Finding Jack Charlton

Before I write anything else, I will say now that this is worth watching if you're a fan of the game. It skips over his playing career but delves intricately into his managerial career with the ROI. Hard to watch at times as it doesn't skirt from the big issues but overall it's an honest and interesting approach of the life of a great player, manager and person.

This documentary takes you on a rollercoaster of how and Englishman restored pride and self respect of the Irish . He used football as a means to an end . Please watch wonderfully put together.

There's not much love lost between the Irish and the English . The English generally like Ireland and its people but that feeling is not reciprocated, which is all the more amazing that an Englishman , became a legend and was loved by the Irish nation and that man was Jack Charlton.

This documentary follows Jack's love affair with Ireland and is interspersed with clips of him in his in his last years when he was suffering from dementia.

While this tells the story about his footballing career , it's far more than that .

It's about two brothers who never really got on with each other but quite clearly loved one other . They were just to stubborn to tell each other .

It's about coping with dementia and if heading footballs was the cause of the disease and mostly it's about that wonderful Irish experience and how a nation went against everything they believed in and took an Englishman into their hearts .

How Jack Charlton never got a Knighthood is a scandal . The English governments who had the chance to put this right should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

RIP Jack.

Yes You could argue the subject and times were almost an open goal but this is exceptionally well done. It doesn't back off his dementia or the faults and failings of both Jack and the team but also captures the time. Great editing and stringing together of a huge variety of source material. One of the weirdest things is where they combine the Romania penalty shoot out with Lankum's version, of 'the wild rover' .. Much like David O'Leary taking the peno.. Shouldn't work.. But does!

Jackie Charlton contributed to the peace process by bolstering Ireland's self esteem when it was in tatters. His decline into dementia was heartbreaking. Please stop heading the ball.