CITY'S BOOK OF AGES
By Neil Leigh
This special feature was published in September 2024 to celebrate Tony Book's 90th birthday.
Appropriately enough for a man who spent the initial part of his working life serving as a brick layer, it’s no small coincidence that in the seven subsequent decades, Tony Book has served as the veritable mortar helping bind together the very essence of Manchester City.
Tony, or Skip as he is universally and affectionately known, celebrates his 90th birthday today.
And as we mark that magnificent landmark, it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that few can match the enormous contribution Tony has made to the Club over the course of a distinguished association that stretches back almost 60 years.
Indeed, it’s arguable to say that there have been no greater servants of this football club than Tony Book. A man, for many, who is simply synonymous as Mr Manchester City.
Over the course of that time Skip has served almost every major football role at City.
Player, captain, player-coach, manager, caretaker manager, assistant manager, coach and youth team coach, youth team boss...the list is as endless as it is also impressive.
And Tony’s proud association still continues to this day in his role as Honorary President, Life President of our Official Supporters Club and cherished club figurehead.
A finer ambassador for Manchester City one could not wish to find. And no man could have carried out all those varied roles with greater dignity or humility.
When people talk of Club legends, ‘Skip’ is surely amongst the most deserving of that phrase.
But it is not merely length of service, loyalty and universal popularity that makes his life story so fascinating.
For the remarkable path of his football journey is both unique and inspiring and serves as a story that nigh on impossible to imagine happening ever again.
Born in Bath in 1934 the son of an army officer in the Somerset Light Infantry, at the age of four Tony and his family decamped to India where his father was posted and it was there, in the unlikely settings of the baking sub-continent, where Skip honed his initial skills playing games alongside local youngsters.
“I was playing barefoot in the street with a ball of rags and shooting snakes with a catapult!” Tony recalls.
At the conclusion of the Second World War, Book and his family returned to Bath as he embarked on his secondary education where his talent saw him selected for both Bath Schoolboys and Somerset Schoolboys, affording him his first taste of competitive football.
On leaving school Tony became an apprentice bricklayer whilst also playing for local side, Peasedown Miners – initially as an inside centre forward - where the steely resolve that was to become one of the hallmarks of his game was first honed and solidified.
Upon being summoned for National Service in 1952, Book played with the Army team where he was converted to the full-back role that would become his professional calling card.
It was while in the forces that Tony’s natural ability began to really take flight with Book having a trial with Chelsea.
In 1956, upon completion of his National Service Tony then returned to his bricklaying job and initially furthered his footballing education with Frome Town before joining his hometown team of Bath City.
The epitome of a humble, hard-working man, Tony was on £4 per week, laying bricks in the morning, training in the evenings, and seeing his girlfriend (later to become his wife) Sylvia when time permitted.
He was to spend the next seven and a half years at Twerton Park, later becoming captain and guiding the club to the Southern Premier League title in 1960.
However, as his 30th birthday approached, Skip had all but abandoned hope of ever forging a professional career in the Football League.
Fate though was soon to intervene in the formidable and flamboyant shape of one Malcolm Allison.
With illness having forced him to prematurely abandon a hugely promising professional career with West Ham, Big Mal instead turned his hand to coaching, and was appointed as Bath manager in the summer of 1963.
It was a decision that was to have a profound effect on both his and Tony’s lives.
“My life changed forever the day Malcolm Allison came climbing up some scaffolding to introduce himself as Bath's new manager,” Tony admitted speaking back in 2019.
“I was in my late twenties and laying bricks. If I'd told the other brickies I would captain City to four trophies, they would have thought I was mad.
“Even I thought I was past my sell-by date…until Malcolm came. Where would I be now without that? A retired bricklayer living in Bath, I would imagine.”
At the end of his maiden season Allison was subsequently invited to take charge of Canadian side Toronto City for the summer – and one of his first priorities was to invite Skip over on a short-term loan deal where he went on to be voted the best full-back in Canada.
By then Big Mal was back in England having accepted an offer to become manager of Plymouth Argyle and one of his first moves was to be reunited with Book once again, for the princely sum of £1,500 – albeit with a bit of mathematical skullduggery involving Tony’s true age!
Concerned about whether the Home Park board would sanction the signing of a 30-year-old player with no prior league experience, Allison found the easiest solution was to simply shave two years off Book’s age in order to make the move happen!
“It is true,” Tony recalled.
“I was at non-league Bath City and was aged 30 and Malcolm told them at Plymouth I was 28!
“He figured that he wouldn't be able to get my signing past the board if they had known I was 30 - so he changed my date of birth from 1934 to 1936!
“When I produced my birth certificate there was a crease where my birthdate was which was unreadable, so I just about got away with it!”
It may have taken a mathematical sleight of hand to achieve his dream ambition of forging a professional career but for Skip it was the gateway to a future he’d only ever previously dreamt about.
It was proof too that it is never too late to realise a lifelong ambition if you have the talent, perseverance and cast-iron will to stay the course, qualities that would also become the hallmark of Tony’s stellar City career.
Within a year Allison was on the move once more, this time accepting an offer to become Joe Mercer’s number two at Maine Road in the summer of 1965.
It was the start of a relationship that would fundamentally pilot the trajectory of City into a major footballing force as well as establishing the unlikely duo as one of football’s all-time greatest managerial partnerships.
The impact and combination of genial but wily Joe and coaching visionary Allison was immediate with City winning the 1965/66 Division Two title to seal a welcome return back to the top-flight.
However, that maiden season at the Maine Road had also convinced the pair that the emergence of a young but raw City side was in need of a senior figure who could provide leadership, experience and a requisite rod of iron where required.
Allison knew immediately who to turn to, putting in motion a move to be reunited once more with Tony, by now almost 32, this time for a princely fee of £17,000.
Once again though Big Mal had to utilise his formidable powers of persuasion – and footballing logic - to convince the City board and an initially hesitant Mercer that Book – despite his age – was a gamble well worth embarking upon.
“When Malcolm moved to City, he then persuaded Joe Mercer to sign me,” Tony adds.
“Joe was 31 when he left Everton to join Arsenal, and he continued to have a very good playing career.
“Malcolm reminded him of this and persuaded him that I was worth signing.”
It’s fair to say it proved to be one of the best bits of business ever conducted in the long, illustrious history of Manchester City.
Mercer, Allison and Book were a trio made for each other – and it’s a testament to Tony’s character that the negotiations over his move were probably the smoothest and easiest Mercer ever had to conduct over the course of his City transfer dealings.
“My fondest recollection of Joe was when I first came to sign,” Tony recalled.
“I was at Plymouth Argyle in the second division and City were back in the first and I met him at a hotel in London before we went to watch the first England game of the 1966 World Cup at Wembley.
“Joe told me about the club and when we got around to talking about my contract, Joe simply said: ‘Tony, the well is empty.’
“He offered me an extra £5 on top of what I’d been earning at Plymouth, and I nearly bit his hand off!”
Book made his City debut in a 1-1 draw away to Southampton in August 1966, just a few weeks after England had lifted the World Cup and it proved a memorable start as the swinging Sixties truly kicked into gear.
“Back then, the Manchester Evening News used to have an award called ‘Monday’s Man’ - a sort of Player of the Week accolade,” Skip says.
“After the game the City reporter came up to me to say it was going to be me so that was a great way to begin life in a City shirt.”
It was an encouraging portent of things to come - for both Book and City.
A squad now supplemented by such superb, exciting talent as Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Alan Oakes, Glyn Pardoe and Neil Young to name but a few, ended that maiden season back in Division One in 15th place.
However, all the portents were firmly falling into place with Skip being named City’s inaugural player of the season.
The arrival of pocket battleship striker Francis Lee from Bolton in the summer of 1967 then served as what Mercer called ‘the final piece in the jigsaw’.
But equally significant that close season was the appointment of Book as City captain in the wake of the long-serving Johnny Crossan’s move to Middlesbrough.
Mercer and Allison’s inspired leadership, allied to a squad packed to the brim with vibrant, attacking talent with Book the talismanic skipper, proved an inspired footballing alchemy which soon garnered its tangible reward in the shape of City being crowned the 1967/68 Division One champions.
City sealed the title thanks to a memorable 4-3 triumph away at Newcastle on the last day of the 1967/68 season, a success made all the sweeter by being allied to a 3-1 home defeat for fellow title chasers Manchester United at home to Sunderland.
It was the Club’s first top-flight title triumph in 31 years and was the harbinger of a golden era decorated by a plethora of silverware.
However, that title success still stands apart for Skip.
“Winning the league at Newcastle United in 1968 was, without a doubt, my proudest moment as a City player,” Book declares.
“Joe loved his players to go out and play, to enjoy themselves and entertain.
“We were a model of consistency that season and I was approaching my 34th birthday so to captain the champions at that stage of my career was just incredible.”
It proved just the start of an era of unprecedented success for Book and City with the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup all following under Book’s canny captaincy within the space of three seasons.
Yet the early part of the 1968/69 season saw Book having to navigate one of the toughest moments of his career after he sustained a serious Achilles tendon injury which sidelined him for more than four months.
For many, it could have signalled the end of their playing days.
However, thanks to his iron constitution and deep reserves of mental fortitude, Skip made a full recovery and returned to action in time for the start of what was to become a memorable FA Cup run.
It was one that ended with Book leading the side to glory under the twin towers at Wembley in April, 1969 where City edged out Leicester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final thanks to Neil Young’s brilliant first half strike.
In the week preceding the final, Tony’s talents had also been individually recognised, with Book being named as the 1969 joint Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year alongside Derby’s Dave Mackay.
“We had the FWA dinner on the Thursday and all the lads went to support me,” Tony recalled. “Then, on the Friday, we went for a Chinese meal, which wasn't your average preparation for an FA Cup final, but it worked!”
For Skip though collective achievement far outstripped any individual baubles.
“To be captain of that side was something very, very special,” Tony said looking back. “Leading the team up to the steps to the Royal Box at Wembley and lifting the Cup was another of the proudest moments of my career.
“Going up to receive the trophy from Princess Anne in front of all the City fans was incredible.
“It wasn’t that long since I’d been earning my wages at Bath City and here I was, almost 35 years of age, lifting the most famous cup in the world.
“For me it was like being Roy of the Rovers and I just let it all sink in as we paraded the cup around Wembley.
“I also vividly remember coming back on the train to Manchester the next day and then getting the open top bus into Albert Square in the city centre.
“From the station all the way through to the city centre the crowds were fantastic. The turn-out was amazing.”
More memorable success was swiftly to follow in the 1969/70 campaign where Book and City achieved the notable feat of becoming the first-ever English side to win both a European and domestic trophy in the same season.
Less than 12 months after tasting Wembley glory, City were back at the home of English football with Book leading the way as we overcame West Bromwich Albion – and the best efforts of a playing surface that more resembled a ploughed field - 2-1 after extra time thanks to goals from Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe to lift the League Cup for the first time in the Club’s history.
But even better was to come at Vienna’s Praterstadion in April of 1970 as Mercer and Allison’s cavaliers overcame stern resistance from both Poland’s Gornik Zabrze and an Austrian deluge to lift the European Cup Winners’ Cup, again by a 2-1 scoreline.
A first half brace from Franny Lee proved enough to clinch the Club’s first ever European crown with Skip proudly lifting the famous trophy aloft amidst a slightly chaotic on-field post-match presentation ceremony as the Vienna rain pelted down.
“Being presented with the trophy under an umbrella was somewhat unorthodox!” Tony chuckles.
“But it was such a proud moment. It was amazing.
“Three or four years on from playing non-league football at Bath, here I was winning in Europe and captaining a side full of great players. It still stands as one of the proudest moments of my life.
“Looking back, I’d like to think I was the right man to lead that team.
“We had players like Francis Lee, Mike Summerbee, Neil Young and Colin Bell plus a lot of local lads who had come through the ranks like Alan Oakes, Tommy Booth, Harry Dowd, Joe Corrigan and Mike Doyle.
“We had a great blend of hard-work and talent which brought the Club a lot of success.
“People talk about Bell, Lee and Summerbee but we were a team in every sense of the word. They all made my job so much easier as captain.”
It seemed as though Book and City were set fair for a period of sustained success.
Instead, however, the Club struggled to regain the heights scaled in that glorious late 60s and early 70s period.
A late slump in form saw City relinquish a five-point lead with eight games remaining in the 1971/72 title chase with Derby instead sneaking up on the rails to lift the crown.
By that summer the Mercer/Allison partnership had also ended with Joe leaving Maine Road to take charge at Coventry.
Allison took the reins but found the responsibility of being solely in charge a challenge of a different magnitude and he too was gone by March of 1973.
In the wake of Big Mal’s departure, long-serving coach Johnny Hart was elevated to the manager’s position, but ill health forced him to relinquish the post barely six months in.
The ever-dependable Book was the logical choice to step in as caretaker manager until a new man was found – a role he performed with admirable distinction and trademark lack of fuss.
City subsequently turned to former Norwich boss Ron Saunders to become the new manager and he had no hesitation in asking Book to become his assistant and to also hang up his boots.
By then 39 years of age, Skip agreed.
However, he was to subsequently express his regret at not seeking to extend his storied playing career by at least another season.
“I did think I had a year or two left [as a player],” Tony reflects.
“When Ron Saunders took over as manager, I was 39 but still fit as a fiddle.
“Ron asked me to be his assistant and to leave the playing behind me.
“But I should have carried on at least one more year, maybe two because I’d arrived at the top so late in my career and I wanted to go on for as long as possible.
“I regret that I didn’t.”
Despite that bittersweet admission, it’s worth noting that Tony amassed more than 300 appearances for City across all competitions – a remarkable tally given he was almost 32 by the time he made his Club debut.
That magnificent playing career also saw him weigh in with five goals and accumulate five major trophies – the Division One title, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and a Charity Shield too just for good measure.
Quite the tally for a man whom no less a talent than George Best once described as his most difficult opponent.
Book’s quiet but firm leadership skills and natural authority were to follow from pitch to dugout as he made the transition from playing to coaching with ease and elan.
Despite leading City to the 1974 League Cup final, where we were edged out 2-1 by Wolves, Saunders’ City reign proved a disappointment, and he was dismissed less than a fortnight after that Wembley loss.
This time, thanks in part to the intervention and insistence of several senior City players not least a vociferous Mike Doyle, chairman Peter Swales opted to hand Book the manager’s role on a permanent basis.
Having assumed the top job, one of his first tasks was to oversee the famous 1-0 derby win at Old Trafford in late April 1974 – a game forever associated by Denis Law’s famous back-heel and a subsequent pitch invasion.
It was a result that also effectively condemned Manchester United to relegation into the Second Division.
“I loved being part of that,” Skip chuckles. “For Denis Law, of course, it was the other way. But I was delighted.
“I’ve been involved in some great derbies and that is one of my favourites.”
Book the manager was to prove the antithesis to other bold, brash and outspoken bosses of the era such as Allison, Brian Clough, Bill Shankly, Don Revie and Tommy Docherty.
But his dignity, professionalism, eye for talent and meticulous attention to detail marked him out as an equally accomplished leader - albeit in his own understated way.
It helped too that Skip was also universally respected and admired both in the dressing room and on the terraces.
And very soon, Book began to assemble a bright, bold and new-look City into a genuine force to be reckoned with once again.
Top emerging talent such as Peter Barnes, Kenny Clements, Ged Keegan and Paul Power were all afforded their opportunity and more than justified the manager’s faith.
Meanwhile Book also proved a shrewd gauge of talent in the transfer market, bringing in superb new additions such as Dennis Tueart, Dave Watson and Joe Royle.
It was a meticulous blend of youth and experience further buttressed by formidable and established local talent such as Joe Corrigan, Tommy Booth and Alan Oakes.
And it garnered rich dividends in 1976 when Book got to experience guiding City to League Cup glory once again – this time as a manager – thanks to a memorable 2-1 win over Newcastle sealed by Dennis Tueart’s incredible overhead kick.
“To lead the team out at Wembley was such a proud moment for me,” Tony asserts.
“Once your own playing days are over, you never know what is going to happen to you but I was lucky enough to get the manager’s job in 1974.
“I always had a lot of pride in what I did and to take that forward into management was great.
“I had a superb team on the field and off it too with the backroom staff I had working with me – they were all such good people.
“It was a very good side that '76 team – they excited the fans and were a pleasure to manage.
“They were also great characters on and off the field – that’s important too. That’s where your team spirt is generated.
“Someone gave me a chance at 32 to come to City and to play through to until I was nearly 40 and then to take over as manager and help us win the League Cup meant an awful lot to me.
“I also so wanted to win it for the fans as they had been so magnificent to me ever since I arrived in 1966.
“It was a very special day and one I’ve never forgotten.”
Joe Corrigan adds: “Booky came in and did fantastic. He got the lads believing in themselves.
“He had that total respect from everybody, and people responded to him both as a player and a manager.”
Once again, the feeling was that City could be on the cusp of something special.
Instead, remarkably, that magical February day at Wembley would prove to be City’s last piece of silverware for 35 long, frustrating years.
That said, many astute observers believe the City side of the following season deserved to be crowned Division One champions.
After a magnificent 1976/77 campaign, Book’s charges eventually finished runners-up, falling an agonising point short of champions Liverpool, though by way of compensation it represented the first time City had finished in the top two since that 1968 title win.
Such was the consistency of City under Book’s leadership, the Club secured a place in Europe for three seasons running and garnered widespread admiration for a swashbuckling, attacking brand of football.
However, in another ironic twist of fate, Allison was to return to City – initially as part of Tony’s coaching staff - before eventually taking charge of the Club in the summer of 1979 with disastrous consequences and TB subsequently departing.
“It didn’t really work. Malcolm was brought in as my assistant, but he was his own man, he tried to create a new team and it just didn’t work out at all,” Skip admits.
“It was difficult because I had such admiration for Malcolm because I would never have had the playing career I had without him.
“He was the only person who believed in me, and I owed him everything in that respect.
“Finishing second in Division One to Liverpool in 1977 by one point and winning the League Cup in 1976 were my highs. Getting the sack was my lowest point.
“As a manager I was proud that in five years we won the League Cup; finished runners-up by a point to Liverpool; we were in Europe for three consecutive seasons; and we reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.”
On leaving his beloved City, Tony briefly went to work at Cardiff City before fate again intervened and led to an emotional return to Maine Road, this time under the auspices of John Bond, who had replaced Allison as manager in late 1980.
“I went to Cardiff for three months but I was invited back to walk out before the 1981 Centenary FA Cup final against Tottenham along with all the other ex-captains and the reception I received was incredible,” Tony revealed.
“So, when John Bond asked me back to work with the Club’s youth team, I knew City was where I belonged, and I ended up on the coaching staff until I retired.”
Initially installed as head of youth development, Book’s eye for talent, caring, fatherly nature and vast experience coalesced to formidable effect and helped establish City’s youth set-up as one of the most respected and admired in English football during the 1980s and beyond.
Tony was to help nurture and inspire a veritable conveyor belt of top teenage talent including such fine players as Paul Lake, Ian Brightwell, David White, Paul Moulden and Steve Redmond to name but a few of the many gems unearthed in that period.
Indeed in 1986, working alongside fellow former City stalwart Glyn Pardoe, Skip helped mastermind a memorable maiden FA Youth Cup success, the City starlets – including the aforementioned quintet - overcoming Manchester United 3-1 on aggregate.
Remarkably, of the 11 who featured in that decisive Maine Road second leg, seven would go on to play for City’s first team with two also featuring for England.
Alongside his vital work helping develop the talent of tomorrow, Book twice more stepped into the helm as caretaker manager – in both 1989 and 1993 – as well as also becoming part of Peter Reid’s City coaching staff before finally calling time on a magnificent career later in the 1990s.
Typically though, Skip’s bond and association with City continued.
He was subsequently named an Honorary President as well as holding down a role as Life President of our Official Supporters Club and remains a hugely popular member of the matchday legends at our Etihad home games.
It’s only fitting then that on his special day the last word goes to Skip – a man for whom Manchester City is embedded into his very DNA.
“I love this club and am so grateful to all those who brought me here and involved me for so long,” Tony says.
“It’s a special club with special fans.
“Whenever I’ve been given a job to do, I’ve always tried to give my best.”
Few would disagree that Skip has more than delivered on that.
Happy birthday Tony - from everyone at Manchester City!
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