the author is still only a teenager, it’s very well written and Oliver Smith has a very good eye for detail, I’d highly recommend this to anyone.