Now I do admit I got into City and football as a youngster round about 1984/85. Just as the Heysel tragedy occurred and English teams were banned from Europe until 1990. So if I'm honest, I really do only know the modern era of European football. No real living knowledge of what the original competitions involved.
I still remember the thrill as a 10 year old watching the 1960 European Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt. This was a major thing as in those pre space satellite days, which came the year after, you couldn't get live games from abroad but that final was at Hampden Park so you could. Hard to explain to someone who has grown up used to these things what a miracle it seemed watching these legendary players live. Same with all other sports as well. It did have the effect of making you appreciate it more due to the novelty and the fact so few games were on. Now people spout about football without ever having been to a game.
I have a DVD with extended highlights of that game, it's just fantastic. I hope the FA Cup final has a similar score...
Incidentally the first European Cup was by invitation. Our champions were Chelsea and the FA refused to let them enter. Matt Busby told them to take a running jump when Man Utd won the title the year after. A good quiz question used to be which was the first British team to play in the European Cup. Celtic were the Scottish champions but Hibernian which was an excellent side and had won the league the two seasons before were the team invited to participate. In a way we have Wolves to thank. They played some European teams with great success under floodlights when they were a novelty and after one famous victory our press said it made them champions of the world. A French sports journalist had been advocating a European competition and after that remark persuaded UEFA that it would be a good idea and they finally agreed.
I do have a good idea what you mean...I think. Probably not quite the same, but I still remember vividly going to my first ever football match aged 11, (a bit late in life but my Dad was so reticent about taking me to matches in the 80s - due to rife hooliganism he said). But it was November 3rd 1987 - Hull City v Bradford City. A thrilling nil-niller when I decided Alex Dyer was my favourite player. But the thrill of seeing something for real that only ever occurred on TV in my mind was magic. And it was 24 years later before I saw a replay of this match on Facebook, (thanks BoothferryLegend) and realised our failed penalty appeal in the first half was actually a (grudgingly) good decision from the ref.
Bill Shankly's father died at that game. He always gave the impression he thought there wasn't a better way to go. They put a timer on Puskas for that game. He was in possession of the ball for 12.5 seconds and got 4 goals. The other 3 were by one of the greatest ever players Di Stefano. (Look him up to find out the original reason for Barcelona hating Real Madrid apart from Franco and the civil war). I saw Man Utd beat Real Madrid in 1968 on their way to winning the European Cup. The only one of the greats still playing was the winger, Gento.
The miracle in those days was the technology. The year I was born, 1950, there were only about 100,000 TVs in the whole country. It was amazing growing up and seeing all these things develop. If you wanted to make a phone call to another town you had to go through the operator. It was interesting as everything on TV was new. People were able to see places they never would have had. There were great educational programmes like The Ascent of Man and Civilisation which had audiences of 20 million and were basically some well educated person talking to the camera. A shame how we have more channels than ever but in the race for ratings things have been trivialised and dumbed down. Some programmes had such audiences pubs emptied early and the churches changed service times. I'll stop now before I sound like that sketch with the blokes discussing things back in their day.
Real Madrid always had state support. I went to Barcelona in 1973 when they had signed Cruyff. The guide pointed to a villa and said "That is General Franco's villa. He got one overlooking the Camp Nou. But he doesn't 't fool us". Given the times, when the Catalan language was banned and there were oppressive measures against the region it took a brave man to come out with remarks like that.
You've only got 26 years on me. I remember life without Channel 4, (just). I do really agree with you though - I absolutely hate TV in general these days. OK, there's the odd program I'll make a point of watching, (Top Gear, Silent Witness - that sort of thing) but overall this digital TV wave has produced 500 channels of absolute brain-dead ultra-low budget ****e - the kind of stuff a lot of yesterday's Sheff Utd fans would thrive on. My nostalgia is 1970s and 80s sitcoms - you just do not get anything with that type of cutting humour nowadays.
In comparison, I remember life without Channel 5. Just. Most telly is crap. The only time I have watched telly properly (not including sports) in the past few months was for Sherlock. My DVD collection mainly consists of old comedies, Tarantino films and football DVDs.
We might get on well then mate! Depends what you mean by old comedies, though I do have every Tarantino film on blu-ray, (yep, I love all his films). My football DVDs number just three though - 'Dared to Dream 2007/08'; '10 Years at the KC Stadium' and '2012/13 Official Season Review'
Looking at my DVDs, the comedies consist of Only Fools, Blackadder, Monty Python, Young Ones, Bottom, Phoenix Nights/Max and Paddy, Peep Show, Spaced and South Park. I only have 1 City DVD at this current moment, and it's the Dare To Dream 07/08 review, though I do think last seasons' and this seasons' reviews might be bought soon. I have a few England DVDs (1966 Final, Germany 5-1, Netherlands 4-1 Euro 96), Premier League Classic Matches boxsets, a UEFA European Championship Boxset (50 Euros matches, loads of class stuff from its entire history), and a couple of other football sets such as '50 Greatest Footballers' (it was a documentary series on Sky) and '500 Great Goals' (Deano at Wembley is the second goal in the whole 5 disc set haha).
Only Fools (I have the entire DVD collection), Blackadder and Monty Python are brilliant classics - but you lose me after that. Red Dwarf, One Foot in the Grave and of course Fawlty Towers were more my thing. Last Season's DVD Review is brilliant although nowhere near the comprehensiveness of 07/08. However the commentary on the Cardiff match when McShane scores leaves me speechless and emotionally drained no matter how often I watch it, (HULL CITY TAKE THE LEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HULL CITY HEAD TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!). Last match I went to with my Dad. Deano being 2/500 however sounds brilliant!!! If you haven't done so already, I'd also insist watching Pulp Fiction on blu-ray with booming 5.1 Surround. Django Unchained is pretty decent in that respect too.
