Xela Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 4 hours ago, Stevo985 said: I've consistently said 1996 was my favourite year of my life. Nostalgia has probably made that more true than it actually is, but looking back everything seems great. Football is amazing, music was great, TV was great. I wish I was 2 or 3 years older to really enjoy it. Like you say, everything just felt positive. Not like today when its just bad news after shit news. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 4 hours ago, mottaloo said: I worked it as a blazer boy on corporate suites, mainly the north stand banqueting room. Great memories, including the zany, colourful dutch fans and their PROPER band, scots fans singing "u can stick ur toblerone up yer arse !" to the swiss fans who applauded it ! Chatting to the very flirtatious but bored wife of the Portuguese FA chairman who sat outside the old VP reception on the step as her countrymen played the czech republic. Dave Prowse's corporate trolley dollies who took over the waitressing duties in the suite including one who slapped the face of a slimy punter who pinched her arse. He honestly believed cos he bought a table of 20 for his company and guests that she too was thrown in. She was more pissed off that she broke a nail with her slap. He got escorted out sharpish.....aaah the memories !! I hope you didn't pair the blazer with jogging bottoms?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 16 minutes ago, Xela said: I hope you didn't pair the blazer with jogging bottoms?! Villa were sponsored by reebok then and you'd be amazed how well my claret jogging bottoms went with my claret polyester blazer - i looked like a coach driver from the 70s ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 4 hours ago, Stevo985 said: I'd strongly recommend the "Quickly Kevin Will He Score?" podcast for anyone enjoying this rerun of Euro96 It's a very funny podcast anyway (based around 90s football), but there are a number of interviews with 90's footballers who were part of this squad and they talk about the tournament and the Hong Kong stuff a lot. Paul Merson is one of the funniest, Darren Anderton, Stuart Pearce. Frank Skinner is another good one for Euro 96 stories. How on Earth go do have the time to listen to so many podcasts, watch movies, box sets, hold down a job and a girlfriend? I can’t commit to a social media video longer than about 90 seconds as I know it’ll get interrupted by someone of something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted May 12, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted May 12, 2020 8 minutes ago, Genie said: How on Earth go do have the time to listen to so many podcasts, watch movies, box sets, hold down a job and a girlfriend? I can’t commit to a social media video longer than about 90 seconds as I know it’ll get interrupted by someone of something. Commuting for podcasts, or on runs these days as no commuting! I watch most of my TV shows and movies with the other half, although being furloughed for a month while she was still working has allowed me to pile through a load of stuff she didn’t want to watch. Also she goes to bed at about 8pm every night so I get a couple of hours to myself then Oh and no kids 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Just been watching first half of Scotland game, England even worse than v the Swiss. I hear things improve from this point though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted May 17, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted May 17, 2020 That Gazza goal... I remember that so clearly. Also, is it just me or were footballers much better at post match interviews in 1996? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 Forgot that Sol Campbell was brought on, he must have been young at the time. The scots had quite a good side then compared to the utter dross of the last 20 yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 11 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said: Forgot that Sol Campbell was brought on, he must have been young at the time. The scots had quite a good side then compared to the utter dross of the last 20 yrs. Think big difference was the SPL was miles stronger than it is now with calibre of players in that league like Gazza, Laudrup, Di Canio etc so the SPL players in their squad were of a better quality than what they have now. Probably have roughly same number of premier league players available now as they did then. They did alright in that game and tournament but for some reason had no wide players in their squad so were pretty slow at breaking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 41 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said: The scots had quite a good side then compared to the utter dross of the last 20 yrs. Scottish football dropped off a cliff from the mid 90s. In the 80's and early 90's most top teams in England had a fair smattering of Scottish players. Plus the top Scottish teams were the equal of the top English teams (Rangers beating Leeds twice in the battle of Britain in the Champions League in 92 [i think]) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 1 hour ago, VillaChris said: Just been watching first half of Scotland game, England even worse than v the Swiss. I hear things improve from this point though.... The Spain QF wasn't much better either! The Dutch and German games were great though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Xela said: Scottish football dropped off a cliff from the mid 90s. In the 80's and early 90's most top teams in England had a fair smattering of Scottish players. Plus the top Scottish teams were the equal of the top English teams (Rangers beating Leeds twice in the battle of Britain in the Champions League in 92 [i think]) You could say without laughter that Rangers in the 1990's were one of the biggest teams in Britain, and perhaps for a short period, the biggest. Ahead of most English clubs in terms of stadium development and player recruitment. Never, ever, going to happen again. Edited May 17, 2020 by The Fun Factory 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 17, 2020 Share Posted May 17, 2020 speaking of Rangers, this is funny and bizarre though not unrealistic at the time Quote Italian agent Giovanni Branchini claims that Rangers almost completed a shock transfer for Ronaldo -- and he would have only played in Champions League matches. The legendary Brazilian, 43, left Barcelona in 1997 to complete a sensational move to Inter Milan for a world-record fee of £19.5m at the time. TalkSPORT found an interview with Branchini from 2016 and the agent claimed that Rangers were among three clubs in the race to land Ronaldo. The two-time World Cup winner was free to leave the Camp Nou so long as a club bought out the remainder of his contract with Barca, which Inter eventually did. "The clause in his contract was a novelty at the time and it scared a lot of clubs off," Branchini said. "The three who were really interested were Inter, Lazio and Glasgow Rangers, who followed negotiations all the way." According to Branchini, the Gers were fully committed to capturing the Champions League crown and would only use Ronaldo in European matches over Scottish clashes. He explained: "The offer from Glasgow Rangers was incredible. "They told us he didn't have to play on a Saturday in the Scottish League. "They were desperate to win the Champions League and were going to allow him to play in the European matches only. "But Inter had followed him from when he used to play in Brazil. "Barcelona reneged on a new contract and Inter were the first club to meet the release clause, so he went there." https://www.sportbible.com/football/news-the-story-of-how-ronaldo-came-close-to-joining-rangers-in-1997-20191231 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 8 hours ago, The Fun Factory said: You could say without laughter that Rangers in the 1990's were one of the biggest teams in Britain, and perhaps for a short period, the biggest. Ahead of most English clubs in terms of stadium development and player recruitment. Never, ever, going to happen again. Absolutely. They would have definitely rivalled Liverpool / Arsenal / Man Ud in the late 80's - mid 90's. Unfortunately the money in English football completely left Scottish football behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 On the theme of 90’s football Harry’s Heroes is on tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday. Lee Hendrie and Michael Owen join most of the guys from last time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chips'ngravy Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 19 hours ago, Genie said: On the theme of 90’s football Harry’s Heroes is on tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday. Lee Hendrie and Michael Owen join most of the guys from last time. Watched it today. It's a mixed bag alright. Quite enjoyed the football match parts and the bits where Merse talks about his addiction problems and confronts Ruddock with the reality of his own destructive lifestyle, but there's a lot of lame banter in there too which can make it a difficult watch. Knowing what we do about Hendrie and his mental health issues it was a bit sad to see him leading the way in the drinking stakes. I imagine this was quite representative of many a dressing room culture where attempts to fit in have slid into alcoholism. There's definitely a tabloid feel to it (it is ITV I suppose) which was apparent in the pre-meditated move to leave the lads to their own devices and put Razor Ruddock, an obese alcoholic in need of heart surgery, in charge. Hmmm...what could possibly go wrong, eh Harry? Harry does, of course, express his disappointment at their booze and dietary habits. Found it quite cringeworthy at times and was shocked at just how little most of them seemed to look after their health. Probably wouldn't ever bother with anything like this, and wasn't aware of the first series, but given there's little else football-wise on then I might carry on watching a bunch of middle-aged men huff and puff their way round a pitch. Oh yeah....and Merse has still got the magic 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, chips'ngravy said: Watched it today. It's a mixed bag alright. Quite enjoyed the football match parts and the bits where Merse talks about his addiction problems and confronts Ruddock with the reality of his own destructive lifestyle, but there's a lot of lame banter in there too which can make it a difficult watch. Knowing what we do about Hendrie and his mental health issues it was a bit sad to see him leading the way in the drinking stakes. I imagine this was quite representative of many a dressing room culture where attempts to fit in have slid into alcoholism. There's definitely a tabloid feel to it (it is ITV I suppose) which was apparent in the pre-meditated move to leave the lads to their own devices and put Razor Ruddock, an obese alcoholic in need of heart surgery, in charge. Hmmm...what could possibly go wrong, eh Harry? Harry does, of course, express his disappointment at their booze and dietary habits. Found it quite cringeworthy at times and was shocked at just how little most of them seemed to look after their health. Probably wouldn't ever bother with anything like this, and wasn't aware of the first series, but given there's little else football-wise on then I might carry on watching a bunch of middle-aged men huff and puff their way round a pitch. Oh yeah....and Merse has still got the magic Footballing wise its a strange mix of still retaining a high level of ability (touch, vision, passing weight etc) versus absolutely zero pace and stamina. They seem to be on top or at worst level with their opposition until the final third of the match when they just can't move anymore. Edited May 19, 2020 by VillaJ100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 On 17/05/2020 at 21:47, Xela said: Scottish football dropped off a cliff from the mid 90s. In the 80's and early 90's most top teams in England had a fair smattering of Scottish players. Plus the top Scottish teams were the equal of the top English teams (Rangers beating Leeds twice in the battle of Britain in the Champions League in 92 [i think]) Im old enough to remember Celtic stuffing Leeds over two legs in the European cup in the early 70s. Leeds at that time were the best team in England by a distance. Celtic gave them a football lesson. Scotland used to produce great players like Jimmy Johnstone, Law, Baxter, Bremner. There was a conveyor belt of great players coming from Scotland. Now just one or two good ones like McGinn and Robertson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, PaulC said: Im old enough to remember Celtic stuffing Leeds over two legs in the European cup in the early 70s. Leeds at that time were the best team in England by a distance. Celtic gave them a football lesson. Scotland used to produce great players like Jimmy Johnstone, Law, Baxter, Bremner. There was a conveyor belt of great players coming from Scotland. Now just one or two good ones like McGinn and Robertson Indeed. Liverpool in the 80's had Souness, Dalglish, Nicol, Hanson and Gillespie. Proper conveyor belt of talent up north as you say. Wonder why it dried up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Just now, Xela said: Indeed. Liverpool in the 80's had Souness, Dalglish, Nicol, Hanson and Gillespie. Proper conveyor belt of talent up north as you say. Wonder why it dried up? Maybe the kids there don't play as much football as they used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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