BOOKS

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Rene Lacoste by Laurence Benaim

Although I suspected that Laurence Benaim’s book on the revered French tennis legend Rene Lacoste was going to be nothing more than a nice coffee table book, I have to say that I thought the book would have had a little more depth. I had hoped that the book would explore his two careers, one as a hugely successful owner of the renowned sporting goods company Chemise Lacoste but also his career in tennis as a 7 times grand slam winner, but sadly the book really does not do justice to either career to the man famously nicknamed Le Crocodile.

Rene Lacoste’s achievements in winning 7 grand slam singles titles plus 3 grand slam doubles wins should have been covered in much greater detail, as should his battles against Bill Tilden, Jean Barotra and Henri Cochet in these major events. Furthermore, France’s epic performance in wresting the Davis Cup away from the USA in Philadelphia in 1927 is barely touched upon which, is very disappointing.

Similarly his relationship as one of the Quatre Mousquetaires (Four Musketeers) is a bit patchy, surely we could have learned bit more about his association with his friends and rivals Borotra, Cochet and Jacques Brugnon.

However, what does come across loud and clear is that what drove Rene Lacoste is his work ethic, in both his approach to playing tennis or when building his eponymous brand. After retiring from tennis due to ill health, Rene Lacoste, quite cleverly spotted an opportunity to exploit the sporting goods market and in 1933 started producing his legendary polo shirt, the shirt proved to be an instant hit and by 1939 he was producing over 300,000.

Lacoste’s creative mind was always working, looking at new ideas and challenges that would test his imagination so much so that he became instrumental in developing steel tennis racquets used by such tennis stars such as Jimmy Connors.

Despite the fact I was ultimately disappointed with book, the photographs and illustrations are wonderful and I am sure that some of them are being published for the first time.  I cannot say that would recommend you to buy this book because it is generally a poor read, Le Crocodile deserved a better book, with the only salvation being that it is saved by the fabulous pictures.

CLOTHES

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Fedeli Swimwear

Around about this time last year I explored what I thought might look on the Geordie male with regard to swimwear. Having covered all the options in blog notes 118 I was fairly convinced nothing was going to outdo the Italian brand Fumagalli 1891, and then on my recent trip to Forti Di Marmi I come across a small shop entitled Fedeli Swimwear.

The Italians, it has to said are playing with The Frozen Northerner, every time I go to Italy I think I have all the bases covered and then bang, up pops a company that have never heard of before.

Fedeli swimwear was founded in Monza in 1934 by Luigi Fedeli and like so many family run Italian companies is now in the hands of fourth generation Niccolo Fedeli. Their boutiques are normally found in very upmarket resorts around Italy like Portofino and Forti Di Marmi, although rather amazingly due a partnership with Korean company Parco International I have discovered that they have 8 boutiques in South Korea (I’ve got to be missing something here about Korean beaches).

Despite the fact I am somewhat baffled by the Korean connection, I have to that Fedeli have designed a rather beautiful array of swimwear called the Madeira collection for this summer, according to the Fedeli website the benefit of wearing these shorts lies in the fact that it features a microfiber that resists the absorption of water giving their swimwear a quick drying quality. Mmm am I particularly interested in these features, well, not really, because what has made me buy is how the feel and look on and let’s not kid ourselves they look great on.

Last year when I discovered Fumagalli 1891for the first time I rather naively thought I wouldn’t look elsewhere for swimwear, then along comes Fedeli and blows me away, no wonder The Contessa is blowing a fuse at my spending; these swim shorts, albeit very expensive swim shorts should see some action this summer. Lounging around the pool in your Fedeli swimwear may not give you that Gigi Rizzi gigolo look that I crave, but hell it’s worth a try.

ITALIAN EXPERIENCE (9)

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Forti Di Marmi

A few years ago the mayor of Forte Di Marmi revealed that due to the large influx of Russians into the area, real estate was becoming so inflated that the local residents, who had lived there for generations were in danger of being unable to afford to live in the area anymore. I see his point, having just spent a week at this very modern town (by Italian standards anyway) I have to say he may be right.

Forti Di Marmi is expensive, of that there can be no doubt, so it should come as no surprise that it is loved by wealthy Italians who like to use it as a summer retreat. The Agnelli family loved Forte Di Marmi and for years used the villa Costanza as their summer residence whilst staying in the town. With a backdrop of the Apuan Alps, Forte Di Marmi takes its name from a fort build in 1700 and it has to said that this highly desirable holiday destination maybe just about the best place The Frozen Northerner has stayed on the west coast of Italy. Beautifully situated on the Tuscan coast, this classy seaside town looks out onto the Tyrrhenian Sea and has some of the finest beaches I have come across in Italy, so it is an ideal place to take a beach holiday if you’re that way inclined.

We stayed at the very pleasant 4 star Grand Hotel which was perfectly adequate for the needs of me and my wife The Contessa Di La Proctero. But as I have pointed out earlier, as beautiful as Forte Di Marmi is, it isn’t cheap, think long and hard about where you are going to stay because as fabulous as the beaches are, they are very expensive, for example hiring a couple of beds for the day can cost you anywhere up to 150 euros for 2 beds, so if you don’t want your eyes taken out, look for a hotel with a pool, there’s plenty but it pays to shop around to get the best value. Likewise with restaurants, similar to the beach, prices vary enormously, Pesce Baracca along the promenade provided great value and is reasonably priced but you are going have to do your homework so that get the best value. Eating in town presents a similar type problem, I may want to eat at the very swish Lorenzo’s on Via Caducci but the reality is that it is not going to happen.

The town which hosts an amazing street market on a Wednesday is very pretty and has an endless raft of tree lined streets rather like Montecatini which I visited last year, although I have to say that Forte Di Marmi may be a bit more upmarket.

Enjoying a Campari Spritz, I would spend most evenings sitting outside Café Principle watching the world go by, although fairly busy on a weekend I have to stay that I found the place fairly quiet during the rest of the week compared to other places that I have stayed in Italy. But having said that I am not sure that the average English punter really holidays in Italy .As you would expect there is an endless stream of shops with everything from Gucci to Prada, personally I am more interested in the more independent shops which are plentiful if you look in the right place.

Overall I suspect that I could go back to Forte Di Marmi time and time again, it may be a little bit pretentious but I can live with that. You will  love and enjoy  the splendours of the Tuscan Rivera of that there is no doubt just make sure you take plenty of money because boy, you are going to need it.

SPORT

GOD

When Ajax and Barcelona were kept apart in this year’s Champions League semi- finals, it created the possibility of the ultimate football fantasy for The Frozen Northerner. Both teams in one way another have to their eternal credit tried carry on the legacy of their mentor and former player the great Johann Cruyff.

Ultimately both clubs failed to reach the final thus shattering a dream that may now never come true, however, the defeats of both clubs has led me to look at both clubs in more depth.

No one at either club has quite managed to equal the vision of the legendary Cruyff that is until Pep Guardiola returned to Barcelona as a coach. Pep, who was a disciple of Cruyff quickly understood that in order to achieve success he was going to have to exploit the potential of club’s academy La Masia and their dazzling array of young players. Undeterred by early defeats, Pep stay to true to his beliefs, producing a superb team built around academy products Messi, Xavi, and perhaps most importantly Andreas Iniesta.

SON OF GOD

With these players forming the bedrock of the side, Barcelona from 2008-2009 have pretty much swept all before them, Ajax on the other hand have only enjoyed domestic success, with little or no success on the European scene.

Fast forward to the present day and as you would expect both teams have dominated their national leagues but, in Europe things might just have been a bit different.

Let’s not kid ourselves here, the best team in Europe this season has been Ajax, not only have punched way above their weight, they did it with a breath-taking brand of football that had the purists purring at their performances.

Under the astute guidance of Erik Ten Hag, Ajax played spectacular football culminating with a stunning performance in the Bernabeu stadium against Real Madrid. 2-1 from the first leg their display in second leg was the stuff dreams are made of. Such was their dominance one could almost see the ghost of the fabled Gerrie Murhen jugging the ball all those years ago in the same stadium.

Staying true to the Ajax philosophy Ten Hag has brilliantly exploited the Ajax youth system to produce a young, vibrant team full of potential superstars. Barcelona on the other hand have not built on the foundations laid down by Guardiola instead choosing to buy big rather than draw on the talent of La Masia and there the rub of this blog.

Since that golden season of 2008-20009, Barcelona has slowly sold their soul to the corporate world. The team that once proudly boasted that it would never succumb to wearing sponsors on the front of their shirt is now awash with sponsorship. Their so called famed La Masia Academy is now overlooked as they shamelessly chase mercenaries like Neymar and Suarez who love money and have no emotional ties to too the club.

True, Ajax also major sponsorship but tend to use it more carefully always staying faithful to their youth development programme, tragically Ajax will lose their young stars, the club will be raped and pillaged by their richer European counterparts and players like Frenkie De Jong and Mattihijs De Ligt will be high on the shopping list of all of the big clubs and head coach Erik Ten Hag will also be much coveted. This season may have been a bit an Indian summer for the Dutch side, losing so many talented players is bound to hurt and it may take years to see another outstanding young group of players like these, but I suspect Ajaxy will not spend too much time worrying about it.

Dispirited as I am with the way football is going, Ajax has, to a certain extent gone a long way to restoring my faith in the beautiful game. All I need now is for Barcelona to rekindle the spirit of Cruyff and Guardiola and return to basic principles of La Masia and nurture the young talent that they have within their club. Sadly I think those days where the young Iniesta encapsulated that Catalonian dream are long gone, but I live in hope that the spirit of Cryuff and Guardiola will once again return to the Camp Nou.