MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : FOOTBALL EUROPE – JANUARY 1999

Ian Wright is the cover star of Football Europe as the final year of the 20th century is about to start.

There is a look at demanding schedules and club’s abilities to balance domestic and international commitments, prompted by the fact that Arsenal, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid all lost on the weekend prior to Matchday 5 in the group stages of the European Cup.

In news, Ronaldo of Inter Milan is suffering injury problems, while Jean-Pierre Papin has announced his retirement from football, and Peter Schmeichel has announced he will be leaving Manchester United at the end of the season.

There is a profile of German football, with the national team struggling, as the country aims to bounce back to the top of European football at both club and international level.

There is a look at Qualifying for Euro 2000, with Belgium, who will co-host the tournament, and Norway both having bad form in friendly games, while Pippo Inzaghi has finally got his first goals for Italy.

After a successful World Cup, the focus is now on France’s domestic game, with the top flight getting a four page feature.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 10.2.1979

Terry Butcher and Frank Worthington are the cover stars of Shoot, in a week that sees England, Scotland and Northern Ireland playing European Championship Qualifiers, with England facing Northern Ireland at Wembley.

That match gets a double page feature as you open the magazine.

Brian Talbot might have just signed for Arsenal, but he says he still supports his former club Ipswich Town.

Ray Clemence uses his column to declare that West Bromwich Albion are Liverpool’s biggest rivals for the title.

Emlyn Hughes of Liverpool tells Shoot that he is at a crossroads in his career, as he looks to recover from injury.

Mick Mills of Ipswich Town has a revolutionary plan for the future of English football – A Winter break and reduction of the top two divisions to 16 clubs each.

Nottingham Forest are the subject of this week’s Club Spotlight, having won the title in 1978. They are described as “History makers”, and the day before the publication date, they signed Trevor Francis from Birmingham City, Britain’s first million pound transfer.

Watford have reached the Semi-Finals of the League Cup, and manager Graham Taylor says this was no shock to him.

In foreign news, Argentina star Rene Houseman tells Shoot of his dismay after a move to Middlesbrough fell through.

Cover star Frank Worthington is being nominated for a place in the England team by his Bolton team-mat Willie Morgan.

The magazine ends with Derek Johnstone’s column, as he gets ready for big European games at club and international level – A European Cup Quarter-Final for Rangers against Koln, and a European Championship Qualifier for Scotland against Belgium.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 18.4.1981

John Wark, in action with Nottingham Forest’s Stuart Gray, is the cover star of Shoot, previewing cup Semi-Finals in both England and Scotland, as title chasing Ipswich Town face Manchester City at Villa Park.

The editorial, calls for a change in the structure of English football, claiming there are too many games (there were 42 games in England’s top flight that season) as the national team is struggling as a result of players being too tired.

Shoot previews both FA Cup Semi-Finals, making the bold prediction that the final will be Wolves v Ipswich. The final, was Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City. They also predict that it would be an Old Firm Scottish Cup Final. They were half right, as it was Rangers v Dundee United.

Andy Gray has a column in this edition, focusing on Scotland’s recent World Cup Qualifier against Northern Ireland (which finished 1-1), complaining about the defending for Northern Ireland’s goal, and stating that Scotland were confident of getting a good result in the return game in Belfast (It finished 0-0)

He states that Scotland were happy with two wins and two draws, but had expected the two wins to be at home rather than away.

He also previews the FA Cup Semi-Finals, unsurprisingly predicting his Wolves team would beat Spurs, and that Ipswich would beat Man City. He’s got a future in the punditry game, that boy.

In news, Arsenal are battling with Inter Milan, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Hamburg for Michel Platini, set to leave St Etienne at the end of the season, and TV Commentator Martin Tyler has a book about the history of the FA Cup Final ahead of this year’s game, the 100th FA Cup Final.

For just £1.60 plus P and P, you could have a framed portrait of the 1981 Aston Villa team. To be fair, they did win the league that season.

There is a double page poster of all four FA Cup Quarter-Finals, and the goals which decided them.

Derek Johnstone and Danny McGrain take it in turns to do a Scottish football column for Shoot, and it was Johnstone’s turn, hoping for an Old Firm Scottish Cup Final, so that Rangers could get the chance to avenge their defeat to Celtic in the 1980 final.

There is then a double page poster of the Home Nations (England in a friendly v Spain, Scotland v Northern Ireland and Turkey v Wales World Cup Qualfiers) and Republic of Ireland (v Belgium) internationals. Shoot describes Wales as “The best placed Home Nation to reach the finals”

As it turned out, Wales were the only home nation not to reach the 1982 World Cup finals.

Rotheram United, battling for promotion to the Second Division, get a full page profile, focusing on the success of their young manager, Ian Porterfield, with a team poster overleaf.

After 14 years without the league title, there wasn’t much cheer for Manchester United supporters in 1981, but they did win one trophy that year …….. Shoot’s Best Programme of all England’s top flight clubs.

In 1981, a copy of United Review cost 20p, had 24 pages and only 1 page of adverts.

Meanwhile, Shoot does a feature on promising youngsters at West Bromwich Albion dubbed “Atkinson’s Angels” featuring Remi Moses and Bryan Robson. Within six months, Robson, Moses and Atkinson would all have left Albion for Manchester United.

On the back page, there is a profile of Brighton star Steve Foster, pictured with trademark headband, where he reveals his favourite singers are Paul McCartney, George Benson and Dennis Waterman.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 22.2.1997

Roy Keane is the cover star of this edition of Shoot from 1997, as Shoot does a feature on the in-form Manchester United player, listing facts about him and comments from team-mates and opponents.

England’s recent World Cup Qualifying defeat to Italy got a double page spread with the headline “IT AIN’T ZOLA YET” – A pun on the Italian goalscorer, Gianfranco Zola.

With failure to reach USA 94 still fresh in the mind, with only one team in the group guaranteed to qualify, there was a serious risk that England might fail to qualify for the 2nd successive World cup.

Despite being level with England with a game in hand, Italy fluffed this lead with 0-0 draws against Poland and Georgia to hand the initiative to England, who qualified by drawing their last group game 0-0 …….. against Italy, of course. Italy also qualified, beating Russia 2-1 in a play-off.

Shoot’s results service begins by focusing on recent internationals for England (v Italy) and Scotland (v Estonia, in a re-arranged game after the infamous abandoned game the previous October) in World Cup Qualifying action, and friendlies for Wales (v Republic Of Ireland) and Northern Ireland (v Belgium)

In Transfer News that now looks silly : Arsenal want to sign Beppe Singori, Blackburn Rovers want Bobby Robson as manager, and Chelsea want to sign Paul Ince.

Meanwhile, Derby County defender Paul McGrath has put his recent upturn in form down to not drinking alcohol any more.

Jamie Redknapp is now a pundit for Shoot, where readers write letters to him. One reader suggests a European football team. Redknapp dismisses this suggestion but champions a Britain football team.