RamZone's series of round ball reads continues this week with a Biography about one of the Rams most talented yet frustrating players.

 Kinkladze – The Perfect 10

By David Clayton

Published by The Parrs Wood Press

ISBN: 1 903158 60 5

On the frontispiece is a quote from Diego Maradona in 1996: “Great players often pay a heavy price for their gift from God”

I suppose it depends what you call a ‘heavy price’. I don’t call living in a Cheshire mansion and driving a Ferrari a very heavy price for never having played for one of the top clubs in the world or for having presented difficulties to assorted managers over where best to fit such skills into a team.

That said, this book is really a tribute to Gio Kinkladze and I don’t think the author expected or hoped to win any literary prizes.

It’s a book that is extremely easy to read in that it is simply a story of Kinkladze’s life with very little in depth analysis and certainly no criticism.

Perhaps Kinkladze deserves to have such a book written; to be voted Player of the Year three times in six years in English football with two different clubs is no mean feat.

However, the overwhelming feeling after reading this book is that although Giorgi was much beloved by the fans of the clubs for whom he played, he presented enormous difficulties to those called upon to manage him.

The book is written by someone who is clearly a passionate Kinkladze fan, but there are quite a few errors from poor proof reading and carelessness e.g. Ravenelli instead of Ravanelli, Stefan Eranio and other names incorrectly spelt throughout (although Ravanelli changed to a correct spelling in a later chapter!)

Another glaring error was a part about Georgia playing in Tunisia and a private jet being sent to fly Kinky back for a Man City game – only it says that the plane flew to Marrakesh…..wrong edge of the Sahara unfortunately and a few thousand miles away!

I don’t profess to have studied Giorgi Kinkladze in any great detail, but there was very little in this book that I didn’t already know. Considering the author had access to Kinkladze’s family and friends, there was nothing really very new that lifted the lid on Kinkladze’s personality or life. I certainly didn’t feel I had been given an insight into the man himself.

I would have preferred much more insight into his life in Soviet Georgia and whilst there were anecdotes from his childhood and short references to life in lawless Tbilisi after the break-up of the Soviet Union it didn’t paint – for me – much of a picture.

It was interesting to read that Lee Bradbury had been expected to complement Kinky’s skills at Maine Road and had been christened ‘Lee Badbuy’ by the fans. Some things never change!

This author also interviewed both Gerald Mortimer and Steve Nicholson of the Derby Evening Telegraph and quoted both but only briefly which didn’t do any justice to their knowledge.

Strangely enough, Kinkladze felt that John Gregory was one of the few managers to have understood how to get the best from him on the pitch and his record under Gregory was quite good.

It’s an enjoyable easy read and anyone who was a devoted fan of Kinkladze at either Manchester City or Derby will probably have a pleasant afternoon reading it and there are two sections of quite nice photographs.

I’m sure the author enjoyed writing it and it will be nice for Kinkladze to show his grandchildren in the future.
However, I felt that given the access to friends, family,

footballing colleagues, managers and journalists that the author had, he could have made so much more of his subject with wider research and some deeper analysis of why it was that Kinkladze proved a problem to fit into football teams both home and abroad.

Next Week:

KEANE

By Roy Keane with Eamon Dunphy

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