Dave whelan autobiography samples

Tube as chairman of Wigan Determined he's taken his club name the way from the Bag Division to the Premiership. Dave's story is one of arrivisme, enterprise and tenacity - nevertheless also of a man intensely loyal to his family, surmount friends and his roots. Bid begins in wartime Wigan partner the Whelans' desperate struggle break into survive.

Dave whelan autobiography samples

Starting as a market trader, he breaks the mould from day one: taking on Boots single-handedly in the Appeal Court; negotiating the sale of his supermarket chain to Ken Morrison - whilst stood at a urinal; and transforming a single tackle shop in Wigan into JJB Sports, the UK's biggest sports retailer and a GBP1 billion PLC. In he used his personal fortune to buy struggling, hometown Wigan Athletic, vowing to take the Latics all the way to the Premier League.

At the time he was ridiculed, but ten years later, on the final day of the Championship, Dave watched, ecstatic, as his club beat Reading to finally secure their place in the top flight. In peacetime a boyhood love affair with football eventually leads him to sign with Blackburn Rovers. On the pitch he encounters the legendary Stanley Matthews, and when national service calls he joins the Army football team becoming close friends with 'Busby Babes' Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards.

Then, a vicious tackle in the FA Cup final spells the twilight of his playing career - but a new dawn in business. It begins in wartime Wigan with the Whelans' desperate struggle to survive. Dave describes the terrifying wasp-like hum of the Luftwaffe and the devastation wrought by their bombs; he remembers the deathly winter ofpeeing on his own hands to stop his fingers from freezing; admits how hunger drove ordinary families to lie, cheat and steal; and relives a remarkable reunion with the father he'd never known - a returning soldier.

In peacetime a boyhood love affair with football leads him to sign with Blackburn Rovers and when national service calls he joins the Army football team, becoming close friends with 'Busby Babes' Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards. Then, a vicious tackle in the FA Cup final spells the twilight of his playing career - but a new dawn in business.