The fixtures are out and a new season beckons! We’ve been busy over the close season writing contributions to a new book (someone else’s) on Premier League Legends, which is being published to celebrate 20 years of the big league.
Now, ordinarily, we like to think we’re dead set against the horrors of the financial / Disneyland / crap tattoo revolution that has nicked football from its traditional fans… and so on. But it turns out, in retrospect, there were some pretty good bits, especially back in the exciting seasons back in the 90s before things got really out of hand on the Mario Balotelli shopping front.
Eric Cantona was probably our all-time fave (alongside Tony Cottee, natch), a philosopher-footballer-actor whose like we’ll never see again – remembered here via his preposterous book of pronouncements on life, the universe and everything…
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: what a scowl, what a Kevin Rowland lookalike; the ultimate deadpan goal celebration, remembered here via a splendid keyring fob.
And World Cup coins returned in the Prem era, too, which was cool for children of all ages.
Remember when Wimbledon used to upset all the Prem bigshots throughout the 90s? And then there was Wigan/Hull City’s Dickensian Cockney throwback Jimmy Bullard, best remembered for his classic finger-wagging goal celebration after Phil Brown had kept his lads out on the pitch at half-time. Oh yeah, and a White Feather car sticker, too.
What do you reckon? Big sell out? Or can you also remember one or two half-decent goals, characters and awaydays from the last 20 years?
Now to get in contact with the OED (or possibly the OCD?) and log the fact that we’ve only gone and coined a brand new word. Premorabilia: copyright us, 2012. Google and weep.
Thanks to Andy at footballcardsuk.com for the cards and Premorabilia he’s contributed to this ongoing series. 35,000 football cards and stickers up online, and counting… progs too!
Nominated for BSBA Football Book of the Year, check out the astonishing reviews and take a peek inside ‘Got, Not Got’ here…
Got, Not Got 