ITV Saturday Soccer Special Annual, 1980

If, as a child, you saw this slim tome in your local bookshop back in 1980, you might have expected it to contain articles about football and ITV’s presentation of it. Sadly for anyone interested in The Big Match or On The Ball, this book featured only one such article, and at no point did it even mention Jim Rosenthal. Devastating as this is, I beg you to read on.

This was, in real terms, a football annual much like those produced by Shoot or Match years ago, but it’s distinction derived from the fact that it was a one-off - published purely to coincide with ITV taking over the prime Saturday night highlights slot from the BBC.

The acquisition of those TV rights came to be known as ‘Snatch of the Day’ as it was the first time the BBC’s Match of the Day had not been bumped from its traditional slot in the schedules. Having finally been given the go-ahead to switch from Sunday afternoons, The Big Match was finally where it wanted to be, and to celebrate, it produced... a children’s football annual.

They could have called it ‘The Big Match Annual’ (as a few other books had been in the mid-1970’s) but clearly the aim was to reinforce the word ‘Saturday’, as if ITV had finally laid their hands on the holy grail. Having emblazoned that on the front cover, they also included a nicely painted composition by Bill Ireland representing the home footballing nations. The ever-present image of Kevin Keegan took centre stage as you’d expect, while around him Kenny Dalglish, Terry Yorath, Peter Shilton and a couple of other less identifiable types were depicted doing their thing too.

This being the early-80’s, it was almost against the law to publish a football annual without Kevin Keegan in it, and this one didn't disappoint. Inside we were told why Keegan chose to sign for Southampton on July 1, 1980 rather than the other clubs that were said to be after his signature, namely Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Aside from the chance to play at The Dell alongside his England teammate Mick Channon, “private chats with Johan Cruyff convinced him Barcelona would expect too much from him for the fistful of pesetas he would get” or so we were led to believe. In addition, Italy was “torn by internal strife and terrified by kidnappings, bombings and murders in recent years” while Liverpool couldn't offer Keegan anything new by way of a challenge because he’d won everything there first time around.

As for Chelsea, they weren't guaranteed to get promotion from the Second Division in 1979/80 (they would ultimately miss out on goal difference) so in the following season “Keegan would have been appearing at Second Division clubs like Oldham, Cardiff, Bolton and Orient. Clearly a waste of the great man’s talent.” Ouch.

Talent was something very much on the mind of Denis Law, according to the annual. The former Man United and Man City star was pondering the dearth of skilful British players apparently seen more widely in in previous decades. The reason, Law surmised, was down to coaching. “Players like Bobby Charlton, George Best and Tom Finney never had any coaching” he said. “Look at their skills, their class and natural ability - it came through without any of the fanatical coaching people demand today.”

There was, it seemed, only one way to improve matters in the mind of The Law Man: “The sooner we throw out coaches, the better. The flair isn't there anymore and I am concerned it is because of the craving for coaches.” A curiously controversial view, and one that the average 15-year-old may have been at a loss to comprehend.

A happier man was Tony Woodcock. His move to Cologne had been all the more successful because of the determination to succeed shown by Kevin Keegan before him. ‘Keegan was virtually shunned by his Hamburg team-mates who even refused to pass to him during club matches’ said the annual. Woodcock continued: “Everyone knew the problems he was having and when he finally won through the following season, they really admired him for his determination.”

“Kevin’s battle at Hamburg certainly made life a lot easier for me, I realise that” he went on. “It will be the same for any more English players who come out here - they’re bound to find a more sensible and realistic attitude from the German players who can make or break such a move.” Tell that to Man City’s Dave Watson who, it was noted, went home to Southampton only a matter of weeks after joining Werder Bremen.

Elsewhere in the annual, John Burridge explained why his rigorous fitness regime enabled him to keep in tip-top condition as he travelled around the UK looking for another club to join (sorry - might have made that last bit up) while Sunderland manager Ken Knighton stated why he was intent on keeping the Roker Park club in the top flight with nothing but success as his main priority. “If Sunderland hasn't made progress within three years, I don’t deserve to be in charge anymore” said Knighton. After a series of disputes with the club chairman, Knighton and his assistant Frank Clark left Sunderland Football club just a few months after the annual was published.

John Richards, meanwhile, was extolling the virtues of a growing partnership between himself and Andy Gray. Wolves had won the League Cup in 1980 on the back of it and had finished sixth in the First Division. They’d even played in the UEFA Cup during September 1980, albeit going out after a home and away tie against PSV Eindhoven.

Richards said of record signing Gray: “He cost us a bomb but helped us win the League Cup and that was the first effect. Now we aim for the League Championship title.” When this annual was published, there were still five months of the 1980-81 season left to be played, but when it ended, Wolves were 18th in the First Division - just two places above the relegation zone. The following season saw them relegated to the Second Division, yet Gray and Richards remained at the club until it regained its place in the top flight in 1983.

ITV’s Saturday Soccer Special Annual certainly wasn't found wanting in its provision of articles, even providing a brief outline of Ipswich Town’s plan to become ‘Team of the Eighties’ and the role of smaller regional clubs like Brentford, Stockport and Tranmere to provide the talent for their bigger local rivals - but what about that one article on ITV itself?

Step forward Brian Moore to explain the fresh challenge of broadcasting a football show on Saturday nights instead of Sunday afternoons: “We had to gear our thinking much more to a totally hard news programme, plus plenty of action from three games” he said.

“Presenting three games on Saturday night was a new idea. The BBC had only shown two matches, plus some occasional film from another match. But covering three games fully meant a far wider spectrum” said Moore. “The BBC set a high standard for us to follow, make no mistake about that. But I feel they didn't go deeply enough into the stories arising from the Saturday matches.” Frank views indeed.

On an operational level, Brian Moore found his whole work routine transformed. “After commentating on a top match, he has his commitments to World of Sport, which involve a comprehensive after-match summary report. Then after lining up and doing the necessary interviews, it’s off from the ground at around 6pm... Brian likes to write his own scripts and then have something to eat. A change of clothes after that, and the clock is already ticking on to 8.30 or 9pm and it’s time for rehearsals.” After that, Moore could be seen presenting the live show on LWT after 10pm - a long day indeed for ITV’s main commentator.

In many ways, that level of commitment and professionalism shines through in this football annual. Everything’s well written and the presentation is neat and smart. Unfortunately one is left with the feeling that the book lacks a little soul - as if the book was conceived and produced by a committee of senior managers rather than football writers and designers.

Perhaps it’s just as well, then, that this was a one-off attempt by ITV to make a football annual. They didn't do a bad job, but to be as frank as Brian Moore himself, they were never going to match Shoot’s passion for football writing that kids loved for years long before and since.

Match of the Day Soccer Annual 1979

Mike Channon’s favourite edition of Match of the Day was the one shown on the evening after the 1976 FA Cup Final. He was busy celebrating with his Southampton team-mates but, said Channon, “I cheated a bit and asked a friend to record both the match and the programme in the evening on a video tape recording machine I had just acquired.”

This, friends, was 1978, an era when VCRs were as rare as the hairs on Bruce Forsythe’s head, yet Mick Channon wasn't the only player to watch his favourite MOTD on tape. Colin Lee did likewise in 1977 after Tottenham’s 9-0 win over Bristol Rovers - a match in which Lee scored four:

“I can’t remember a great deal about the game itself, although a supporter taped Match of the Day and gave it me as a souvenir. I don’t have a recording machine myself, but I have a friend who has one and we've watched it a couple of times. It’s unbelievable.”

Ah, did we ever live in a world where VCRs were considered ‘new-fangled technology’...?

Further on in this Match of the Day Annual for 1979 (printed in 1978, stat fans), we find the article ‘Scotland The Brave’. Here, some education is provided for us English types about Sportscene. This was Scotland’s alternative to Match of the Day itself and, presented by Archie MacPherson, it had several differences that we Anglophiles wouldn't have been aware of.

According to the feature, a typical half-hour show would have contained “...fifteen minutes or so from the chosen [Scottish] Premier League fixture of the afternoon... the odd snatch from a rugby international or other non-soccer sporting event that Grandstand cameras might have conveniently collected during the day, and then ten minutes from the preferred English match out of Match of the Day’s clutch for the night.”

There were also technical limitations that restricted Sportscene’s ability to provide quality programming: “Slow-motion replays - such a feature of Match of the Day talk-ins - are as yet unknown in the north - for the simple reason that the BBC’s only slow-motion replay unit is safely locked up in London!”  Probably best to nip round to Mick Channon’s house: he’s got a VCR with a slow-motion function on it...

‘Goals of the Season’ needed no introduction and didn’t get one either - it was a feature that diagrammatically described all the winning goals in MOTD’s history up to that point, along with some incidental text to flesh the piece out. Another feature was ‘Short Passes’ in which we’re presented with interesting and amusing facts about BBC’s longest-running football show. Here’s an example:

“It was a woman who was responsible for Match of the Day including the manager’s name in their pre-match team line-up. Mrs Lillian Bruce from Harrow, Middlesex, wrote asking the production team to do it - and they latched onto her suggestion.” Tell that to your mates down at the pub the next time the conversation goes quiet....

After the sort of quiz that cropped up in virtually every football annual ever made, there was a feature called ‘Switched on Fans’ about celebrities that supported football clubs. Surely the biggest name of all back then was Eric Morecambe, a man who was never happier than when he was referring to his beloved Luton Town while on-screen with Ernie Wise. Right enough, he opened the piece:

“I always watch Match of the Day - every Sunday afternoon!” said Morecambe. “Officially it’s in my ITV contract that I've got to watch Star Soccer or The Big Match - but unofficially I sneak a look at Jimmy Hill. The last time I saw anything like that on Jimmy Hill’s chin the whole herd had to be destroyed.”

In ‘It started at Anfield’ we get a two-page article telling the story of how Match of the Day had developed from its early days on BBC2 (“watched by even fewer than had actually attended League club grounds during the afternoon”) to the Jimmy Hill-fronted programme on BBC1 seen on TV when this Annual was published.

Among the self-congratulatory text (“it is television’s most comprehensive football programme”), one small section proves to be of particular interest, namely that surrounding BBC TV’s competition in 1969 to find a new commentator. In a wonderful piece of never-in-this-day-and-age brilliance, the competition was ultimately won by the late Idwal Robling, a Welshman who played for Great Britain’s football team in the 1952 Olympics.

Here we see a picture from the MOTD annual showing all the participants in that search for a new commentator, among them Gerry Harrison (who went on to be ITV’s man behind the mic for the Anglia region), Ed Stewart (BBC Radio 1 disc jockey and Everton fan) and Ian St John, a former Liverpool and Scotland player who went on to be a more than capable co-commentator and front man for shows such as On The Ball and Saint and Greavsie.

After a pictorial palette cleanser showing various players ‘In Focus’, we hear the amazing story of Jimmy Hill’s life, such as it was in 1978. As we mentioned in our recent podcast, there’s much more to Hill than the stereotyped waffle everyone latches onto these days. In ‘My Role - Jimmy Hill’, we learn that the former Fulham player was acting as adviser for the World Soccer Academy in Saudi Arabia, an owner of the NASL franchise Detroit Express and Managing Director at Coventry City - all on top of his role as presenter of Match of the Day.

Some of his better known achievements at Highfield Road - changing the club strip to Sky Blue and giving the club its nickname accordingly - are mentioned, but his work beyond Coventry City was what particularly caught the eye. Running a company that “acted as advisors to the London based Sportsman Club” as well as performing a role as Chairman of Goaldiggers “an organisation that is linked with the National Playing Fields Association" was just the tip of the iceberg for the great man. He also raised money for several charities and wrote books and newspaper columns when time allowed too. To think that all that came about as a result of a serious knee injury as a player is a testament to his determination to succeed in the face of adversity.

In an age when football commentators barely last a minute without spouting one statistic or another, it’s interesting to read how much information Barry Davies compiled in the week leading up to one of his commentaries. Davies, who retired from MOTD in 2004, commented: “I have a newspaper cutting book on each season which goes back eight or nine seasons. I will get out the results sequences of the two teams and will go over their results this season, their scorers, their running league position, the crowds and full teams. I will try to keep it up-to-date myself but if I am not completely accurate I’ll give Jack Rollin a ring. He’s a freelance journalist who keeps a mountain of facts and figures.”

Having pored over all kinds of data from player cards to personal notes, Davies would then get the relevant clubs to send him their last two home programmes to fill any gaps on recent knowledge and would pay a visit early in the week to the managers of the teams he’d be commentating on the following Saturday. The key to Davies using all this information efficiently, however, was keeping it in his head rather than on paper: “Facts should come to you automatically while you are doing the commentary and you should not be trying to force your facts onto the viewer.” Modern-day commentators take note...

Finishing off the Annual was a feature on the footballers who appeared in the BBC’s Superstars series and an article on how Match of the Day is put together every Saturday thanks to the efforts of cameramen, Outside Broadcast teams, presenters and and many more people besides.

But it’s the item called ‘It began with Chairman Mao’ that provides great insight into a memorable piece of football nostalgia, namely the opening title sequence for Match of the Day in the late-1970s. Many of you will remember it for one reason and one reason alone, namely the sight of various pictures being made by a crowd of football fans in the fashion of an Olympic Games opening ceremony (see example below).



The titles were the idea of Pauline Talbot who said: “Whenever I think of crowds I think of China and the magnificent rallies held there. As I considered ideas for Match of the Day, I thought of a picture I had seen in a magazine years ago of 8,000 Chinese children holding up cards to form a picture of Chairman Mao. They call it card flashing.”

Within days, the children of Hammersmith County Girls’ School and Christopher Wren Boys’ School in West London were herded into Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road stadium and given numbered cards to form the eight different images seen during the opening title sequence. Over 2,000 separate cards were printed and cut in a “giant warehouse” and the large images were designed on a sheet of graph paper to help identify who was holding up which card.

“If a card representing, say, the tip of Jimmy Hill’s nose was out of position” said Talbot, “I was able to look on my graph, check the number at fault and call out that number through a microphone, asking if the person holding that card could please get it right.”

And so it was that on such meticulous organisation the Communist Party was founded - to say nothing of a fine football annual.

The News of the World Football Annual 1983/84

The arrival of the 1983/84 season prompted many to wonder how far football had fallen in recent times. The game had lost its allure and was in something of a tailspin but The News of the World Football Annual, through its anecdotal ponderings, acknowledged this for the ages and tried to offer some cause for hope at the start of a landmark campaign.

The season began with a new name for an old competition. The Football League was now known as the Canon League. According to the Annual, an announcement was made on May 5 1983 that a deal had been struck with the Japanese camera and business equipment maker to the tune of £3.2 million, lasting three years.


If that figure seems paltry compared to today’s big money deals, consider this. When shared out, Canon’s money ensured every First Division club would benefit by just £10,000 each. Considering Watford’s Luther Blissett had moved from Watford to AC Milan for £1 million during the summer of ’83, it really didn't seem like much at all. True, more money was distributed for the high achievers in the League, but even then the First Division champions would only get an additional £50,000. Even the winners of the Milk Cup could expect £64,000.

Fortunately, clubs could finally rely on a greater source of income from the new TV deal that had been thrashed out between the Football League (sorry – Canon League) and the two main broadcasters, BBC and ITV. Under the terms of the new agreement, ten live games would now be shown every season. Match of the Day would show five on Friday nights, while the other five would appear on The Big Match on Sunday afternoons. No club would appear in a live match more than once, although the usual weekend highlights would continue in their regular form on both channels.

According to the News of the World Football Annual 1983/84, the new TV deal wasn’t the fait accompli it may have at first seemed. The League were reluctant to allow live games to be shown for fear that it would discourage people from attending matches in person, while the broadcasters were hesitant about showing team shirts with sponsors logos on them. In the end a compromise was reached ensuring this would be the first season where shirt advertising was seen on our screens.

Elsewhere, further changes were being made to the game. For the first time in 1983/84, the Milk Cup Final would be played on a Sunday, and to ensure the pitch was in good condition (and provide an all-round facelift), a new 20-year £4 million contract had been signed by the FA and Wembley Stadium Ltd in May 1983.

Yet such talk of contracts and high finance masked the growing malaise creeping into the international game. In England, attendances for domestic games had plummeted by 1.24 million in the past year reaching their lowest total since the Second World War. Even across Europe, only eight countries had seen an increase in the number of fans passing through the turnstiles (Scotland being one, curiously).

International matches were suffering too. Within the pages of the Annual it’s noted that the British Championship match between England and Wales at Wembley in February 1983 saw the lowest attendance ever for an England match – just 24,000 paying to see a starting XI featuring such talent as Alan Devonshire, Derek Statham and Gary Mabbutt.



As for success on the pitch, things were little better as English clubs were finding their run of dominance in Europe seemingly at an end. The previous season had seen holders Aston Villa knocked out in the quarter finals of the European Cup by Juventus along with English champions Liverpool, beaten on aggregate by Polish side Widzew Lodz.

In the other competitions, the misery continued. In the Cup-Winners’ Cup, Tottenham had been eliminated by Bayern Munich in the Second Round while Arsenal, Ipswich, Manchester United and Southampton all fell at the first hurdle in the UEFA Cup. Perhaps the English clubs could turn to Scotland for inspiration what with Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners Cup and Dundee United unexpectedly reaching the UEFA Cup quarter finals.

The times were certainly ‘a-changing according to the News of the World Football Annual 1983/84, not least because Liverpool, the biggest club in the country, were about to begin a new era under the managerial leadership of Joe Fagan. The 1982/83 campaign had ended with Bob Paisley retiring from the game after a nine-season run in which The Reds had picked up 20 major trophies. They were now faced with the task of trying to maintain their unprecedented success by once again promoting from within the Anfield boot room. No-one could be sure Fagan would be able to do so, but a look back at Paisley’s roll of honour would provide his team with ample inspiration for the coming season.

If Liverpool had one quality above all others it was the ability to score goals, yet amid a period of uncertainty and negativity, it was pleasing at least to be reminded of one final statistic from the 384-page pocket annual. The 1982/83 season had provided the highest number of goals across all four English divisions for 15 years, and which team stumped up with the most goals of all the 92 teams? Why Wimbledon, of course. The Division Four champions scored 96 in total - nine more than Liverpool.

The Football Attic Annual

Cover

It started as a Christmas present for Chris and myself, but after posting pics of it on Twitter, we received quite a bit of interest from people wanting to know if we planned to sell them.  I hadn't, but if people wanted them, why not share the Attic love?

Chris and I have gone through all of 2012's articles (and a few from 2011) and picked out 22 of our  favourites, covering 30 pages, all wrapped up in a rather lovely hardback book...proper Annual style!

If you'd like one of these, they'll be £16.50 delivered in the UK (outside the UK, contact us and we'll let you know how much it'd be). These are being done pretty much (talking pence here) at cost so we very much hope you'll enjoy them :)

Inside...

Contact us on Twitter (@footballattic) or at admin[at]thefootballattic[dot]com.

I've ordered 13 in total and once they're allotted, they'll be gone! 

Cheers,

Rich & Chris

Update: I've had a "yes" from the following people so that's 10 gone and 3 left.

Anyone I've missed, please shout!

David Hartrick
Jay Richardson ‏@TivertonHornet
rob stokes ‏@JossiesDad
Peter Miles ‏@PeterRMiles
Kris Horton ‏@roman_machine
Al Gordon ‏@algordon_cafc
GFO_Editor ‏@Gillsfansonline
Sky Blues Blog
David - Football Gaffes Galore
Alex Gunn

Kevin Keegan's Soccer Annual 1977

By the time this annual had been published in 1976, the pastey-looking footballer on the front cover was well on his way to 100 top flight goals in England. Kevin Keegan was already something of a poster boy for young fans as a hot-shot striker for both Liverpool and his country, and this first of three eponymous annuals aimed to provide an insight into a blossoming football career.

Beyond the inviting full-colour cover were 96 pages, all printed in black and white. Quite how inviting that would have been to a young child unwrapping this book on Christmas morning one can only wonder, but the seemingly dull pages were surprisingly interesting to read - in fact quite the opposite of what you’d expect from a lightweight title.

The first feature is called ‘This Is My Life’ where Keegan tells us of his upbringing, his family and his introduction into football. We learn that he originally played in goal for his school teams, St Francis Xavier’s and latterly St Peter’s High, but was politely informed that the other kid vying for the role was probably better suited than him, what with being a full two-feet taller and all. It was then that he decided to try his hand at playing on the wing and with it, somewhere in Skegness, a young Ray Clemence could be heard to let out a notable sigh of relief.

We also discover that as a 16-year-old, Keegan signed on for Scunthorpe United, but after two years of learning his trade he admitted “I got a bit unsettled and fed up.” Luckily for the youngster, a move to Liverpool arrived in the week leading up to the 1971 FA Cup Final. Bill Shankly showed him around the ground, offered him £45 per week and Keegan, precocious to a tee, told his new boss he deserved more. After consultation with club secretary Peter Robinson, “Shanks came back and said: ‘OK son, we’ll make it £50’” Fortune favours the brave and all that, eh Kev?

In ‘For Club and Country’, Keegan described life in the England camp, but the main topic of conversation concerned a recent startling development that was set to revolutionise football in his home country. “It is only this season, 1976-77, that something has at last been done to provide England with the necessary time to prepare for matches.” He went on: “Now, under this new system, England manager Don Revie has a fair chance of taking on the rest of the world. Now we have a week to prepare for internationals instead of three or four days at the most…”  Whatever next? Two internationals in one week?

Keegan went on to talk about his favourite players – Bobby Moore, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer to name but three – along with his favourite coaches. “Bill Shankly was a great psychologist” he said, while his successor, Bob Paisley “knows the club and the game backwards.” As for his England bosses, Keegan happily labelled Sir Alf Ramsey “a gentleman” even though the Liverpool player failed to impress in the only two games he was given to play in. Caretaker boss Joe Mercer gave the striker more of a chance, playing in six of his seven games in charge, before Revie arrived to secure Keegan’s place in the team. “Don is my kind of manager” he said “and a man who cares for his players.”

The feature ‘My Greatest Team’ then follows where Keegan creates his fantasy team of the 12 best players he’s ever “played alongside, against or have watched – either on TV or in the flesh.” Not one to narrow down his options, we then see his final selection. Ooh look – there’s Bobby Moore, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer… now where have we seen those before?  As for the rest, it’s about as classic a line-up as you could want to see: Banks in goal, Pele up front with Cruyff, Eusebio and Gerd Muller and Giacinto Facchetti thrown in for a bit of much-needed imagination.

In ‘A Star Off Duty’ we learn what life is like for The Keegan Family, away from the hurly-burly of First Division football. We hear that the Anfield star had opted to live in a cottage near Mold in North Wales and that to take his mind off things, Keegan had developed a penchant for gypsy caravans. “When they started to pull down the slums in Doncaster, the gypsies moved onto the waste ground in their gaily coloured caravans. They had a really romantic look about them. I had been on the lookout for one for some time and, finally, I managed to buy one quite cheaply. It cost a bit to spruce it up and paint it, but it now stands on the land outside the house and I’m delighted with it.” Think of today’s overpaid footballers and one imagines much in the way of indulgence, but somehow the image of Mario Balotelli painting some fine detail on his own gypsy caravan in Manchester doesn’t seem likely somehow.

Practical advice follows in the form of ‘Six of the Best’ in which Kev gives budding players half a dozen tips on how to improve their game. In short, you’re advised to practice your one-twos, heading the ball, overhead kicks, running at speed, curling the ball and… heading the ball again, only this time to your team mate if they’ve got a better chance of scoring. There’s even a handy diagram in case you’re unsure which is the inside of the boot and which is the outside.

In ‘The Glamour and The Grit’, there’s more talk about the pressures of being a football superstar and all the hard work that helped Keegan to reach that point. It’s here that we find out why Keegan walked out of the England squad in 1974: “I thought I had done a good job for Don Revie in England’s games against Cyprus and Northern Ireland… Then I learned, from the team sheet, that I had been left out for the next game against Wales without any explanation from Don – and that’s what really hurt and made me sick.”

Keegan protested that he deserved to at least be told personally why he wasn’t in the squad but Revie’s impersonal approach left the player thinking about giving up on international football altogether. “Thank goodness the issue was sorted out” he said. “Don and I had a real heart to heart talk and the outcome is, I feel, that the bond between us has been strengthened.” Let’s face it: he paid you, didn’t he Kev? Come on – you can tell us…

Towards the end of the book, Keegan expressed his frustration at not playing for England in the 1974 World Cup, stating “I didn’t go to the Finals and I didn’t watch a single game on television. I’m not a good watcher.” On the subject of the 1978 World Cup, however, Kev had a suggestion. “I’d like to see the World Cup held more frequently than every four years. In my opinion, it’s too long and drawn out in its present form. The qualifying rounds seem to drag on and on. Four years is a long time to wait, not only for the sake of the interest in the tournament but also in respect of players.”

He continued: “I would suggest that the competition is streamlined, with the qualifying rounds simplified – Britain could use the Home Championship for this purpose – so that eight teams play in the Finals every two years instead of four.” Ah, sweet naïve Kevin… so much still left to learn about the harsh realities of life.

After a brief tour of his home club in ‘Anfield: The Liverpool Home’, the book ends with ‘Football and My Future’. This is where Keegan accepts the fact that ambition, or indeed market forces, may cause him and his family to move away from Liverpool FC. As it is, Keegan moved to Hamburg only six months after the book was published, but here he said: “I’ve had more than five great years with Liverpool and I’ve got another two and a half years of my contract at Anfield to run. When that is up, I will consider – and I mean consider – moving abroad.” With the benefit of hindsight, the decision was eventually made for him.

As for a career after football, journalism was already on Kev’s mind and he had his views on how that should be done best too. “I often read the columns and reports of ex-footballers and other sports personalities and much of their material goes over the head of the man in the street. Many phrases are immediately understood by the professional but not by the layman so if ever I did become a pressman that is one danger I would be wary of.”  Needless to say he stuck to his ideals when writing this book, and it’s all the better for it too.

Jimmy Hill’s Football Yearbook, 1976

Once again, we're delighted to bring you another guest post from Rob Langham of the awesome The Two Unfortunates. Here, Rob gives his take on Jimmy Hill’s Football Yearbook from 1976...

I admit it. I quite like Jimmy Hill.

Generally regarded as an indescribable buffoon, his reputation reached a nadir after his verbal jousts with Martin O’Neill on the BBC sofa in France 98. But, given the Ulsterman’s skill for careerism and his own reputation management, isn’t the enthusiastic puppy dog profile of the less calculating man the more likeable one?

For all the gaffs, Hill’s later appearances on Sky’s Sunday Supplement were the only tolerable thing about the show. His utterances may well have been preposterous but one always sensed he had the wider interest of the game at heart – far more so than Brian Woolnough and his venal cohorts.

This is evidenced by his pioneering role at the PFA and the work he carried out in scrapping the minimum wage and his key involvement in the best years of both Coventry City and Match of the Day. Hill cares.

It was the 70s... Brown was where it was at!

Which brings me to a publication I literally dug out my Dad’s attic – Jimmy Hill’s Football Yearbook, published by Purnell in 1976 and while officially retailing for the grand old price of £1.35, was actually purchased for 45p at Woolworth’s on Maidenhead High Street (the price sticker remains intact).

Although clearly intended for a younger audience, the book very much reflects Hill’s personality, containing as it does discussion of many of his own preoccupations – and seemingly written by the man himself without the benefit of ghost writing (the style is occasionally over eager and stilted).

A section headed Pounds and Pence is revealing and analyses the businesses players enter into in order to secure their financial wellbeing after their careers are over. Hill enthusiastically eulogises these forerunners,  of The Apprentice for instance: ‘Trevor Brooking, the West Ham schemer is an especially bright lad... and he’s used a stack of ‘O’ Levels to build up a plastic-bindings business in East London’ – although his description of Peter Storey as being ‘involved in the beer business’ is unfortunate given the ex-Arsenal man’s subsequent prosecution for running a brothel, importing pornographic videos and financing a scam to counterfeit gold coins.

Footballer doesn't open pub shocker!

Elsewhere, The Buying and Selling Game is remarkably prescient – a cautionary tale of clubs overspending while banking on competing in European competition which could have been lifted from one of this week’s newspapers – Hill bemoans that over a period of six years, 26 First Division clubs (how pleasingly those two words go together?) paid £15 million for 85 players valued at £100,000 or more apiece – although Hill is far too nice to put the boot in and name any specific failures (one suspects he’d be arguing the case for Andy Carroll today).

The slightly nutty ideas get an airing – Hill’s solution to the, at that time still unresolved problem of the professional foul is to institute a ‘second class penalty’ – a free shot from the edge of the 18-yard box for which specialist sharpshooters such as Peter Lorimer could be honed. Actually, maybe that isn’t that barmy...?

Kit - Class!

Colour pictures are dotted about including a mid-section featuring Tony Currie in a stylish Sheffield United away kit and the Home Championships are also featured. Players-wise, an analysis of Supermacs Malcolm MacDonald and Ted MacDougall stresses their ability to find the net despite meagre talents (check out the former’s five goal bunfight against Cyprus on youtube to see what Hill means), while Asa Hartford’s triumph over adversity after being diagnosed with a hole in his heart and being turned down with Leeds is an encouraging story in the light of the Fabrice Muamba incident. The news that Alex Stepney took a pay cut to move to Millwall from Tooting & Mitcham before eventually making his way to Old Trafford is also quite a nugget.

So it’s a less inconsequential run through that it might at first seem – especially for a teenager – and if there are occasional throwbacks – ‘when some European countries play teams from South America, problems can arise’ – Hill’s enthusiasm and occasional naïve faith in the game’s greatness shine through.

News of the World and Empire News Football Annual 1961-62

Behind the creased and crumbling cover of this 50-year-old pocket book lies not only 384 pages of facts, figures and statistics but a fading image of a football world few of us can fully appreciate.

Things were very different at the start of the 1960’s, including the title of our subject. The News of the World Football Annual (as it came to be known for more than 40 years) started out as the Athletic News Football Supplement and Club Directory in 1887. Little more than a pamphlet back then, it covered more and more content with every passing decade and merged with other similar publications, changing names as it did so. In late summer 1960, the 70th edition of the annual appeared, and for the first time, The News of the World saw its name on the front cover.

Stats, stats and more stats

The purpose of the book remained constant; to cram in enough anecdotal and factual information to sustain the most ardent football fan for an entire season. Beyond the hand-tinted picture of Sheffield Wednesday’s Ron Springett and Don Megson on the cover, there was more than enough to satisfy the enthusiastic youngster or the seasoned veteran, whatever their interests.

Though football had existed for around 100 years at the time of publication, the book showed the sport as only just entering a new era where foundations were being laid for the game we know today. The £20 maximum wage had only just been abolished (allowing players to earn anything up to £100 a week), the England team were preparing for only their fourth World Cup tournament and the great old teams of the 1950’s were slowly making way for the sides keen to make an impact in the 60’s and 70’s.

One-man teams

On this latter point, the NoTW Annual features a piece written by Tom Finney OBE, a legend for Preston and England who had retired in 1960. The Lancashire-born striker lamented his old club’s relegation at the end of the previous season and noted how other big teams of the era had only just avoided a similar fate. “Blackpool only just escaped it” said Finney. “How they will miss the inspiration of Stanley Matthews when the old maestro finally decides to call it a day. Without the skill and drive of Nat Lofthouse, Bolton Wanderers just steered clear of the danger zone. And how would Fulham have fared without the genius of Johnny Haynes?”

Tom Finney wondered whether the great teams of the day were too reliant on a single star-name player to get success. If they were, the removal of the £20-per-week wage limit in January 1961 was designed to keep more of them in the British game. Prior to the pioneering work of Jimmy Hill, chairman of the PFA, many Italian clubs were offering vastly better pay for any professional willing to up sticks for the continent. The Annual reported how Jimmy Greaves had joined Milan in June 1961 for guaranteed earnings of £40,000 over three years plus a £10,000 signing on fee. Aston Villa’s Gerry Hitchens went to Inter in the same month for £25,000 over three years, while Charlton’s Eddie Firmani made Inter his second Italian club in June 1958 having already spent two years at Sampdoria. Just before the book was published, Denis Law left Manchester City for Torino for a British record fee of £100,000.

Costs increase, squads shrink

Such a slow bleed of England’s top talent to the continent was of great concern – not least because attendances were falling and clubs were operating at a loss. Ivan Sharpe wrote how “the day of the club with a staff of 50 or more professionals seems to be over” and lamented that the ability of teams to nurture young talent could be severely threatened. Sharpe also commented that 17 of the 44 First and Second Division clubs were financially in the red, thereby causing a pall of doom to hang over the game in England.

It wasn’t all depressing news, however. Malcolm Gunn was quick to highlight the positive change in fortunes for East Anglian clubs at the time. Ipswich Town had returned to the top flight as Division Two champions under the promising leadership of Alf Ramsey. The total cost of the team? Just £30,000 – around the same price paid for a typical top flight player.

Gunn also highlighted the great achievements of Peterborough United – champions of Division Four in their first ever league campaign of '60-'61and newly-crowned record holders for scoring 134 goals in their 46 games. As for Norwich City, they too were on the up-and-up; 1961-62 would be the season in which they won the Football League Cup in only its second outing

Spurs at the Double

Elsewhere, the buzz was all about Tottenham, recent double winners proudly lead by captain Danny Blanchflower. As well as reflecting on the rare achievement of winning both major competitions in English football, Blanchflower also took the opportunity to write about the growing demand for substitutions to be allowed in the FA Cup Final. The future Northern Ireland manager went one step further by calling for subs to be allowed in every Cup round. “Supposing Leicester City had got to Wembley by knocking out a team that had been reduced to ten men [through injury]. How would they have felt if, in the Final, they were allowed what their earlier opponents were denied?” said Blanchflower.

Yes, things were certainly different back then and a glance through the five-page 'Football Diary' of the previous season illustrates this perfectly.

On October 26th 1960, Charlton and Middlesbrough drew 6-6, equalling the record for the most goals in a drawn Division Two match. 'T.Docherty', an Arsenal and Scotland international became coach at Chelsea on February 10th 1961 - ten full years before taking the reins of the Scottish national team. March 17th 1961 saw the appointment of Don Revie as manager at Leeds United and within three years had got the side promoted to Division One. Finally, on June 26th 1960, the great Arsenal, Sunderland and England centre forward Charles Buchan passed away. At the end of his football career, he turned his hand to journalism and eventually gave his name to the world's first football magazine, 'Football Monthly'.


And as if all that wasn't enough, the Annual also had plenty of froth and nonsense to break up the formality of endless words and statistics. Adverts for 'Gent's Drip-Dry Shortie Raincoats', appliances to increase your height and gold-plated lucky charms were littered throughout the publication along with a welter of ads for bookmakers and pools companies alike. Some 50 years before British TV screens were treated to the sight of Ray Winstone's revolving head for Bet365, it's fair to say the public were tempted into the tantalising world of gambling in an altogether more serene way.