FERGUSON SAW THE FUNNY SIDE OF HIS SOVIET SIGNING'S EARLY EXPERIMENT WITH LANGUAGE

Intriguing memoirs of globetrotting footballer

                                                     
              SOME RUSSIAN REFEREES WERE 'ON THE LOOKOUT FOR MONEY'

COULD playing chess make British managers and footballers more capable in their work?

Yes, according to Andrei Kanchelskis who enjoyed an illustrious career at Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton and Glasgow Rangers, plus clubs in Russia, Italy and Saudi, before taking up management himself.

In his excellent autobiography, Russian Winters, he writes: "Chess teaches you a lot about tactics and lateral thinking."

The book contains many fascinating insights and anecdotes, not just about his playing experiences but also about how he (and his family) adapted to living in different cultures where different languages are spoken.

On his arrival in Manchester, he  picked up a mischievous tip from  teammates about how he should address manager Alex Ferguson.

On meeting him in a corridor, the player startled his new boss with the greeting: "F- off, Scottish bastard."

Luckily, Ferguson twigged what had happened and saw the funny side.

Among other revelations in the fast-moving narrative, is that, before matches, Paul Ince  used to take a "little swig of brandy to settle himself for the game ahead".

Kanchelskis was the player nearest to  the infamous incident  when his colleague, Eric Cantona, aimed a kung-fu kick at a fan  after having been sent off for lashing out at  a tight-marking  opponent, Richard Shaw, in a match at Crystal Palace (where Alan Wilkie was the referee).

Says the author: "Cantona's opponents tried everything they could to needle him - they wanted him react, and generally they would get what they wanted . . .in January, 1995, at Crystal Palace, they hit the jackpot."

Selhurst Park - scene of the Cantona kung-fu incident

 
He reckons Cantona's suspension for the rest of the season probably cost his club the Premier League title.

Kanchelskis was released by Manchester United after his manager apparently became unhappy at his habit of not lifting his head when running with the ball, his indifferent  crossing and his lack of understanding on the English game.

The departing player mostly admired Ferguson's management style, but, despite playing alongside stars such as David Beckham and Ryan Giggs during what was an illustrious period for Manchester  United, he was happier after being transferred to Everton, managed by Joe Royle with whom  he got on well.

"He comments: "I didn't win a trophy in my 18 months at Everton, but I probably  enjoyed my football at Goodison Park more than anywhere else."

In his comparison of the British game and that in Italy, the author offers the view  that, tactically, Italian  defenders tend to be "more astute than their English counterparts"who are "physically strong but very weak when it came to knowing where to position themselves".

On the whole, Kanchelskis, now 49, preferred the pace, dynamism and physicality of the game in England to that in Italy where matches were constantly interrupted by players diving, feigning injury and the ref's whistle "shrilling every few minutes".

In Britain, some of his teammates  regularly used to visit  McDonald's restaurants, but when, as a  player at Fiorentina (his manager was Claudio Ranieri), he took his son, Andrei, to one, the author landed himself in hot water with the club hierarchy even though he had ordered nothing for himself.

After someone reported him to his club, he was contacted the next day by the technical  director who told him: "No Fiorentina player goes to McDonald's - ever."

During his spell in Saudi, Kanchelskis understandably declined an invitation  to watch an after-prayers public beheading in Riyadh's Deera Square (known gruesomely as "Chop-chop square") of 18 Filipinos who had been convicted of drug trafficking.

The book contains much intriguing material on  what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union (he was born in what is now the independent state of Ukraine), and the author notes wryly that, when he came to England, the only knowledge  people seemed to have of his country came from Bond movies. 

For visitors to the country, he offers the advice: "Russian beer is very cheap and not very good - you're better off buying imported German lager rather than Baltika, the biggest brand of Russian beer brewed in St Petersburg."

In recent years, the author has been managing clubs in Russia where he claims some referees were  "on the lookout for money". 

He continues: "One asked me how much I was prepared to pay to settle the result - I sent him away."

What was the name of the referee? Did he report the matter to the governing body? Kanchelskis does not say.

Mostly, the seems to have enjoyed his globetrotting footballing life but there have been tragedies along the way - notably  his wife Inna's loss of their first baby which, he says, temporarily "killed his desire for the game".

Subsequently, the couple had two children, but he was heartbroken  when Inna left him for a Russian pop star whom she had met after one of his concerts.

"I was shocked by what happened,"he recounts. "Stunned. I did not see it coming."

One thing that shines through in this superb book (co-written with consummate  skill by journalist Tim Rich) is the eminent good sense of the author who now lives in Moscow.

He has made a fortune out of being a football star, but he says modestly: "The money doesn't change you - it doesn't alter who you are.

"The money is a mask. It's  there for you to hide behind."

Russian Dreams is published at £20 by deCoubertin Books, a dynamic British publishing house which has steadily built up a most impressive list of sports titles.
www.decoubertin.co.uk