Match action from Liverpool against Everton is the cover image of Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly as the summer of 1971 has arrived.

Alex Stepney of Manchester United tells about his most embarrassing moment on a football pitch, the time he conceded a goal to Pat Jennings in the 1967 Charity Shield.

There is a profile of Steve Heighway of Liverpool who is described as exploding a myth that footballers can’t combine a football career with education.

Inter-League matches are the subject of a full page article calling for them to be scrapped as they are outdated.

There is a profile of veteran Dave Mackay, who aims to help Swindon Town into Division One for the first time in their history.

There is a review of the Texaco Cup, looking at the difference in quality between English and Scottish clubs.

In foreign news, Pele is a star attraction in France after Santos played a friendly in Paris against an All Star XI.



Rivaldo is the cover star of World Soccer, as the 2001 Copa America approaches. One international tournament that has already taken place, was the Confederations Cup, which was won by France, and gets a double page feature.

Sepp Blatter is under pressure following recent scandals, most notably players using false passports, and doping.

Didier Deschamps announced his retirement, and was immediately appointed manager of Monaco, while Owen Hargreaves got a two year extension on his Bayern Munich contract.

Pele, in his capacity as a columnist, suggests that you write Brazil off at your peril, ahead of the 2001 Cop America in Colombia. It turns out it would have been wise to write off Brazil, as they were eliminated in the Quarter-Finals by Honduras, 2-0.

They did manage to improve over the next twelve months to win the World Cup.

World Soccer gives a page to each team, previewing their chances in Colombia, apart from Brazil, who get two pages.

Roma’s Scudetto success gets a double page spread, while in Spain, Hector Cuper leaves Valencia on a low, missing out on the last Champions League place to Barcelona, and losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final.

One of the club’s who qualified for the 2001-2002 Champions League, was Cuper’s former club Mallorca, who get a feature.

In Germany, the focus is on Bayern Munich’s signings of brothers Niko and Robert Kovac.

In England, the national side has been rejuvinated under new manager Sven Goran Eriksson, winning his first five games in charge. Sir Alex Ferguson has been given a pay rise ahead of his final season in charge before retirement, which he decided to delay for another eleven years.

In Northern Ireland, there is very little transfer activity, with Roy Hamill signing for Coleraine, while Linfield have released John Easton and Stephen Beatty.

Across the border, Roddy Collins has parted company with Bohemians after failing to show up for contract talks.

17 year old Arjen Robben is profiled, as the hottest prospect in Dutch football, having already agreed to sign for PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 2002.

Another promising youngster profiled is Bosko Balaban, Croatia’s new goal king, already linked with moves to Barcelona, Real Madrid, Marseille and Fiorentina. He signed for Aston Villa that year, and was barely seen in England.


Match action from England’s recent visit to Sweden is the cover of Shoot, as they try to fill in the gap during the pre-season of 1979.

In news, Brian Clough has drawn praise from pundits in the Soviet Union after Nottingham Forest’s European Cup win, and Northern Ireland have announced a tour of Australia for the summer of 1980.

Pierce O’Leary of Shamrock Rovers was linked with a move to Coventry City, potentially, the first League Of Ireland player to move to an English club for a six figure fee. Staying in Dublin, Pele was a surprise visitor to Dublin for the friendly between Republic of Ireland and Argentina.

Distillery were facing expulsion from the Irish League if they couldn’t have a new ground by the start of the 1980-1981 season.

And finally, Coventry City became the first Football League team to visit the Faroe Islands, beating a local team 6-0.

The volume of British players in the US meant the NASL got a page of coverage, the lead story being that George Best had went missing for a week.

Gordon McQueen, writing a column, expresses his concern that the games between England and Scotland could be banned due to crowd violence, expressing his anger at a Scottish fan who invaded the pitch with his side 1-0 up, causing a delay. England went on to win the game 3-1.

McQueen also spoke about an 18 year old called Diego Maradona, who faced Scotland and was described by McQueen as “Another Pele in the making”, but was disappointed at the lack of TV coverage of the game, due to a dispute with the BBC.

In letters, a Shrewsbury Town fan complains about the lack of acknowledgement given to boss Graham Turner for his success at the club. A reader from Perth wrote in to complain about the BBC being biased towards Rangers.

A young manager starting out in the game is 32 year old Howard Kendall, and his appointment at Blackburn Rovers gets 2/3 of a page coverage.

RC Strasbourg get a full page profile, with a team poster on the other side.

To fill up space with no football, we get a full page of footballers on holiday, including a picture of Phil Neal throwing Phil Thompson into a swimming pool.

Part 8 of Shoot’s review of the 1978-1979 season reveals that Barcelona want Bobby Robson to be their manager. It only took 17 years for them to get him.

Derek Johnstone’s Scottish football column is accompanied by a picture of him playing video games with his wife.

Wigan Athletic, having just completed their first season as a league club, feature in an article asking if they will “Do a Wimbledon” – Wimbledon (promoted to the Football League in 1977) got promoted in their second season.

Wigan did indeed “Do a Wimbledon” in terms that they reached the top flight (in 27 years compared to Wimbledon’s 9) and won the FA Cup (took them 35 years compared to Wimbledon’s 11)