Article: Which was the best decade for following football? | Football, Southampton

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Ian Thumwood

Ian Thumwood

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2011
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I spent some of the money I had for Christmas on a book called "Got, not got" which is choc-a-bloc with football nostalgia that stems from the mid sixties and through the seventies and eighties when I first started following football.
There are quite a few mentions regarding Saints and Pompey (nice to see stalwarts such as Nick Holmes and Alan Knight singled out) and I can remember many of the give-a-ways that you could collect from garages as well as more mainstream things such as Subbuteo and "Shoot" magazine of which I was an avid reader.
In fact, every Christmas I used to be given the "Shoot" annual by a Great-Aunt and it would be swiftly "borrowed" by my father and not returned until after Boxing Day.
There is also mention of "The observers book of football" which I used to love but was always disappointed needed revising regularly as some teams actually changed their kit during some seasons. Reading through the book, there are so many things I had forgotten about to the extent that it comes as a shock just how much the game has changed since my first home match which was against Blackburn Rovers in 74/75. Too much to really post about "Got, not got" but if you are a 40-something football fan, it is pretty much a must have.
Looking through the book, it made me wonder which decade was the best for being a football fan?
From my experience, the game got tainted by hooliganism which curtailed my visits to The Dell for a few seasons in the early 80's and my father refused to go to any more matches meaning that I didn't return until about 3 years later when I learned to drive.
For me, the seventies would have to take the biscuit. Not only was this the greatest time to be a Saints fan but there were all the tie-ins such as the Panini stickers and having pocket money to buy "Shoot" as well as the desire to spend the whole of the summer holidays playing "F A Cup" up in one of the fields in North Baddesley. I also recall the FA Cup draws being totally compelling radio on those Monday lunchtimes when I was on holiday. This was nothing to say for the FA Cup final which, as one of the few live games on TV, was a time when you would effecitvely right the whole day off to watch the coverage.
I would also add that the 70's saw the emergence of proper, replica football kits. You could also get "Top Trumps" with European footballers on them albeit it was always a disappointment that Ivan Golac was missing!
For me, the 70's was when football started to get a bit more savvy towards catering for fans but prior to the emergence of the Premiership when coverage might have improved and gone wall-to-wall" but started the rapid decline when fans started to get exploited and taken for a ride by owners who came from countries which might not have existed in the 1970's!
I would be interested to see what the opinion is and curious to see if some of the younger posters here are as misty eyed about the 1990's, as I am about the era when I started to follow football?
 
My recollection is that football hooliganism was definitely rearing its ugly head in the mid-late 1970s.

I agree with Fran - now is better.
 
I only remember as far back as the 90s, but I remember it with fondness, particularly for Manchester United with Giggs, Scholes, Keane, Beckham, etc. That was the best team that there's ever been in my opinion. Good times for us as well with Le Tiss blowing everyone away. We also had one of the most exciting World Cups in 1998, and the decade ended with United winning the treble and Super Depor miraculously winning La Liga. Those were good times.
 
I remember back to mid 70's with great memories.....but agree with Joesteinberg and History...90's were the best. Premier League was new and we were often defying the odds to stay in it.

Today the Championship is a brilliant and competitive league......Premiership??? watched Spurs totally outplay Norwich the other night, massive gulf in class between both teams.....scared the hell out of me.
 
The best period for me was about 78 through to the late 80's. It will never be as good again sky money has killed the game. I used to look forward to the close season in those early eighties days to see which transfer coup Lawrie Mac pulled off. Okay a lot of them were at the end of the career but to see players like Joe Jordan , Frank Worthington and Charlie George in Saints shirts was just awesome to a youngster like me at the time...never happen in this era
 
I realise that the best time for football, on balance, was the late 60's, early 70's. There was no over hyping of the game. Footballers were not considered more important or newsworthy than other people [which they're not, despite the headlines], and although grounds were getting old and the supporters were having to put up with some awful facilities, the game was still much more of a game and not a business. Much as I loved The Dell, with its intimacy, if Saints had had St Marys back then, I would have loved watching even more. It would have easily been the best ground in the country. And remember, plenty of it would have been standing area too.

So there's a conflict here. The money in the game has allowed/made football clubs upgrade their facilities, but has introduced the worst aspects of the game too. If we could cut out the hype, the overblown presentation, the concentration on the Premier League, over the Football Leagues, the obscene salaries, and allow football to be what it was, all those years back, we'd have the perfect sport, for both supporter and professional.
 
Football sold its soul to the devil, i.e. Murdoch, as a consequence of the Taylor report which followed the disasters of Heysel and Hillsborough. Taylor recommended that grounds in the top divisions must be all-seater, and the FA shat on the Football League, and took the Sky billions which not only allowed grounds to be upgraded but led to the obscene wages and transfer fees that are now the norm in the Prem. As a fan, I loved following football in the '60's and '70's when, although hooliganism was rife, you could always keep out of trouble if you wanted to and, as TSS says above, apart from the odd superstars like George Best, most footballers were more like ordinary people who could play the game we love better than the fans.

Having said all that, if Nicola Cortese's business model catches on, as it could do if Saints become a successful Premier League club, things might improve. I'm not holding my breath though!
 
The United team of the mid to late nineties and the Invincibles at Arsenal were great. Football became boring in the mid 00's as teams became more defensive and played for heroic 0-0's. I think that this season is an improvement, although part of this is due to how bad many of the defences are!
 
ChilcoSaint said:
Football sold its soul to the devil, i.e. Murdoch, as a consequence of the Taylor report which followed the disasters of Heysel and Hillsborough. Taylor recommended that grounds in the top divisions must be all-seater, and the FA shat on the Football League, and took the Sky billions which not only allowed grounds to be upgraded but led to the obscene wages and transfer fees that are now the norm in the Prem. As a fan, I loved following football in the '60's and '70's when, although hooliganism was rife, you could always keep out of trouble if you wanted to and, as TSS says above, apart from the odd superstars like George Best, most footballers were more like ordinary people who could play the game we love better than the fans.

Having said all that, if Nicola Cortese's business model catches on, as it could do if Saints become a successful Premier League club, things might improve. I'm not holding my breath though!
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It might have to catch on if certain laws are passed. It's not fair that one billionaire can buy a club and pump all his money in. A club should be self-sufficient and spend what it earns.
 
TheSecondStain said:
I realise that the best time for football, on balance, was the late 60's, early 70's. There was no over hyping of the game. Footballers were not considered more important or newsworthy than other people [which they're not, despite the headlines], and although grounds were getting old and the supporters were having to put up with some awful facilities, the game was still much more of a game and not a business. Much as I loved The Dell, with its intimacy, if Saints had had St Marys back then, I would have loved watching even more. It would have easily been the best ground in the country. And remember, plenty of it would have been standing area too.

So there's a conflict here. The money in the game has allowed/made football clubs upgrade their facilities, but has introduced the worst aspects of the game too. If we could cut out the hype, the overblown presentation, the concentration on the Premier League, over the Football Leagues, the obscene salaries, and allow football to be what it was, all those years back, we'd have the perfect sport, for both supporter and professional.
Click to expand...

Great post <ok>
 
70,s without a doubt. Skillful entertaining players on pitches that were bogs at times. Players today couldn't cope. They maybe fit but skill level and flair has gone in general. Could you imagine George best playing today at st Mary's with Charlton & Law etc and the Leeds team and Arsenal double winning side. Also to see my idol mike Channon play alongside Ron Davies at St Mary's Heaven
 
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