Thanks to harper Collins I’ve been offered the chance to review the latest autobiography from an ex-Everton player – this time it’s Tim Cahill.
Tim Cahill is a player that will see be seen by many Everton fans as a legend at the club. He was always one of my favourite players – those goals against Man City away from home year on year, the goals and efforts against Liverpool in the derbies for starters.
You got the impression he gave everything on the pitch and really got the club and the fans. At a time where we had no money, had sold Rooney and were team that needed battlers as opposed to flair ones (as we can afford to do now) he was absolutely the heart and soul of the club alongside Ferguson, Carsley and the rest.
I guess one of the problems that Cahill has is that he wants to be seen by every fan of the clubs that he’s played for as a bit of a hero. The word ‘respect’ is one that is something he uses a lot in the book and we know from his Twitter feed that he works hard to be seen as a fan of each of his ex-clubs. When he’s not still talking about THAT goal in the World Cup of course.
Indeed the normally-mild Leon Osman mentions in his book that I reviewed here that Tim was a player who was very aware of his own commercial value. Osman was clearly really annoyed that Cahill came out last when David Moyes and Phil Neville had their cringeworthy lap of appreciation but that’s seemingly who he was. Someone who wanted the limelight and still craves it.
Of course with Tim Cahill wanting to be someone who is successful commercially and seen as someone who is humble and rooted you’ll never get too many controversial statements. He sometimes even goes a little too far.
The most controversial things that come from the book are probably his admittance that he respects the ex-captain of ‘that lot’ over the Park. Whilst Everton fans will appreciate the lengths that Cahill goes to when talking about his desire to beat Liverpool in the Derbies and get tackling hard as quickly as possible, the fact that he then talks at length about his admiration for Steven Gerrard was something he probably could have left out!
So what will the book tell you? Well for all Everton fans we all want to know what it’s like to play for the Blues and what the other players were really like. The book covers all aspects of the clubs (and countries) that Cahill has played for, so don’t expect it to be all about Everton. There’s not even too much about why he left really.
Indeed certain chapters that should be interesting for Blues fans are broken up by his trips to Australia – very important for him and his International career but I was more bothered about his Everton moments I guess. Obvious I suppose. If you’re interested in his bromances with Phil Neville and Mikel Arteta though, this is the book for you.
He also goes out of his way to talk about being humble so much that you actually do start getting the impression that he possibly was the teachers pet that the other Everton players teased him about. On the pitch we know that for a long time he was tenacious and played as hard for us (through injury sometimes) and he goes to great lengths as to tell us what exactly Everton mean to him.
If you’re a Cahill fan then this is a decent read and interesting when learning a bit more about him. I guess this is the anti-Roy Keane style book.not trying to be overly controversial, not looking to throw anyone under the bus. Just being honest and telling his story. Perhaps that’s what an autobiography should really be about.