10 Best Football Documentaries Of All Time
All or Nothing: Leyton Orient?
Considering Spurs have declined from perennial top four finishers and Champions League finalists to mid-table also-rans with all the charisma of a bus shelter since swapping Mauricio Pochettino for Jose Mourinho, the upcoming fly-on-the-wall doc, All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, promises to be both fascinating and hilarious.
The previous effort in the Amazon Prime series, which took sportswashing juggernaut Manchester City as its subject, presented an infallible team apexing under the intensity of a peak coach - and with it, very little drama. The Spurs version, given the looming turmoil creeping over the North London club, is likely to be a different - and vastly more interesting - story. Particularly if its privy to The Special One's demeanour behind-the-scenes. Is his volatility an act, or is he actually playing it down for the sake of PR? It'll be fascinating to find out.
The promise is there, then, but it'll have to go some lengths to distinguish itself as the finest football documentary of all time. For an industry which is oddly secretive about what goes on in the dressing room, there have been a surprising quantity of incredible, eye-opening flicks about the beautiful game. These are the most beautiful.
10. Orient: Club For A Fiver
Nature documentarians are much admired for their willingness to risk life capturing spectacular footage from some of the Earth's most precarious or inhospitable environments. Few, however, have showed as much courage as the student filmmakers at Open Media, who in 1995 placed their cameras in the volcanic furnace that was John Sitton's Leyton Orient dressing room.
The Channel 4 feature, Orient: Club for a Fiver, catches the O's in a tailspin, haemorrhaging funds after the Rwandan civil war causes the collapse of owner and lifelong fan Tony Wood's coffee empire. This scarcely credible setup is a footnote to the true story of the piece: manager Sitton's descent into despair, as he struggles to hold close the stitches.
The boss' astonishing, profanity-laden rants are the piece's highlight. After sacking club veteran Terry Howard - on camera - Sitton is shown laying into his underperforming, disobedient team at half-time, a goal down to Blackpool. Challenging two of his players to a fight, he tells them, "you can bring your f*cking dinner, 'cos by the time I've finished with you, you'll f*cking need it." The line has latterly became part of lower league football folklore.