The Worst of Modern Football?

Here in the Attic, we love the "good old days"! This doesn't mean we don't like football now, but there are some things we just can't stand!

What with the growing Against Modern Football movement and a general sense of disenchantment about the game we all love, Chris and I were discussing what we despise most about the modern game.

My personal bugbear is one word..."Tekkers." Just hearing that word as I type it makes me want to punch a wall!!!

We started drawing up a list of anything we could think of... and it started growing rapidly. There's 22 things on there already!

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Retro Random Video: Man United NOT appearing on Top of the Pops

We've seen it so often before, the sight of a football team appearing on Top of the Pops, singing (or rather 'miming') badly to their latest chart hit (if indeed 'hit' is the word we're looking for there).

But in 1983 there was one occasion when a football team were due to appear in the BBC studios to perform their song but didn't. This was because Manchester United, the team in question, were rendered unavailable on account of their participation in the 1983 FA Cup Final replay at Wembley against Brighton & Hove Albion.

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World Cup - A Daily Mirror Special (1970)

It can never be underestimated just how much English football fans were looking forward to the 1970 World Cup. Having hosted and won the 1966 tournament, England were ready to take on anyone that dared snatch their title from them. With such self-confidence and excited anticipation, the entire country lapped up every bit of Mexico ‘70 ephemera they could find.

The Daily Mirror was not to be left out as it produced its special guide to the Finals. Calling on the talents of its writers, designers and photographers, the Mirror had all the ingredients required to inform and educate its readers.

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Attic Podcast 8 - Memorabilia Collecting

Once again we bring you two podcasts separated by a matter of days, although they were recorded a matter of minutes apart... who cares???

This time we discuss the exciting (stick with me!) topic of memorabilia collecting and cover everything from eBay buying tips to whatever's at the other end of that spectrum.

Also, Rich alienates all our Scottish listeners... and all our female one.

Oh, and if you can guess what the theme tune is (and moreover the specific variant), then well done! 

Subscribe on iTunes or download here

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Retro Round-Up: 25 April 2013

As if to prove that The Football Attic can't keep the football memories of yesteryear alive on its own, we bring you our weekly selection of top posts and news items from around the globe...

When football kits go bad: Who Ate All The Pies tell us the sad tale of Kevin Pressman’s goalkeeper outfit from 2002/03...

A fine tribute to a great servant of Brighton & Hove Albion and the Republic of Ireland - Tony Grealish - over at The Goldstone Wrap...

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Attic Podcast 7 - FA Cup Memories

As it's nearly time for another FA Cup Final, we thought we'd wander down memory lane and ramble all about our own FA Cup memories from hours of match build up to why it's all gone wrong nowadays!

Listen to Rich go for an hour without really mentioning Coventry in 87 or Sutton Utd in 89...useless!

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Super Action Soccer, 1984

The Colecovision games console was much prized for its near-perfect arcade titles back in the early-1980s. With games like Donkey Kong Jr, Zaxxon and Q*Bert, you could be entertained by great graphics and top sounds in your own home just like the coin-operated classics.

Unfortunately when Super Action Soccer was published in 1984, little of that quality seemed to remain. Oh sure, the graphics were better than we’d seen in other games on other consoles... but only just.

Having booted up your Super Action Soccer cartridge (I wonder why it was never known as ‘SAS’, by the way?) you were quickly greeted by the sight of two teams lined up and ready to play. The players, for their part, looked like the symbols off a Gents toilet door - one team coloured light blue, the other in a shade of yellow we shall henceforth refer to as ‘Smoker’s handkerchief.’

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The Hotspur Handy Book of Football Club Colours, 1969

There are so many great football nostalgia images around that it would be easy for us to upload one after the other and say "Wow - check these out!"

We wouldn't need to do much more because a picture, as Telly Salavas once implied, paints a thousand words. On this occasion, however, we came very close to doing just that, for this post takes The Hotspur Handy Book of Football Club Colours as its subject.

This simple booklet of sixteen pages measuring just over 15 centimetres by 25 contains nothing but hand-drawn illustrations - 141 in all - showing the football kits worn by league clubs throughout the United Kingdom.

I never bought The Hotspur comic. I was more of a Whizzer and Chips man myself (sorry - 'boy'), but had I known it was prone to giving away free gifts like this back in the day, I'd have quickly turned my back on Sid's Snake, Shiner and Mustapha Million.

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Retro Round-Up - 18 April 2013

Our weekly buffet of football nostalgia from which we invite you to try an appetising mouthful of the following:

The Goldstone Wrap brings us the larger than life Brighton & Hove Albion team photo from 1979, which includes everyone at the club - even Hilda the tea lady...

An excellent assessment of the 1977 League Cup Final over at Got, Not Got - probably the longest Cup Final England's ever known...

In all their pinstriped brilliance, the 1983/84 Bordeaux team containing what looks like the entire French national squad, courtesy of The Vintage Football Club...

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Subbuteo catalogue, 1988

When you come to appraise Subbuteo football kit designs as a fully grown adult, you accept the fact that some of them won’t look quite right. This isn't a problem most of the time because we understand that Subbuteo’s charm comes from the way it simplifies the real world in miniature form.

Unfortunately, there’s an exception to every rule and in the case of Subbuteo’s 1988 catalogue, it’s the Tottenham team shown on the front cover. Ignore for a moment the not-so-subtle use of Umbro product placement worn by the six boys and instead focus your attention on the white-shirted players on the Subbuteo pitch. According to the kit listing inside the catalogue, this is Tottenham Hotspur but I ask you, kit aficionados of the world - when have you ever seen Tottenham wear a kit like that?

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