Man City have had several different football hooligan gangs over the years, below is a few of their stories;.
Guvnors: The Autobiography of a Football Hooligan Gang Leader – Michael Francis/Peter Walsh
Official Synopsis.
For fifteen years, Michael Francis and his brothers headed the Guvnors – one of the toughest and most notorious gangs of football hooligans to soil the streets and football terraces of Britain. Now out of prison and willing to break his silence, Francis comes clean and reveals the inside story of his life.
Sully – The Football Thug Who Didn’t Give a Fuck…: – Tony Sullivan
Official Synopsis.
For almost 25 years, Tony Sullivan has been a member of some of the most violent gangs following Manchester City. He has also toured Britain and Europe as a professional ‘grafter’. Sullivan ran with the Mayne Line Motorway Service Crew in the early 80s.
Here he details how they gained a fearsome reputation nation-wide. From St James’ Park to Upton Park, the Mayne Line ruled British football, the most fearsome football mob during, hooliganism’s ‘Golden Age’. Now, with his hooligan career at a close, ‘Sully’ looks back on this violent era and relives the good hidings handed out and the kickings received.
He also details some of the stunts he and his mates pulled – using the cover of his fellow fans to ‘earn’ a living in an era before extensive CCTV surveillance, often with unexpected results. Along the way he contrasts the exploits of the various supporters groups he encountered – the scouser’s well known propensity for using a blade, the United supporter’s unwillingness to take part in a fight unless they were certain to win it and the craziness of a typical away day in Newcastle city centre in the early eighties.
Later, as police cracked down on hooliganism, many left the scene and the Mayne Line disbanded. Still Sully carried on regardless, the violence and buzz still a ‘drug’. Unfortunately, several custodial sentences curtailed his career including, in 1991, an incidental involvement in the Strangeways Riot and its aftermath.
The 1990s also saw a slew of hooligan memoirs hit the nation’s bookshelves, often written by people with tenuous connections to the incidents described. Others sought to celebrate hooligan culture as some-kind of weekly fashion parade. Sully has little time for either as he explains: ‘Over the years I have been beaten, stabbed, had bottles cracked on my head and had lads threatening to come round my gaff – but you won’t hear me complain.
This book is a true account of those years, devoid of sensational bullshit’.
The Young Guvnors – Rodney Rhoden
Official Synopsis.
MANCHESTER CITY HOOLIGANS This book is the brother book to the GUVNORS by Mickey Francis, and tells the story how we went to grounds up and down the country causing chaos and looting in town centres, with the undercover police not far behind us posing as hooligans then tipped off the uniformed and the other team of undercover police who were driving around in a BT van and a British gas van taking photos of the mob and videoing,
And how the mob had now chilled out because of all the police pressure with their in your face approach and their videoing of us but it was even worse when our black firm would join up with the rest of the mob and the police suddenly go straight to the blacks and they have the cheek to walk around with their badges on kick out racism what a cheek.
The mob cant get out of the pub these days even when its going off outside because they are more interested in their pint than to go and kick it off so whats the point coming out and bringing ourselves on top with the police if nothings going down, and they wonder why pure teams are coming down taking the piss just like Birmingham city’s Zulu warriors did in 07/08 that’s why me and most of the black firm at city cant be arsed anymore .
I will still go and bring my video camera only so the police cant try and frame me again, when their is an arrest their video evidence all of a sudden goes missing when it comes to the court case, so i will continue to bring mine and if they film me i will carry on filming them back like I’ve been doing for years.
As well as Ebay and Amazon we do occasionaly have copies of these, and loads of other football hooligan books, for sale on our own Footybooks site here.