One of the things I like about Kindle and Amazon is that they occasionally give you books for free.

Usually they are pretty pants, but now and then you get a gem.

Just before me recent hols, I picked up a biography of ex Wolves manager Stan Cullis for £0.00.

Now, I like football and obviously know who Wolverhampton Wanderers are. But, apart for a liking for their gold and black kit, and a vague memory of seeing their strange, ziggy-zaggy roofed stand on 70's "Match of the Day", they have have no other significance to me as a team.

Apologies if you all know this, but Stan Cullis was Wolves manager from 1948 to 1964. During his tenure they won the English 1st Division title 3 times, were runners up 3 times, and were 3rd on 4 occasions.

Oh, and they also won the FA cup twice, got to the semis once and won the FA youth cup - Wolves were famous for bringing their own home grown products straight thru from the Youth team, sometimes all the way to the England line up - on 4 occasions.

Pretty impressive, but he was also a pioneer of other things that later became standard: European football, use of floodlights, controlling players diet and proper medical attention to sports related injuries.

To make it all seem more impressive, he took over Wolves when he was 31, and was sacked at the age of 48. Although he has a few further years with Birmingham City (took them to the semis of the League Cup and FA Cup when in the 2nd Division). He was effectively finished with top class football when he was 54 in 1970.

To put this in perspective,Alex Ferguson didn't take over Man United until he was 46, as was Bill Shankly when he went to Liverpool. Cullis was in comparison a wunderkind.

Given his pretty astounding record, you'd think he should be up there in the pantheon of great British football managers, like Clough, Revie, Shankly et al. Yet today he's almost forgotten - surprisingly so, as he was also captain of England until his career ended prematurely due to injury.

I read this book at the same time as Stuart Maconie's new tome. And it seemed strangely fitting to read about this man, who represented the very best of Englishness in sport, along with Stuarts elegaic tribute to the vanishing of the British working class. Stans personal, contemporary anonymity chimed with the forgotten idea of who we were. It made me rather sad.

So, lets all hear it for Stan Cullis. Englands lost football genius.

I could just have drank to much on holiday of course.