My new book, Super Squad, seeks to tell the story of 60s and 70s in English football through the careers of a squad 23 players, who, I believe, had the greatest impact on our game during this time; and how their influence laid a path for football as it is today. This isn’t just the story of our very best players, the likes of Moore and Hurst.
This is also the story of those players we may not have noticed, those we mocked unfairly, those we may have forgotten. For those players left their own lasting legacy on the game, and this book seeks to honour that legacy.
The book also touches upon the other three great influences on English football at this time. The abolition of the maximum wage in 1961, the emergence of television, and then the emergence of colour television. Some may find some of the content in the book a bit gushy, for which I make few apologies.
The chapters are affectionate portraits of my heroes, who all played football in the English First Division when I was a kid, or just before. Amazingly, some of the players I have written about became my newer heroes, after I discovered more about them in my 50s.
And the players I have included in this book, are, in many ways, pioneers – they all moved the game forward. The actual writing of the book has been my greatest ever writing experience. I’ve spent nearly 40 years as a civil servant, where I write all day, but I’ve never written about football, though. It truly has been one huge labour of love.
I’ve always had an opinion on football, and I’ve always watched it. It’s always been the constant in my life, and I can be a bit geeky about the stats thing. But I think I’ve learned over the years that it’s the bits I first saw, growing up, that I’m more attached to. I totally love the game today, but not in the way you love your first love.
The actual writing of the chapters on Bobby Moore and Sir Geoff Hurst were quite easy. There is no end of reference material out there, both on the internet and from my own book collection. But I also found YouTube a great source of info, particularly the tributes to Bobby Moore.
Those clips were a really hard watch at times, just reminding yourself that the great man was only 51 when he died. But it was also a joyful reminder: you saw exactly how good the bloke was. That tackle on Jairzinho in Mexico. Oh, man. He’s stood still for a split-second, just so that he can make that perfect tackle. So clean, so pure.
And there was a beautiful tribute from his England playing partner, Jack Charlton, on YouTube. Jack’s struggling for the exact words to convey the meaning that Bobby Moore played at a different level to everyone else in the England team.
He toys with a couple of phrases, and then just nails it ‘He was one of us, but he wasn’t like us’. You beauty, Jack. I actually went to see Sir Geoff on his ‘Evening with’ tour. He looks magnificent for 82. He stood on stage for two 45-minute slots and didn’t sit down once.
He spoke about his career, and threw in a few anecdotes during the first segment, and then did a Q&A with the St Albans audience in the second segment. We loved him. He’s our final link with that team, of course, but he also spoke of his days at Upton Park, and how West Ham had given him everything he had ever wanted from football.
Genuinely, he doesn’t begrudge today’s players earning in a week what Sir Geoff earned in a career. He was also so complimentary about Jimmy Greaves, and how Jimmy had learnt to accept the fateful decision Sir Alf Ramsey had to make in July ’66. I’ve also written a chapter about Jimmy Greaves, by the way.
As for the other chapters, I had to draw up the list of 23 players, who I thought had the greatest influence on the English game, during this era. Not easy, once you’ve included the stand outs. I also had to make decisions on whether certain players had greater influence in the 50s or 80s, so that they should be excluded from this book. A few Liverpool players fit into this category.
It’s my book, so I was at liberty to include one or two of my own personal favourites; in some cases, attempting to restore damaged reputations. I’ve also included Jimmy Hill. Not much of a player, and we all learned to dislike him as a pundit. But he was easily the most influential person of this era.
Anyway, that’s the background to the book. Published by Troubador, it’s out in November. I hope I’ve given you a sufficient taster, so that you might buy a copy for yourself, or for some older git you know, who still bangs on about the old days being better.
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