MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : WORLD SOCCER – NOVEMBER 1986

Nery Pumpido is the cover star of World Soccer as he aims to win a unique double of World Cup for both club and country in the same year, as River Plate are getting ready for the World Club Cup Final.

Kier Radnedge’s editorial focuses on the perilous state of defending continental champions France, Steau Bucharest and Argentinos Juniors, as they try to defend their trophies.

APOEL of Cyprus have been banned for European competition for two years after failing to turn up for their European Cup tie against Besiktas.

Also facing a possible European ban were Feyenoord, after crowd trouble at a UEFA Cup tie in Germany.

Juventus face Real Madrid in the 2nd Round of the European Cup, prompting Juventus President Giampiero Bonipierti calling for a seeding system in the European Cup.

There are Club Focuses on Sion, Anderlecht and IFK Gothenborg. The Swedish side recently won their league title, securing a place in the 1987-1988 European Cup, a competition they would go into as holders of the UEFA Cup, beating Dundee United 2-1 on aggregate.

There are four pages dedicated to the results of the early rounds of the three European competitions.

In their round-up from England, Manchester United are looking for a new manager, but only due to a printing error as it says Billy McNeill left Manchester United (It was actually Manchester City) for Aston Villa.

That month, United would actually have a managerial vacancy due to the sacking of Ron Atkinson, being replaced by Alex Ferguson.

Paolo Maldini has just been called into the Italy Under 21 squad for the first time, his dad Cesare being the Chief Scout for the Under 21s.

Branko Elsner offered his resignation as Austria manager after a 4-0 defeat to Romania, their biggest competitive defeat since 1978, while across the border in Switzerland, the national team lost their opening Euro 88 Qualifier, 2-0 to Sweden.

The magazine ends with a full round-up of results and fixtures of the Euro 88 Qualifiers.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 24.5.1986

Bryan Robson, in action for England, is the cover star as the 1986 World Cup gets closer.

The magazine opens with rumoured tansfer activity by the Old Firm, with Rangers wanting to sign Richard Gough (he would eventually sign in 1987, after a year at Tottenham Hotspur) from Dundee United and Andy Goram (It took until 1991, from Hibs, for him to join) while Celtic want to sign Stevie Clarke from St Mirren. That is ex Chelsea player and West Brom manager Steve Clarke.

Another Scottish player potentially on the move is John Robertson of Hearts, who has been attracting attention from Tottenham Hotspur.

With the World Cup getting closer, there is a double page spread previewing Poland’s chances.

Canada also get a preview. UK fans will get a glimpse of them before the tournament as they play England in a friendly at a 16,000 capacity venue, due to England manager Bobby Robson insisting that the game be played on grass, and not artificial grass that is used in Canada’s bigger stadiums.

Bryan Robson uses his column to argue the case for England as World Cup winners, giving a brief profile of the 22 players tasked with taking the trophy home from Mexico.

Swindon Town won the 4th division, and this gets a double page spread, with manager Lou Macari giving most of the credit to defender Colin Calderwood.

Also promoted and getting a double page spread were Norwich City.

In World Cup news, Socrates was left out of Brazil’s friendly against East Germany, while West Germany manager Franz Beckenbauer says this World Cup has come too soon for his team, but they have a great chance of winning the trophy in 1990.

The centre page poster is of AC Milan’s English duo of Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley, settling in in Italy, complete with family portraits. Former Motherwell player Tom Hately wasn’t pictured, because he wasn’t born until 1989.

Charlie Nicholas uses his column to discuss the vacant manager’s position at Arsenal, suggesting that his preference is Alex Ferguson or Billy McNeill.

John Fashanu gets a full page profile, described as “articulate TV and radio star who listens to Dire Straits and Phil Collins”. His biggest ambition is to appear on The Cosby Show. Fashanu would be going to the World Cup in Mexico as a pundit for Nigerian TV. Fashanu describes himself as “Mean and nasty”

The magazine goes green for a few pages, with features on Northern Ireland and Plymouth Argyle.

There was an advert for the following week’s edition, which had a World Cup wallchart.

It was a World Cup that Trevor Francis won’t be playing. He tells Shoot of his disappointment of not being selected for England, and that he’s not planning on leaving Italy, where he is currently based.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 16.8.1986

With a new national team manager appointed and the league season due to Start, the cover of this edition of Shoot doesn’t just focus on Scotland, but a Welshman bound for Italy – Ian Rush, who has just signed for Juventus.

As you open the magazine, there is a double page feature from Shoot columnist Bryan Robson, with his hopes for Manchester United in 1986-1987, with him expecting Gordon Strachan, one of Scotland’s stars at the World Cup, to continue his return to form.

Strachan’s future international caps would be coming under the recently appointed Andy Roxburgh, an internal appointment having been Director of Coaching, beat off competition from Jim McLean and Billy McNeill for the role, with the man who appointed him, SFA President David Will, describing him as “knowing more than Alex Ferguson”

Shoot’s editorial focuses on Billy Bingham preparing to agree to become manager of Saudi Arabian club Al Nasser while managing Northern Ireland as well, and that he could struggle taking on the two roles at the same time.

In news, Jesper Olsen is set to leave Manchester United, with PSV Eidnhoven his most likely destination, while across Manchester, City manager Billy McNeill wasn’t too unhappy at missing out on the Scotland job, as he and his family were settled in the North-West of England.

One Scotsman who could be on the move was Paul Sturrock of Dundee United, with Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson looking to sign him

Northern Ireland’s champions Linfield are celebrating their centenary with a friendly against Brazilian side Flamengo, with Zico and Socrates both guaranteed to be playing.

Meanwhile, England’s top flight clubs have examined the practicalities of a breakaway Super League, with representatives running up an expense bill of £32,000

It’s a new era in Scotland with the top flight now comprising of 12 clubs, and Rangers have a new manager in Graeme Souness, beginning the season away to Hibs.

There was a double page spread with the fixture lists for England’s top four divisions.

One player determined for make a good start in that new season was Graham Roberts, who wasn’t selected for the World Cup, blaming himself for that, but he did get to face England’s nemesis Diego Maradona, as he had played in Ossie Ardiles Testimonial in May.

With players such as Warren Aspinall and Mike Newell joining top flight clubs, Wigan Athletic get a feature, looking at their reputation as a breeding ground for tomorrow’s stars.

A current star is Ian Rush, who has signed for Juventus, but will play for Liverpool for a season before heading to Turin in 1987. In the feature, Shoot looks at the fortunes of players who have previously moved between British clubs and Italian clubs.

In letters, one person wants Bryan Robson replaced in the England team by Steve Hodge, one person hates Denmark’s kit and a Scottish reader is unsure that Andy Roxburgh should have got the job as national team manager.

With Wimbledon about to begin their first season in top flight football 9 years after being elected to the Football League, with Shoot looking at what challenges face clubs looking to enter the Football League, as 1986-1987 was the first season to have promotion and relegation to and from the 4th Division.

Beside it, Shoot has a feature on World Cup stars moving outside their native countries to head to Mainland Europe on their back of their World Cup performances.

Also on the move was Alan Mullery, who had returned to Brighton for a second spell as manager, and gets a full page feature.

Someone who was on the move for the first time was Paul Power, who signed for Everton after 11 years at Manchester City.

The PFA have set up a working group amongst clubs in the North-West of England to try and make football more family friendly.

In adverts, Puma have brought out a new Kenny Dalglish branded boot.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT MEXICO 86 SPECIAL

At this moment 30 years ago, Italy and Bulgaria players were walking onto the pitch at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City for the opening game of Mexico 86.

The game was broadcast live on the BBC. As people sat in front of their TVs awaiting the month of football to come, it’s possible they may have been reading Shoot’s 1986 World Cup Preview guide, costing 75p.

With three UK teams in the finals (something that wouldn’t happen again until Euro 2016), Shoot capitalised on this by having a player from Scotland (Gordon Strachan), England (Bryan Robson) and Northern Ireland (Norman Whiteside) all holding the World Cup trophy.

All three were playing for the same club in 1986, so it was obviously convenient for them to arrange the photoshoot.

As you open the magazine, there is a double page editorial saying “Go get em lads”, wishing the three UK teams good luck.

There is then a double page TV guide, but it only covers the opening match, and the home nations group games. For the record, Northern Ireland and Scotland had two live games on ITV and one on the BBC, while England had two games on the BBC and one on ITV.

Trevor Francis gets four pages to write about who he thinks will be the stars in Mexico, predicting big things from Hugo Sanchez, Rudi Voeller, Preben Elkjaer, Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Rinat Dasaev, Zico and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Enzo Scifo, Daniel Passarella, Antonio Cabrini, Zibi Boniek and Michael Laudrup.

Quite a lot of those players were based in Serie A, where Francis was playing his club football.

Mick Channon gets two pages to assess the three home nations, predicting Bryan Robson to lead England to the Quarter-Finals (They would reach that stage, but Robson would be at home injured), Scotland to reach the Second Round (Group stage exit) and Northern Ireland to reach the knockout stages (group stage exit)

Channon also commented that he was recently in Belfast to play in a testimonial game for George Dunlop.

Mal Donaghy gets a lot of praise from Channon, stating he would walk into England and Scotland’s teams, comparing him to Bobby Moore.

For the whole tournament, he expected Argentina to beat Brazil in the final.

Tony Roche gets a double page spread to assess the rest of the European teams, stating that Denmark could take the competition by storm, comparing them to Holland’s team of the 70s.

There is a full page round up of the results and tables from the European groups.

Peter Reid gets interviewed with the headline “ON YER BIKE JOAN COLLINS”. In case you’re wondering why, England will be warming up in America, staying in a hotel in Denver which is used to film scenes for the TV show Dynasty.

Reid comments on the progress in his career between World Cups, having just avoided relegation to the Third Division with Bolton in 1982, he was now challenging for trophies with Everton.

Shoot canvassed journalists from around the world for their opinion, and the consensus was that Brazil would repeat their success in Mexico they had in 1970.

Bobby Moore writes about his experiences at the 1970 World Cup, advising the players that playing Snooker will be a good way to relieve the boredom in the hotel room.

Charlie Nicholas gets four pages to write about his Scotland team-mates, where he reveals he shares a room with Steve Nicol. They are good mates, but Nicholas doesn’t share Nicol’s love of Status Quo.

There is a double page interview with the three UK managers, Bobby Robson (England), Alex Ferguson (Scotland) and Billy Bingham (Northern Ireland)

Ferguson and Robson predict Brazil will win the trophy, while Bingham shies away from predicting a winner.

Bryan Robson writes a two page article where he predicts England will reach the Semi-Finals, and that Gary Lineker will be England’s biggest star in Mexico, comparing him to Jimmy Greaves.

There are two pages then dedicated to the South American challenge, written by Tony Roche.

Shoot has bagged an interview with Diego Maradona, who says England look good, Northern Ireland have a chance of reaching the knock-out stage, while Scotland are in the toughest group. He didn’t predict Morocco to upset anyone.

The main question asked in Northern Ireland’s preview is where the goals will come from. Billy Bingham has a lot of praise for Norman Whiteside, predicting him to be a regular Northern Ireland player for the next decade.

Jimmy Greaves has two pages of letters, where a Notts County fan predicts Algeria to win because of Rachid Harkouk, to which Greaves sarcastically responds.

There is a full page dedicate to free-kick experts, listing the best players with this skill, including Platini, Hoddle, Cooper and Molby.

As well as looking forward, Shoot also looks back at England, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s World Cup history.

There are two pages dedicated to Jock Stein, who was Scotland manager during the qualifying campaign until his death after the game against Wales in September 1985, with tributes from Alex Ferguson and Billy McNeill.

There is a competition where you can win a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Ray Clemence World Cup video game.

The preview ends with an infographic of all the team’s kits.

MAGAZINE ARCHIVE : SHOOT – 3.5.1980

The first tournament of the 1980s is approaching, Euro 80, and Shoot is attempting to do Ron Greenwood’s job for him by picking the England squad for this tournament.

Shoot gives a double page spread to this, with their selection, and the reasons for their selection.

While England’s players are heading to Italy, Ipswich Town’s players are heading to Hungary to appear in a film called Escape To Victory

In other news, Billy Humphries was considering making a comeback for Ards at the age of 42, while Aston Villa were keen on signing Mick Ferguson from Coventry.

In letters, Stephen Cochrane from Hartlepool writes in to suggest his local side will be a top flight club by 1987.

Scotland are also in international action, and Derek Johnstone uses his column to write about his hopes for an international. With Scotland not going to the European Championship, he can’t resist a dig at England by writing that this is how they must have felt sitting at home watching Scotland at the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.

Shoot interviews Manchester born pop star Andy Gibb about his love of Manchester United, saying that George Best was his hero. He supports United, but wants City to do well. In the interview, he says he doesn’t get to Old Trafford often, but visits Vicarage Road to see his local team Watford.

Gibb also reveals he has football matches in his local park with his three elder brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin (That’s the Bee Gees, by the way) who he describes as “Soccer mad”, which are videotaped, then they watch back when they get home.

West Germany captain Bernard Dietz gets a double page interview, where he states that England can win the competition. They were eliminated in the group stage while West Germany won the competition.

A possible future domestic opponent of Bernard Dietz is Liverpool midfielder Terry McDermott, who tells Shoot he is considering a move to a West German club.

Terry Venables uses his column to declare that players who do cynical fouls will never prosper in football.

As part of their build-up to Euro 80, Shoot looks at previous European Championships. This week, they look back at Euro 72.

In ads, Admiral take out a full page for their England kit and tracksuit range. One of the tracksuits is modelled by Trevor Francis. It’s unknown if it was purchased in Shepherd’s Bush.

Alan Hansen gets a full page profile where he reveals his favourite music is Billy Joel, and The Commodores, while his favourite other team is Manchester United.

In transfer news, Aston Villa manager Ron Saunders was fuming after Everton hijacked their bid to sign Dumbarton’s striker Graeme Sharp after they had agreed a fee with the Scottish club.

Shoot does a feature on Grimsby winger Mike Brolly, complete with a picture of him holding a brolly.

In other ads, there is an advert for a free Euro 80 sticker album, but not in Shoot, in two other publications – Roy Of The Rovers, and Tiger.

There is a poster of Celtic players and manager Billy McNeill celebrating winning the 1980 league title. They would soon look stupid as it was Aberdeen who claimed the trophy that season.

In international news, Bobby Robson is wanted by Barcelona to be their new manager. It would eventually take him 16 years to get the job. Meanwhile, one Spanish newspaper had a leftfield candidate for the post, Ian Paisley. It was a printing error as they got him confused with Liverpool manager Bob Paisley.

Andy Gray uses his column to suggest that there should be full-time referees in football.

The magazine ends on the back page with a poster of John Toshack in his Wales kit.