Scarborough-born author celebrates Liverpool FC's title glory in new book

Former Barrowcliff Junior School and Scalby School pupil Carl Clemente, 37, formerly known as Carl Colley, has brought out his second official book for the Anfield club, titled “19: The Official History of Our League Champions”.

His new book, which was launched this month to celebrate Liverpool FC’s Premier League triumph last season, recounts in detail the full story of each top flight title success, from 1900 to 2020.

The 558-page book is packed with anecdotes, facts and statistics and includes the thoughts and opinions of the players, managers, protagonists and fans, throughout a 120-year period.

Clemente, who has been a Reds fan since the age of six, left Scarborough in 2002 to study a degree in Languages at Liverpool University.

He admitted: “The course and the university was the least on my mind, I just wanted to be closer to my team and not travel across the country every week.

"It became a lot easier for me to be based in Liverpool.

“A few years later I met my wife, married and had two children and moved to Spain and took the name Clemente from Colley.

“I wanted a way to carry on my love for Liverpool as I was only able to attend games when I returned to England on holiday, so as a hobby, I started writing a blog called Anfield Europe which included articles on the present and past Liverpool teams and players.

“From there, I was approached by LFChistory.net who have great ties with LFC and provide the official statistics and achieves for the club.

"I started to write for them and carry out various interviews with former LFC players and managers as well as putting together historical articles for them.”

Through his work with the website, Clemente became good friends with son of a Liverpool FC legend.

He added: “Through the LFChistory.net website I became good friends with Paul Moran who is the son of former Liverpool legend Ronnie Moran, a gentleman from the Anfield boot room who served the club with distinction for 50 years.

“Along with Paul Moran and LFChistory.net I produced my first book called Mr. Liverpool which recounts the life of Ronnie Moran.

"It became a best seller and was received well by Liverpool fans.

“In 2014, I started working with 5times, the official LFC former players' association and then went on to start writing articles for the official LFC magazine and matchday programme.”

The author had to balance his latest labour of love with his job as a teacher in Spain.

He said: “It took me an intensive eight months to write this book.

“I also work as an English teacher so it was done in the little free time I had.

“On many occasions I would start working on the book at the crack of dawn and continuing into the early hours of the morning.

“The most challenging part was the research needed for the first five league successes (1900-1947) which my friends at LFChistory.net helped me with.

“I’m always thinking of new ideas for further writing projects, so we will just have to see if any opportunities come up.

"Liverpool is a massive club and there are a lot of writers out there, so it’s difficult to find innovative ideas that would be interesting to the fans on topics that haven’t been written about before.”

Clemente’s love of football was also clear in his early years in Scarborough, as he played football in all his school and college teams and West Pier Juniors under the management of Colin Hepples.

He also went onto represent Scarborough School of excellence and Scarborough and District football sides.

The author started going to Anfield to watch his team on a regular basis with the Scarborough branch of the Liverpool Supporters' Club.

He added: “I was a Liverpool fan since the age of six and started going to Anfield on the regular basis with the Scarborough Supporters' Club, which was run by a Scouser called John Copper.

“We would meet in the Sunrise Pub on Dean Road and leave for Liverpool from William Street coach park.

“Sometimes we would cross the country twice a week if the Reds had a European game during the week followed by a league game at the weekend.

“We had a great time together and the other members were a fantastic group of people of all ages!

"The Supporters Club doesn’t exist today, albeit members do keep in touch via a Facebook page.

“This was mainly due to the fact that LFC introduced new ticketing schemes and could no longer provide supporters clubs with matchday tickets.”

Clemente said: “Scarborough is my home and I love returning and visiting especially with my kids and taking them to the places I went as a child. It’s a great town to grow up in.

“I would like to thank my mum Lynn and brother Adrian and his wife Alex who have always supported me and they remain in the town today.

“Also, my good friends Rob Clubley and Johnny Poulter have always been supportive to me and I always enjoy returning to Scarborough to enjoy a few pints with them.”

The former Scarborough Sixth Form College student is a big fan of the club’s Scouse stars.

He said: “My favourite player, growing up in the 1990s as a kid, was Robbie Fowler, he has been one of the gifted players the English game has ever seen.

"I always had a special interest in the local players, Jason McAteer, Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard.

“My favourite manager is the great Bill Shankly, he was the catalyst Liverpool FC needed to get them out of the dire straits of the second division.

“Other men carried on the job that he started but he was the father of the modern-day Liverpool and did as much as anyone and more than most to turn the club into one of the great powers of first English and then European football.

“The debt the club owes him can never be repaid.”

Clemente also singled out his favourite Reds games.

He added: “The best game I have been to was the 2019 European Cup final in Madrid (when the Reds beat Tottenham 2-0).

"However, the greatest game, the greatest game ever played, was the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul, which was a miracle!”

The book is available, at the cost of £19, in all the major high street book shops as well as Amazon and the official Liverpool FC website.