To Cap It All - John Rudge Autobiography

[mr.hobblesworth]

I thought there was a thread for this but can't find anything.

Anyway, just about to finish this and wondered what others thought. I genuinely love JR but am not so keen on the book. Partly this is due to me not wanting to read Rudgie's descriptions of his successes at Stoke (I'm surprised about how much this sticks in my craw) and also because I don't think the ghost writer really captures Sir John's voice very well. It's not very well written and a certain number of phrases are repeated to an annoying degree. It just doesn't feel like it's Rudgie at some stages. And I certainly don't want to hear about his "conduct, gentlemanly or otherwise" on his wedding night!
By their nature, football books can be quite formulaic and repetitive and I wish that this had been an exception. One of the things I love about JR is how he seems to be such a lovely human being and I don't think this comes across. There are a few bits that veer quite close to 'needless to say, I had the last laugh' territory. 
There's a throwaway sentence near the end of the book where he says that the scariest agent he ever had to face during his time at Vale Park was Andy Porter's mum! I'd love to read more about this kind of thing and fewer long passages about results and transfer fees.
Having said that, I'm really glad I've read it as, well, it's Sir John and the money goes to the statue. Just wished it had come out in 1999.

One other thing I'm pondering is how many players have we signed from Manchester United? Alex Ferguson says that Rudgie was forever telling him sob stories and getting bargains from him but I can't recall more than a couple of their players coming here under JR?

[eh up nah]

6 minutes ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

I thought there was a thread for this but can't find anything.

Anyway, just about to finish this and wondered what others thought. I genuinely love JR but am not so keen on the book. Partly this is due to me not wanting to read Rudgie's descriptions of his successes at Stoke (I'm surprised about how much this sticks in my craw) and also because I don't think the ghost writer really captures Sir John's voice very well. It's not very well written and a certain number of phrases are repeated to an annoying degree. It just doesn't feel like it's Rudgie at some stages. And I certainly don't want to hear about his "conduct, gentlemanly or otherwise" on his wedding night!
By their nature, football books can be quite formulaic and repetitive and I wish that this had been an exception. One of the things I love about JR is how he seems to be such a lovely human being and I don't think this comes across. There are a few bits that veer quite close to 'needless to say, I had the last laugh' territory. 
There's a throwaway sentence near the end of the book where he says that the scariest agent he ever had to face during his time at Vale Park was Andy Porter's mum! I'd love to read more about this kind of thing and fewer long passages about results and transfer fees.
Having said that, I'm really glad I've read it as, well, it's Sir John and the money goes to the statue. Just wished it had come out in 1999.

One other thing I'm pondering is how many players have we signed from Manchester United? Alex Ferguson says that Rudgie was forever telling him sob stories and getting bargains from him but I can't recall more than a couple of their players coming here under JR?

I agree woth a lot of this Mr H.

I've just mentioned on the 1993 squad thread that the stories behind the signings, the amount of games he covered and the profit from one sale going to bring in the replacement is very interesting.

I loved reading about the big games we all remember from that era, purely because it's nostalgia and I'll never get tired of hearing/talking about it.

But I have to agree re the writing of it.  It doesn't feel all that Rudgie.  I think the guy writing it has definitely gone on his own for some of it.  I'm not finding some of the bits that are clearly meant to be funny, funny.  It's just glossed over.

I've not got to him joining them yet.  Not really looking forward to it, although my view of Sir John has never been tarnished by the fact he went.

The only bit I've read on that so far that's really gauled me was where he said he was offered the managers job when macari left and the idea of joining a big club with a flash new stadium really wet his appetite.

That pissed me off a bit.

[TJHValiant]

I will be getting it for Christmas but unfortunately most ghostwritten biographies lean heavily on the views of the ghostwriter. 
 

I loved Micky Adam’s book because it offered some reasonably strong insights into Vale. 
 

Still think there is a great book to be written on the turbulent MOLD/Smurfwaire eras. Although it would probably need serious legal oversight. 

[Santa]

12 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Still think there is a great book to be written on the turbulent MOLD/Smurfwaire eras. Although it would probably need serious legal oversight. 

I‘m waiting until all the protagonists are dead before I publish it 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Santa

[Rory]

I think the book has factual inaccuracies, such as it starting that we lost 3-0 to Liverpool with Owen scoring two and Ince scoring one, which is incorrect as far as I'm aware.

[Rory]

I think the book has factual inaccuracies, such as it starting that we lost 3-0 to Liverpool with Owen scoring two and Ince scoring one, which is incorrect as far as I'm aware.

[Wrex]

It is penned by Simon Lowe, a Stoke City fanatic. The book is far too weighted towards Rudge's time at Stoke. That said, I quite like Lowe's factual style, I've also read his autobiographies with Terry Conroy and Denis Smith.

It was still interesting to learn about his time at Stoke, just the chapters on Vale weren't revelatory. It all came across as more of a biography, written from the perspective of the subject. Which, as someone else said, is what most ghost written autobiographies actually are.

It is still very much worth reading and far better than nothing at all. Just a shame it wasn't ghost written by a Vale fan or that it didn't have much of a Rudgey tone.

[mr.hobblesworth]

We've heard so many of Rudgie's stories over the years, most of the Vale stuff, even down to the twice repeated "scout, cook and bottle washer" quote, isn't particularly revelatory now. 

Also felt that Rudgie's disdain for Wenger came more from the co-author than the great man, as did the laughable quote about Stoke playing some of the most attractive football in the country under Pulis in the Premiership. 

Felt weird when he held back on stuff. One bit in particular where he refuses to detail a revenge prank he pulls on Tiny Penis really made me wonder what he could have done that wasn't able to be published. 

Also, FYI, "the whole city" did not get behind Sjoke when some bookies paid out early on them getting relegated. 

On a positive note, I liked the couple of allusions to Aspin being a bit of a weirdo, although again this was glossed over in favour of kick-by-kick accounts of some boring Stoke games. 

I don't like to be negative and I'm probably being a bit unfair and unrealistic in my expectations. I guess I'm relatively unusual in that I'd love to read several chapters just about Andy Porter, or a detailed breakdown on the signing and release of Oliver Heald. Even if not that, then a bit about John Rudge ' the man', rather than pages of I paid X and sold for y. Lots of this just reads like it was collated from wiki and old Sentinel reports. A shame really.

Finally, there's absolutely no excuse for the phrase 'the game was afoot' to be used twice. 

[Conrad]

4 hours ago, TJHValiant said:

I will be getting it for Christmas but unfortunately most ghostwritten biographies lean heavily on the views of the ghostwriter. 
 

I loved Micky Adam’s book because it offered some reasonably strong insights into Vale. 
 

Still think there is a great book to be written on the turbulent MOLD/Smurfwaire eras. Although it would probably need serious legal oversight. 

Same here, I’ll be getting it for Christmas, hope it answers one of my burning questions, how we managed to get Bernie Slaven to sign for us.

[barny61]

Think Bernie answers that Conrad in one of his podcasts. Because he was knocking on in years for security  he wanted a longer contract than most of the bigger clubs would offer him and Vale obliged with a longer one so he signed for us.

[Packmoor_vale]

I went the crown Thursday get mine signed by the man himself 

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that he spent so long at stoke not that I blame him really after all we did sacked him 🙈 

He prob made a good million or so from them 

Ive took the book to my mum to read first I’m not sure if I’ll ever read it to be honest I just felt I had to thank him for the great years he give us challenging with and beating stoke as I was a young lad 

Let’s hope them days come back 

[Santa]

9 hours ago, Rory said:

I think the book has factual inaccuracies, such as it starting that we lost 3-0 to Liverpool with Owen scoring two and Ince scoring one, which is incorrect as far as I'm aware.

Robbie Fowler got the third. 

[Wrex]

8 hours ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

Finally, there's absolutely no excuse for the phrase 'the game was afoot' to be used twice. 

I must have read about how x and y dovetailed brilliantly together about 500 times

[MBE]

Well worth buying to contribute to the statue even if the reading is a little bit vanilla with things repeated.

I’m looking forward to the day Rudgie unveils his own statue at Vale Park….won’t be a dry eye in the place.

Legend and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

 

[Trumpingtonvale]

19 minutes ago, MBE said:

Well worth buying to contribute to the statue even if the reading is a little bit vanilla with things repeated.

I’m looking forward to the day Rudgie unveils his own statue at Vale Park….won’t be a dry eye in the place.

Legend and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

 

Yep, it’s a means to an end for me too.

 Wasn’t expecting a literary masterpiece or to see Vale stories (and his slant on them) I’d not heard from elsewhere in the last 40 years but it’s still an easy read and puts money in the coffers for the main event.
 

Will never, ever forget the Johnny Rudge’s black and white army chant at Anfield in the League Cup and seeing Liverpool fans  joining in with the rhythmic clapping too.  Still getting goosebumps and hairs standing up on the back of my neck writing about this now.

UTV