Robin Friday

[Bandini]

The legend of ROBIN FRIDAY

It’s 20 years since Robin Friday, the patron saint of lower division bad boys, died at the age of only 38. Since then his legend has mushroomed into the worlds of publishing, music and fashion. He is recognised way beyond the fans of Reading and Cardiff City, the two League clubs he played for in the 1970s.

In this 50 page photo-essay Roger Titford traces exactly how the legend of ‘the greatest footballer you never saw’ came about and where it’s turning into pure myth. It crystallises Friday in his prime, examines the utterly different attitudes to the game existing not that long ago and the fascination that the modern fan has with his era. Gloriously illustrated with the best-ever collection of images of Robin in action.

Published in association with When Saturday Comes and available exclusively in digital viewing format for just £3.

http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/378/1224

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Does it come with the WSC magazine?

Or is it just online?

[Bandini]

Idiot.

[RoyalBlue]

The legend of ROBIN FRIDAY

It’s 20 years since Robin Friday, the patron saint of lower division bad boys, died at the age of only 38. Since then his legend has mushroomed into the worlds of publishing, music and fashion. He is recognised way beyond the fans of Reading and Cardiff City, the two League clubs he played for in the 1970s.

In this 50 page photo-essay Roger Titford traces exactly how the legend of ‘the greatest footballer you never saw’ came about and where it’s turning into pure myth. It crystallises Friday in his prime, examines the utterly different attitudes to the game existing not that long ago and the fascination that the modern fan has with his era. Gloriously illustrated with the best-ever collection of images of Robin in action.

Published in association with When Saturday Comes and available exclusively in digital viewing format for just £3.

http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/378/1224

Has anyone paid the three quid? Is it worth paying for or is it just a rework of everything else that has been written, particularly the book by the bloke from Oasis?

My 16 year old daughter was asking about Robin Friday the other day. She was interested to hear how we came to sign him from Hayes, why he was regarded as the bad guy from football, and to learn that he died and was cremated just a few miles from where we live. The fact that youngsters from this generation are asking about him would suggest that the legend does live on.

[Gordons Cumming]

This seems an obvious time to direct people to "Classified" where you can purchase images of our Robin in framed prints and/or greetings cards.

"SALE!! Reading FC related framed prints & greeting cards"

Just in time for Crimbo!

[Ark Royal]

Worth a peek. Just by looking at the preview, there are some photos of Friday that I have never seen before.

[Gordons Cumming]

Worth a peek. Just by looking at the preview, there are some photos of Friday that I have never seen before.

I remember all those photos. Seen some recently of Robin in Palmer Park training. Good photos.

[Victor Meldrew]

It is always interesting to speculate on how the old-timers would have got on in the modern game and it's impossible to know.
Suffice to say that Robin Friday and Tommy Jenkins were exciting probably amongst a lot of mediocrity but if you add Kebe on a good day to Gilkes on a good day and then muliply by 4 you might get to somewhere near the level that Friday and to some extent Jenkins induced.

As a midfielder myself I admired Richie Bowman,Denis Allen,Stuart Beavon and Simon Osborn and to this day believe that they could have been comfortable at the top level but things didn't quite go their way.

Back to Friday he does make the many functional strikers of the modern day seem boring-our current three for example very seldom beat a player because they can't dribble with the ball and apart from Snowball nobody gets excited thinking on match day as they approach the ground that soon they will be seeing Shane Long lead the line.

I do believe that way back then football was generally more exciting as every team played with two wingers and a goal-scoring centre forward-nowadays it is much more about not losing and dfenders aren't just players who weren't good enough to play in the attacking positions.
As others have said despite the enormous success of recent years for our club people that saw him believe that he was special enough to still be so highly thought of all these years later.

[Gordons Cumming]

I think his story would make a really good TV drama.

[super darren caskey]

I always asscociate him with a george best kinda figure,maybe its the bad boy image.Obvioulsy best was one of the greatest footballers the world has seen so im proberly way off the mark with my thoughts.Would have loved to have seen him play though as many who havent would too i suppose

[Cripple Creek]

I always think of Friday as a bit of a Stan Collymore figure. One or two managers who were in charge when Collymore was in his early 20s playing at the top level say that he is the most talented footballer they have ever worked with and genuinely thought he could end up being ranked as one of the ten best ever. Point is, neither Collymore or Friday necessarily had the application to go all the way and I feel kind of pleased for both of them that neither of them ever seemed like the kind of people who would bore people in the pub saying "I could have been a contender". It didn't happen and they live/lived with it. It's actually quite a healthy approach to life in general I happen to think.

[Fox Talbot]

Worth a peek. Just by looking at the preview, there are some photos of Friday that I have never seen before.

What do you reckon? I bought it. If you like Rogers other stuff you'd like this.

Definitely not a re-hash - it does what it says on the free preview - takes a good hard look at how the legend came about.

Wish it was a bit longer but hey it's £3 - cheaper and lasts longer than a pint in the madstad.

[Man Friday]

I can't subscribe due to "Please ensure you have cookies enabled in your browser." I can't do this as it's a work computer and I don't want to subscribe via my home PC because the printing capability is limited.

If anyone is willing to print the pages off in colour I'd be happy to pay - any offers?

[Fox Talbot]

I can't subscribe due to "Please ensure you have cookies enabled in your browser." I can't do this as it's a work computer and I don't want to subscribe via my home PC because the printing capability is limited.

If anyone is willing to print the pages off in colour I'd be happy to pay - any offers?

Er, the idea is that you read it on-line and you can go back to it as many times as you like on-line.

[Man Friday]

I know.

But I want to have a "hard copy".

Presumably it can be downloaded...

[floyd__streete]

I know.

But I want to have a "hard copy".

Presumably it can be downloaded...

+1.

What a hopeless concept the 'e-book' is. Half the joy of reading the book is that you can do so wherever and whenever you like; on the bus or train to work, on the beach etc. You don't have the joy of thumbing through the pages at leisure with a poxy e-book

[RichieBowman]

I saw Friday when i was a child and can still remember the excitement of seeing him play. I think that he and Michael Gilkes are my most exciting players to have played for the club.

The Paulo Hewitt book is crap and i could not bring myself to read it. Roger Titford writes some good stuff for WSC so it will be worth looking at his article.

Would Robin Friday have made an impact in the game today ? I guess it would really be down to the man management. He would have been better protected by the ref than he would have been in the 1970' s.

Football focus had a feature on Robin Friday and Gruff from Super Furries speaks with fondness of Robin being a crazy but a great footballer. Cant top that really !

[roadrunner]

Some photos on the photoreel here that I hadn't seen before - http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/picture ... e7473.html

[prostak]

Gruff from Super Furries speaks with fondness of Robin being a crazy but a great footballer.

Odd that he'd know, given that he'd have been 6 years old and living in a tiny village in Gwynedd at the time...

[Royal Rother]

The Paulo Hewitt book is crap and i could not bring myself to read it.

Hmmm...