Chosing Liverpool's Best Manager

Book Review: Dynasty by Paul Tomkins

People who read Paul Tomkins’ regular columns fall into two categories: those who appreciate his insightful musings and those who do so to complain about his ultra-positive tinge. That over the past few years he has been writing largely for the official website has strengthened the latter’s view that he is simply a mouthpiece of the club.


It was therefore highly ironic that there was, briefly, the treat that he wouldn’t be able to promote his latest book Dynasty in his regular articles on the liverpoolfc.tv. Ultimately everything was cleared up yet the fact that his articles now come with a disclaimer hints that they might not sit comfortably with everyone at the club.

All of this might be interpreted that there is something controversial within the pages of Dynasty. If I’ve given out that impression then let me clarify: that’s not the case. But, contrary to what seems to be current conventional wisdom, there is no need for controversy for a book to be brilliant and this is certainly proof of that.

The project that Tomkins has taken on here is highly ambitious: assessing each of Liverpool’s managers since Bill Shankly. He does this in his own irrepressible style of analyzing in detail every area that falls within a manager’s remit. And whilst Tomkins has a talent for such a task, where he excels here is in approaching each manager without any apparent pre-conceived ideas. This can lead to some surprising points of view: whereas the directors who appointed Shankly are often seen as making an inspired choice, Tomkins puts across the possibility that they were simply lacking in ambition when they chose a relatively unproven manager more noted for balancing the books than winning trophies or promotions.

It is such insight that makes Tomkins and the book such an interesting read. To be honest, having seen what it was about I was half-expecting a rehash of things we’ve heard before. In hindsight, I should have given Tomkins more credit.

In particular, he has gone into a lot of effort to be as objective so much that the analysis of players is down to the collective view of a panel of Liverpool fans. It is an innovative – although not infallible – approach.

Ultimately, however, it is simply an aside to Tomkins' excellent writing. Of course, there is no damning criticism of any manager – that is simply not his style – but rather a great body of evidence with which to judge and rank each manager’s achievements.



Further book reviews can be found here.