Rob Langham from The Two Unfortunates has given us yet another fantastic article for the site:
One aspect of a football obsession that is perhaps under recognised is the impact of heirlooms. Sure, my formative years were stock full of Panini, Subbuteo and The Big Match, but it was items bequeathed to me by my father that played just as important a role – especially in forging a keen sense of the game’s history.
Among an assortment of annuals and notebooks, Football Parade, sold exclusively by Marks & Spencer and constituting something of a retrospective on the 1949-50 season was one such artefact. Presented with a foreword by a yet to be knighted Stanley Matthews, the aim, in the Tangerine man’s own words was to produce ‘the finest book on Soccer ever published’.
Simon Inglis’s Football Grounds of Europe, soon to be reviewed on these pages, may have subsequently snatched away that accolade by a whisker, but Football Parade remains a mine of information.
One aspect of a football obsession that is perhaps under recognised is the impact of heirlooms. Sure, my formative years were stock full of Panini, Subbuteo and The Big Match, but it was items bequeathed to me by my father that played just as important a role – especially in forging a keen sense of the game’s history.
Simon Inglis’s Football Grounds of Europe, soon to be reviewed on these pages, may have subsequently snatched away that accolade by a whisker, but Football Parade remains a mine of information.
