The Boys Book of Soccer (1957)

At a garden fête last year I bought the above slightly fixed volume and interesting reading it made too.

Of most interest were the league tables for 1955/56.

In those days you  had a Third Division – north and south – from which only one team was promoted. Brighton, Ipswich Town, Brentford and Bournemouth were in that Third Division south league and now all four teams are in the Premiership and – other than Ipswich – free of relegation worries.

Manchester United won the title but in 1958 came the Munich air disaster.

Liverpool were third in the second division, Fulham ninth and West Ham 18th.

There were short stories, quizzes and tips from the great players of that era like John Charles and Tom Finney.

There was even advice on football writing which today’s scribes might note:

“Don’t distort for the sake of what Fleet Street calls a story, looking for stories is the curse of journalism, especially of sports writing.“

Also ” .. (1) don’t make things up; (2) avoid exaggeration and overstatement; and  (3) be objective and avoid partisanship.“

I doubt if such annuals exist today, having been displaced by social media and the internet. Yet they provide a much more wholesome and fuller coverage of the games. And it costs only 25p in today’s money