Got, Not Got - the Lost World of Leicester City, by Derek Hammond and Gary Silke
Pitch Publishing, £12.99
Every now and again, one of the glossy women's mags will run a feature with a headline that promises to reveal What Your Man Is Really Thinking.
Here, to save you the bother of picking it up and being baffled by the meaningless guff you read inside, are the answers that will cover all the bases for many heterosexual men.
1. Nothing.
2. Where's the remote?
3. Rachel Riley.
4. Leave me alone, I'm on the toilet.
5. Hmmm. Do I need to buy myself a bra?
6. If I had to throw a grenade, which would be ace, do I count down from five or 10?
7. Modern football is rubbish.
Tapping into that last notion has proved a canny move for Leicestershire authors Derek Hammond and Gary Silke, the editor of the venerable City fanzine The Fox.
The two are steadily mining a rich seam of nostalgia which hankers for an era of muddy pitches, Star Soccer on the telly, clattering tackles on fleet-footed strikers from centre-halves to welcome them to the game, silk scarves tied round wrists, World Cup coin collections, collectable Esso club badges and paying a small fortune to ring Clubcall in the Eighties and Nineties just to hear a bloke "summing up back-page stories from yesterday's evening paper and this morning's tabs".
In a more enlightened age, they'd get a grant from English Heritage to start a museum of football. A proper one, that fans would actually want to go to.
As it is, they're dedicated to cheerfully producing collections like this one, a treasure trove of Leicester City-related knick-knacks, whatnots and thingamabobs that's warm and wry, and every bit as comforting as a salt and vinegar-splattered chip cob on a chilly walk home from Filbert Street.
We're in the second week of December. Some of you may think you've finished all your Christmas shopping. Not if you've got a Leicester City fan on your list, you haven't; not until you buy them this.
Got, Not Got is on sale at local branches of HMV, Waterstones and WH Smiths. Or click here to buy direct from the publishers, with a 30% discount up until December 15.
Image may be NSFW.
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