The wait is almost over, the most comprehensive book on Saints players is about to hit your local Waterstones and is a must for anyone who cares about Southampton Football Club.
As you can imagine to write such a tome has taken some time and painstaking research and if anyone knows about the history of Southampton FC its the three authors of this book, Gary Chalk and Duncan Holley started the ball rolling and set the benchmark for Saints books when they published the excellent "A Complete Record Of Southampton Football Club" back in 1987 and followed that up with the Alphabet Of The Saints a few years later, their masterpiece "In That Number" is indispensable to anyone who writes about Saints.
They have been joined in this latest release from Hagiology Publishing by David Bull, David needs no introduction to Saints fans who love reading about the Club, as well as contributing to In That Number he has written a number of books in his own right, the Dell Diamond biography of Ted Bates being a masterpiece not to mention the Constant Paine biography of Terry Paine who himself provides the foreword for "All The Saints"
So what can the reader expect as he excitedly opens this soon to be acclaimed classic ?
Firstly he can expect an in depth look at well over 1,000 Saints players, most illustrated with a photo, many with two or three and in some cases hitherto unpublished, there are 540 A4 sized pages containing the profile of every player who has made a competitive appearance for the club since its competitve beginnings in the Hampshire Junior A Cup on 26th November 1887 till the final game of last season, its far more than a Where Are they Now book, no stone has been left unturned in making sure that the reader will not only know all about the players time at Southampton but what he did afterwards.
As you can imagine such research takes time and this book has been 6 years in the making, the authors attempted to speak to every living player, no matter where he is in the globe and is unquestionably the most comprehensive who's who published about the Club, indeed i would venture a guess any football club.
The book will be launched on Friday evening as an event that has been described as the biggest ever reunion of Saints players and then will be available from Waterstones, although here it should be pointed out that Waterstones shops will be the only retail outlets carrying copies and that the official Club stores will not be stocking it.
It retails at £35 which is a bargain given that a decade ago the simiarly sized "In That Number" cost the same price.
If you want to order on line plans are afoot for that and indeed if you really want to make sure that Hagiology receive the bulk of the cover price and can continue to produce works on the club, then this is the best way to get it, there could be a slight discount if you can collect the book.
In the meantime For further details, or enquiries, e-mail duncan@duncanholley.co.uk