IRISH FOOTBALL FANS are well used to hearing Eamon Dunphy spout off a ridiculous opinion on TV, which most likely contradicts something he said possibly only minutes earlier.
Before that, he was a well-known journalist, author and footballer, famously writing Only a Game? about the struggles of professional football.
But you would have to be a real historian on the former Irish international to know that during his playing days, Dunphy travelled around to various football clubs in the British midlands and London to compile football annuals.
Who knows, maybe one of the editions you eagerly studied upon unwrapping on Christmas Day was penned by Ireland’s most controversial sports pundit.
That Dunphy tidbit is just one of the many interesting things you can discover in The Heyday of the Football Annual, a book by Ian Preece that takes a loving look at the exceptionally detailed annuals of the 50s and 60s and explores the evolution of the collections.
Most football fans have great memories of getting an annual at Christmas time, but you could forgive Preece for almost becoming fed up with them during his research for the book.
“I began to lose my mind,” he laughs after saying he went through about 250 classic annuals in preparation for the project.
The old-school annuals contain a lot of surprising material. Since nothing could be done digitally, the pieces were written months in advance of publication and interviews generally gave a fascinating insight into a player’s life away from the game.
Nobby Stiles, the imposing midfielder who won a World Cup with England in 1966, liked to collect miniature dolls while England and Fulham legend Johnny Haynes liked to keep budgies.
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You wouldn't have taken Nobby Stiles to be a collector of miniature figurines. EMPICS Sports Photo Agency
EMPICS Sports Photo Agency
Today you would be lucky to discover if Wayne Rooney prefers the Xbox One or the PS4. It was very much a different era.
“What comes through in the 50s and 60s is that footballers were just like us,” Preece said.
“They lived in the same areas and had similar hobbies. By the 70s you can see it changing with more individuals coming through. But there is a great story in one of the older annuals where Tommy Lawton [former Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal striker] chides himself for celebrating a goal too much and on the bus back one of his team-mates warns him about getting above himself.”
Some of the analysis in the old annuals is almost eerily relevant today. After England’s mediocre showing at the 1962 World Cup, The Sportsview Soccer Book wrote ‘The old familiar words like shambling, fumbling, stereotyped and disjointed were dusted out and brought back into use. The real reason we trail so far behind other countries is because our players are not able to pass with anything like the consistency, accuracy and technique of the players from other countries.’ – words that could easily be used to describe the state of Roy Hodgson’s men today.
It doesn't look like much has changed in English football in the last 50 years. PA WIRE
PA WIRE
Given that analysis, it isn’t that surprising that not many annuals of the day were tipping England for greatness ahead of the 1966 World Cup.
“The 6-3 defeat to Hungary in 1953 casts a long shadow over a lot of football annuals,” Preece says.
“Even by 1966, it was a fairly low-key build-up to the World Cup. I don’t think anyone except Alf Ramsey thought England could win it.”
But not every prediction was spot-on. The 1968 International Football Book raved about how Ron Greenwood’s West Ham side had adopted the tactics of twice-European Champions Inter Milan, leading the author to claim that West Ham would win several league titles as a result.
They won none.
Ron Greenwood's West Ham side were tipped for great things in one annual. Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson
There is also the comedy of people involved in football worried about losing fans to rival organisations… like bingo.
“One thing that crops up again and again, right from the 50s onwards, really, is the continuing worry that football will lose out to other ‘rival attractions’,” Preece says.
“There’s Billy Walker, the old Nottingham Forest manager, talking about the threat of dog racing, ice skating and the cinema in Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book in the early fifties, then, nearly twenty years later, they’re still worrying about the impact of TV on live attendances, armchair fans, ‘the bowling alley and the motor car’ and even Bingo, in terms of keeping fans away. Which, in this world of wall-to-wall football today, is pretty quaint.”
After pouring through so many annuals, Preece has a few takeaways of why the old editions are so enjoyable. All clubs from Manchester United to Mansfield get ample coverage and back in the 50s and 60s, when knowledge of football around the world was relatively limited, the annuals did a great job at broadening fans’ horizons.
“It [the annuals] was great at opening up the world of football and taking fans behind the scenes,” Preece says.
“There was stuff on football in Bulgaria and other countries that fans wouldn’t have know much about. You can’t underestimate how little people knew about world of football.
“All the clubs were on an equal billing – the opening of a new stand at Dundee gets a double page feature in one annual.”
With so much information available online today, you are more likely to see a young supporter reading about their favourite team on an ipad instead of in a hardback annual, but Preece thinks there is still a market for them.
“They are more club based today, focusing on the big Premier League teams but I recently talked to the author who writes the Chelsea annuals and he said he puts in some historical pieces so in a quiet way I think the football annual will live on.”
Remember getting your Christmas football annual? This book will take you back to your childhood
IRISH FOOTBALL FANS are well used to hearing Eamon Dunphy spout off a ridiculous opinion on TV, which most likely contradicts something he said possibly only minutes earlier.
Before that, he was a well-known journalist, author and footballer, famously writing Only a Game? about the struggles of professional football.
But you would have to be a real historian on the former Irish international to know that during his playing days, Dunphy travelled around to various football clubs in the British midlands and London to compile football annuals.
Who knows, maybe one of the editions you eagerly studied upon unwrapping on Christmas Day was penned by Ireland’s most controversial sports pundit.
That Dunphy tidbit is just one of the many interesting things you can discover in The Heyday of the Football Annual, a book by Ian Preece that takes a loving look at the exceptionally detailed annuals of the 50s and 60s and explores the evolution of the collections.
Most football fans have great memories of getting an annual at Christmas time, but you could forgive Preece for almost becoming fed up with them during his research for the book.
“I began to lose my mind,” he laughs after saying he went through about 250 classic annuals in preparation for the project.
The old-school annuals contain a lot of surprising material. Since nothing could be done digitally, the pieces were written months in advance of publication and interviews generally gave a fascinating insight into a player’s life away from the game.
Nobby Stiles, the imposing midfielder who won a World Cup with England in 1966, liked to collect miniature dolls while England and Fulham legend Johnny Haynes liked to keep budgies.
Today you would be lucky to discover if Wayne Rooney prefers the Xbox One or the PS4. It was very much a different era.
“What comes through in the 50s and 60s is that footballers were just like us,” Preece said.
“They lived in the same areas and had similar hobbies. By the 70s you can see it changing with more individuals coming through. But there is a great story in one of the older annuals where Tommy Lawton [former Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal striker] chides himself for celebrating a goal too much and on the bus back one of his team-mates warns him about getting above himself.”
Some of the analysis in the old annuals is almost eerily relevant today. After England’s mediocre showing at the 1962 World Cup, The Sportsview Soccer Book wrote ‘The old familiar words like shambling, fumbling, stereotyped and disjointed were dusted out and brought back into use. The real reason we trail so far behind other countries is because our players are not able to pass with anything like the consistency, accuracy and technique of the players from other countries.’ – words that could easily be used to describe the state of Roy Hodgson’s men today.
Given that analysis, it isn’t that surprising that not many annuals of the day were tipping England for greatness ahead of the 1966 World Cup.
“The 6-3 defeat to Hungary in 1953 casts a long shadow over a lot of football annuals,” Preece says.
“Even by 1966, it was a fairly low-key build-up to the World Cup. I don’t think anyone except Alf Ramsey thought England could win it.”
But not every prediction was spot-on. The 1968 International Football Book raved about how Ron Greenwood’s West Ham side had adopted the tactics of twice-European Champions Inter Milan, leading the author to claim that West Ham would win several league titles as a result.
They won none.
There is also the comedy of people involved in football worried about losing fans to rival organisations… like bingo.
“One thing that crops up again and again, right from the 50s onwards, really, is the continuing worry that football will lose out to other ‘rival attractions’,” Preece says.
“There’s Billy Walker, the old Nottingham Forest manager, talking about the threat of dog racing, ice skating and the cinema in Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book in the early fifties, then, nearly twenty years later, they’re still worrying about the impact of TV on live attendances, armchair fans, ‘the bowling alley and the motor car’ and even Bingo, in terms of keeping fans away. Which, in this world of wall-to-wall football today, is pretty quaint.”
After pouring through so many annuals, Preece has a few takeaways of why the old editions are so enjoyable. All clubs from Manchester United to Mansfield get ample coverage and back in the 50s and 60s, when knowledge of football around the world was relatively limited, the annuals did a great job at broadening fans’ horizons.
“It [the annuals] was great at opening up the world of football and taking fans behind the scenes,” Preece says.
“There was stuff on football in Bulgaria and other countries that fans wouldn’t have know much about. You can’t underestimate how little people knew about world of football.
“All the clubs were on an equal billing – the opening of a new stand at Dundee gets a double page feature in one annual.”
With so much information available online today, you are more likely to see a young supporter reading about their favourite team on an ipad instead of in a hardback annual, but Preece thinks there is still a market for them.
“They are more club based today, focusing on the big Premier League teams but I recently talked to the author who writes the Chelsea annuals and he said he puts in some historical pieces so in a quiet way I think the football annual will live on.”
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Eamon Dunphy football annuals Nostalgia