ABSTRACT
Sporting objectives often emphasize results at the expense of style and technique. If faced with the choice of playing well or simply winning, many if not most might well opt for the latter. In two hagiographic novels by David Peace, managers Brian Clough and Bill Shankly are missionaries of the Beautiful Game, striving desperately as puritanical martyrs of reform protesting the crass utility of anti-football. In both The Damned Utd and Red or Dead, Peace’s protagonists defend the virtues of creativity borne from technical prowess while Don Revie is cast as the arch-villain set upon winning through aggressivity and calculated deception. The essential goodness of both Clough and Shankly is rooted in their unshakeable belief in their purified vision of the Beautiful Game, how it should be played and the quest to secure glorious victory by vanquishing those that would promote anti-football. Crusaders for beauty, not only winning, winning well is the supreme virtue. This essay explores the archetypal figure of the messianic manager as a martyr for the Beautiful Game in these novels, promoting an aesthetic ideal of how to play the game.
