Flawed Genius

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But what is it that makes the seriously flawed footballer so intruiging? From Hugh Gallacher, the Wembley Wizard who died of shame, to George Best, Hibernian’s ageing lothario, to the Three Amigos – Celtic’s trio of wayward overseas mercenaries – the great entertainers have always come with baggage.

 
Never before have the individual stories of these mavericks of Scottish football’s past been collated and told in one place. Flawed Genius does just that. Through the words of the men themselves – allied to testimonies from friends and close colleagues – Stephen McGowan recounts the in-depth stories of Gascoigne and Goram, Best and Baxter, Charnley and Cadette and the equally wayward figures of Paolo Di Canio, Andy Ritchie, Pierre can Hooijdonk and Willie Hamilton. Here, together for the first time, the colourful contributions of each and every player in the Scottish game’s rich tapestry of flawed genius are brought vividly back to life.

Stephen McGowan was born in Glasgow, educated in Fife and went on to complete an honours degree in Public Administration in Aberdeen. Realising that a job managing houses or hospitals wasn’t for him, he entered journalism with Dundee’s DC Thomson & Co. From there his journalistic career took him to Dubai and Bangkok before he returned to Glasgow, where he has been a sports writer for the Daily Mail for the last nine years.