Ipswich Town, promoted to England’s top flight for the first time since 1986, are the cover stars of Shoot, having made a good start to the season.
Lee Sharpe, hoping for a return to form after missing most of 91/92 through injury, is the subject of a Q and A, mostly covering his absence from the first team, stating that he wished to be ready for action in November.
Meanwhile, Michael Laudrup of Barcelona is advertising Patrick boots. The small print states that his brother Brian also wears Patrick boots.
After a disappointing Euro 92, Shoot assembles an expert panel to decide what England’s first choice team should be. This panel featured : Jimmy Greaves, Geoff Hurst. Kenny Sansom, Trevor Brooking. And John Fashanu.
Due to a printing error, a picture of Rob Jones appeared where Ian Wright should have been in their line-up
Turning over, Ian Wright appears in a double paged advert for Nike, with him on the right, and the left being taken up by red test saying ‘GARY WHO?’, a reference to Gary Lineker’s departure from English football.
Meanwhile, for most of Europe (some countries who failed to qualify for Euro 92, including Wales and Northern Ireland, began during the 91/92 season), the qualification campaign for the 1994 was about to start, and Shoot combines England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland games into a double page spread.
Flags, are not their strong point. Northern Ireland have the St Patrick’s Saltire, Latvia have a Soviet Latvia flag (outdated since 1990), Wales have no Dragon in their flag, and Faroe Islands have a Czechoslovia (also in the group, but played under the name of RCS during 1993) flag next to them.
England were playing Spain that week, in an international friendly, their World Cup campaign not starting until October 1992.
Ominously, England’s preview begins with a quote from Doug Ellis warning Graham Taylor that the next two years were going to be tough for him.
The reason for this was due to the number of games played by top flight English clubs, but that they were hoping to reduce the Premier League to 20 clubs within three years (The Premier League was reduced to 20 clubs for the 95/96 season)
Ellis said that Taylor’s ambition was for England’s top flight to be 18 clubs. That has yet to happen.
Shoot dedicated a page to readers letters on the recent ‘Back Pass Rule’, none of which had any sympathy for goalkeepers, now unable to pick up backpasses.
Ipswich Town were visited by Shoot to appear in a ‘Superstars’ type feature, trying to see tho has the Hardest Shot, Longest Throw, and longest Keeper’s Throw.
Neil Thompson (Hardest Shot, Longest Throw) and Craig Forrest (Keeper’s Throw) were the early leaders in the early stages of this competition.
Both players have an interesting Old Trafford connection. Both played in the Ipswich team which lost 9-0 at Old Trafford in 1995, while Thompson (Barnsley, 7-0 in 1997) and Forrest (West Ham United, 7-1 in 2000) both suffered large defeats with future employers.
Nigel Worthington is given a page to predict the results on six games over the weekend, of games involving his former clubs, and those games being televised.
Leeds United travelled to Old Trafford for Sky’s Super Sunday in a battle between the previous season’s top two, with neither side making a good start to 92/93. Worthington said it was close to call, but that Leeds were a slightly better team because they had Eric Cantona.
Little did we know happen then, that Eric Cantona would be playing at Old Trafford as a home player in just three months time.
Worthing predicted a 2-1 win for Leeds. It finished 2-0 to Manchester United.
That weekend, Football Italia launched on Channel 4, with (Des Walker’s) Sampdoria taking on (Gazza’s) Lazio. Worthington wasn’t convinced.
“I’m not sure about the introduction of televised football from Italy, and i’d rather watch Arsenal v Liverpool. I think people will soon realise that the English League is still the best”
During the 90s, Italian clubs won 3 European Cups (5 Runners-Up), 3 European Cup Winners Cups (1 Runner-Up) and 7 UEFA Cups (6 Runners-Up)
Meanwhile, Les Ferdinand gets a profile, answering questions, his favourite band are The Whispers.
A full page is given to a competition, that all the cool kids want, a VIP Day Out at Hearts ………. and a complete Hearts kit and tracksuit. All you had to do was answer three easy questions.
Over the page is another competition, which was probably a bit better, a Juventus shirt signed by David Platt, at the bottom of a double page spread where David Platt previews the forthcoming Serie A season.
Jean Pierre Papin gets a double page spread, having just joined AC Milan from Marseille.
Unfortunately, the move wasn’t as successful as people had predicted.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 