Author: Vesselin

 

Segunda Division. Not very interesting to the world outside Spain. Rules must be mentioned, though: in Spain second teams of first division clubs were allowed to play all the way up to second division – but they were not allowed to play in the same division with the first team. This automatically disqualified them to promotion to top level, leaving one intriguing, but entirely academic question: what could happen if the first team ends in the relegation zone and the second team finishes in the promotional zone. Anyhow, the real point is that second team could not go up – if finishing, say, second, then the third in the final table is promoted. Nothing like that happened this season and, in fact, only 2 B teams participated: Castilla CF (Real Madrid) and Atletico Madrileno (Atletico Madrid). The top three teams were promoted, the last four – relegated. And that was affected by irregularities: Almeria had 4 points deducted for fielding ineligible players against Deportivo La Coruna and Mallorca. Almeria, Burgos, Levante, and Getafe were relegated for not paying their players – this was rather meaningless, since they were at the very bottom pf the table, except Burgos, which was 9th. Good news for Deportivo Alaves, 17th in the final table – they were readmitted d to the league to take place of Burgos. So, financial troubles unfolded during the season – before its start the big news was different: Johan Cruijff returned to Spain, joining Levante. Hard to imagine him not been paid, but he did not last at all – he left after 9 games, most likely realizing the club was short of cash. Very short stint, but nominally Cruijff had been Levante’s player this season, which is good to put on record: the only occasion Cruijff not played second division football, but also for a team ending in the relegation zone.

Getafe was last with 19 points. Well, administrative expulsion meant nothing – they were last anyway.

Levante – here still with Cruijff – was 19th with 20 points. Same fate as Getafe’s: relegated even wihtout expulsion.

Almeria – 18th with 26 points and same case as Levante and Getafe.

Alaves – 17th with 29 points. Standing from left: Galarraga, Urdaci, Larrañaga I, Sánchez Martín, Cendoya, Astarbe.

First row: Unanue, Miguel Angel Seijo, Amuchástegui, López Polaina, Gomez de Segura.

Lucky boys – their final position relegated them, but after Burgos was punished, they stayed in the league.

But Real Oviedo was luckier than Alaves – with 31 points they finished 16th , just outside relegation zone. Lucky to survive… Oviedo really had hard times: after years in First Division, now they fought to keep a place in Second Division. Yet, they played a friendly against Chile in April, 1982. Part of the preparation of Chile for the coming World Cup. This is the team which finished 0-0 with Chile: standing from left: Vili, Viti, Antuña, Uría, Iriarte, Luisito.

 

Crouching: Carrete, Martín Roales, Jaime Serrano, García Barrero, Manolín.

Nothing exciting in the lower part of the league – recent first division members usually occupied the upper part, competing for promotions.

Rayo Vallecano was 7th with 41 points.

Real Murcia was 5th with 46 points.

Elche was 4th with 50 points. Standing from left: Jacquet,Jorge,Aguirreoa,Valle,Botella,Fali, Tenorio.

First row:Paco Bonet,Kostic,Silos, Roberto Álvarez.

Recognizable foreign players eventually were discovered in such clubs – often just carried over from first division. Milos Kostic, for example.

Standing from left: Burgueña,Popo,Nacho,Serrano,Antonio Hierro, Muñoz Pérez;

First row:Rodríguez,Juan Carlos,Peribaldo,Martín y José.

CD Malaga – Club Deportivo Malaga – not to be confused with their former B team Malaga CF, currently the prime club of the city – finished 3rd and, thus, promoted. Essentially, there was battle between 4 clubs for 3 promotional spots. Malaga and Elche lost a few more points than the others and finished with 50 points each. Goal-difference benefited Malaga: Elche ended with +24, Malaga with +35. Lucky.

Salamanca – 2nd with one point more than Elche and Malaga. Promoted and happy about it.

Celta (Vigo) – champions of Segunda Division with 53 points from 22 wins and 9 ties. They lost 7 matches, 79-40 goal-difference. Not overwhelming champions, but on the top anyway. Of course, promotion was all that mattered, but to add a title was also nice.

At the end, three former first division clubs managed to return to the highest league. Quite typical.

Spain. Business as usual, then. Especially in the many lower levels of the structure. Financial troubles here and there – reaching second division. Anyway, little of import could be said for anything bellow Second Division. Mostly unknown small clubs never going higher played in the the two groups of Segunda Division B – or Third Division. Few relatively familiar names, like

Gimnastic Tarragona – 11th in Group B, and

Granada – 10th in the same group.

Most teams were similar to

Ensidesa – 20th and therefore last, in Group A.

So, the only important thing about Third Divison was promotion: the top 2 teams of each group were going up to Second Division.

Barcelona Atletico – the B team of Barcelona – won Group A with 55 points.

Palencia finished 2nd with 52 points.

Xerez won Group B with 50 points and

Cartagena clinched 2nd place with 48 points. Lorca and Antequerano also ended with 48 points, and looks like direct result between them gave the edge to Cartagena, for Lorca had the same goal-dfference and Antequerano only slightly worse.

Well, good luck to the newly promoted in the upper division next year.

 

The cup finals reflected the current state of English football: Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur were strong on all fronts. Both teams won their cup final the previous year. This time the Spurs reached the finals of both cups and Liverpool – again the Football League final. Like the year before one finalist came from Second Division.

Tottenham Hotspur met Queens Park Rangers at the FA Cup final. Like the previous year, there was no winner, the match ending exactly as the one the year before – 1-1. In the replay, the Spurs prevailed by one goal – the same as the previous year, except the result was different – 1-0.

Standing from left: Steve Burke, Ian Gillard, Simon Stainrod, Steve Wicks, Peter Hucker, Bob Hazell, John Gregory, Mike Flanagan, Tony Currie.

Sitting: Terry Fenwick, Gary Waddock, Clive Allen, Glenn Roeder, Ian Dawes, Warren Neill, Gary Micklewhite.

QPR fans were naturally disappointed, but it was strong season for their team and nothing to blame it for – Terry Venables did a wonderful job. True, QPR failed to get promoted and to win the Cup, but it was still unfinished team. From this point of view – perhaps they achieved more than they supposed to.

Tottenham won a second consecutive FA Cup – a rare achievement in England, thus, a memorable one. Going up in the league, winning a cup – the Spurs established themselves as one of the current leaders. They had a good chance to make a double, reaching the Football League Cup final as well. Where they met Liverpool, the current cup holders.

The final still showed who dominated English football: the Spurs fought as best as they could, bringing the final to overtime. Only then Liverpool prevailed – but by 2 goals! 3-1 at the end and one more trophy for the usual suspects. It was almost impossible to overcome Liverpool, that was the simple fact.

To introduce the winners would be an insult to intelligence: everybody knows this boys even after so many years. The changes in the team went so smoothly, it was hard to notice – always a squad of stars. A double this year and second consecutive Football League Cup. Simple as that.

 

 

First Division. Financial troubles and fans violence – the reality of English football in the 1980s. But the game went on anyway. A race between two teams at the top and 7 teams at the bottom tried hard to survive.

With 39 points Middlesbrough finished last. Many feared relegation before the season started and at the end it was a case of ‘I told you so’. Transfer mistakes were the reason: Middlesbrough sold key players without replacing them adequately.

Wolverhampton Wanderers – 21st with 40 points. Hardly a surprise: the Wolves declined sharply after 1975 and there were no signs of recovery. They already visited Second Division in 1976-77 and, except the 1979-80 season, fought to avoid relegation. The inevitable happened.

The third relegated team was Leeds United – 20th with 42 points. A sad story, really – like the Wolves, Leeds was in decline after 1975, completely failing to rebuild. Hard to believe it – Leeds were fantastic for a long stretch, almost 15 years. But the great players aged and started leaving one after another – and no suitable replacements were recruited. The club plunged into the slippery slope leading to relegation. And there was no escape: it was impoverished squad already. Trevor Cherry and Eddie Gray were the last remains of the great team, both already old. Brian Greenhoff was hardly the player able to invigorate the team – he was also getting long in the tooth and well beyond his peak, like Cherry and Gray. Allan Clarke as manager was little help. As a novelty, there were two familiar names – but well known today, not then – David Seaman as an young broom and mere reserve goalkeeper, and the Argentinian Sabella – we know the coach, not the player.

Four teams survived with 44 points each.

Sunderland – 19th,

Stoke City – 18th,

West Bromwich Albion – 17th, and

Birmingham City – 16th.

The only surprise was WBA – they were quite strong in the recent years, but apparently came to the end of their stretch, largely because they failed to improve their promising squad.

Back row; Harkouk, Christie, Leonard, Kilcline, Avramovic, Hunt, Benjamin

Middle row; Walker(Youth), Stubbs, Hooks, Wood, Mair, Richards, Goodwin, Worthington, O’Brien, Manns, Doherty?, Beavon, Wilkinson (Asst.Man)

Front row; McCulloch, Wheeler(Trainer), Mounteney(Director), Dunnett(Chairman), Sirrel(Manager), Levin(Director), McParland

Kneeling; Youth/Reserves

Notts County – 15th with 47 points. Modest as they were, not a bad season – after all, keeping a place in the top league was the maximum of their dreams.

Coventry City – 15th with 50 points. A typical season – it was the same for years: nothing special, neither going up, nor down. Coventry is largely remembered for their strange kits, not for their performance.

Brighton and Hove Albion – 14th with 52 points. Just playing first division football was great enough – so, it was very good year. They had to really enjoy it and probably did.

Nottingham Forest – 13th with 57 points. Brian Clough said there was nothing left after they won everything, which translates into losing motivation, but there was something obvious even when Forest was on top of the world – they were truly great team and not going to build a dynasty. It was not a decline – it was rather coming down to earth: a good team, but not exceptional. And more likely to sell stars than buying new ones: the case of Trevor Francis this year.

Aston Villa – 11th with 57 points. Better goal-difference placed them above Nottingham Forest, but the two clubs were somewhat similar. Ron Saunders did excellent job in restoring Aston Villa, a process started in the mid-1970s and culminating with winning the 1980-81 championship, but it was clear that Villa did not have outstanding squad and will be one-time wonder. Although it was exactly this season – 1981-82 – Villa achieved its greatest ever success, their rather mediocre performance in England was more or less expected. The squad was not deep enough to handle too many competitions – they excelled in Europe and failed at home. Hard to say that they already reached their peak and the downhill slid started at the time when Villa topped Europe, but that was the sad fact.

Manchester City – a team in decline for sometime already. The measures taken seemed to be more desperate than well though and following a rebuilding plan. Point in case: they bought Trevor Francis. Already getting old. City did the same in the previous years with other aging stars with same results: occasional good spell, but the only constant direction was downhill. 10th this year with 58 points. Nothing to brag about and no hope for recovery. Not hitting the bottom yet.

London clubs were in rough situation for quite sometime and in the face of this general case, West Ham United’s 9th place was very optimistic sign: they just returned from Second Division and continued running strong after winning Second Division championship and reaching the Football League Cup final the previous season. However, it was very thin optimism – the Hammers still depended on ancient by now veterans like Trevor Brooking, Billy Bonds, and Frank Lampard. And almost unnoticed the next generation was aging – Pat Holland, Phil Parkes, Alan Devonshire. Practically, there was no new squad, but only mending and stitching together a team of experienced players, some of them very close to retirement. Temporary and dangerous situation.

Everton – 8th with 64 points. Everton did not catch a lot of attention for so long, they were practically out of sight and mind. No wonder with solid, but not remarkable performances year after year. The lack of interest was perhaps beneficial for them: quietly, Everton started building the team which culminated after a couple of years.

Southampton – 7th with 66 points. On the surface, Southampton enjoyed strong period. But if looked deeper, it was an illusion. Of course, having Keegan, Channon, Watson, and the Yugoslavs Golac and Katalinic makes big impression. Until one looks at the birth dates. And at the Yugoslavian squad for the 1982 World Cup finals. Golac and Katalinic were not in it. Channon and Watson were no longer national team players too. Southampton was a giant on clay legs – one retirement, one heavy injury, and collapse was certain.

Swansea City – 6th with 69 points. The culmination of the great Cinderella story: it started in 1977-78, when the Swans finished 3rd in Forth Division and were promoted. It was quick and steady ascent after that, leading them to First Division. They never won a lower league championship during the climb – rather curiously finishing 3rd every time they reached promotion. Modest club with modest squad, but with big hearts – after all, they ended at the top part of the First Division, rubbing shoulders with Arsenal, which finished just above them with 2 points more. European champions were left far behind! A great testimony for the managerial work of John Toshack, who also played for the team not long ago. Instant darlings, but they were not going to last… after all, John Toshack was their sole star during the climb up as a playing manager. Presently, the only relatively famous name was the former Yugoslavian international Dzamal Hadziabdic – and he was not young. With limited resources, there was no way the Swans could improve the squad with strong players. And Toshack, becoming valuable manager, was not going to stay… So, enjoy the moment – the best season in their history!

Arsenal – 5th with 71 points. All London clubs plunged into crisis after 1976 – all, except Arsenal. The Gunners kept their place among the top English clubs, but… only that. Strong, good, but not exceptional, not a title contender. ‘Second-best’ is perhaps what they were. And nothing different this season either.

Tottenham Hotspur ended above Arsenal only on goal-difference. The crisis, plunging them to second division not long ago, was over: the Spurs built a new strong team, which was almost finished. Ardiles, Villa, Archibald, Clemence – strong foundation. They returned to their almost forgotten position among the favourites. Results came along too. And a bit of strangeness: the Spurs were perhaps the only English team with 3 ‘continentals’ – the Argentine world champions Ardiles and Villa, and the Yugoslav goalkeeper Aleksic. If continental rules applied in England, one had to be always on the bench – it was not exactly a problem, for Ray Clemence was the usual starter, but still it was gray area. Villa was not playing all that much.

Manchester United – 3rd with 78 points. Although they rebuilt quickly and their current squad was fine, it was still not a winning squad. Hard to tell what was missing, but United competed for the title only once after their return from second division in 1975. No different this season either – 3rd, but completely outside the race for the title. Curiously, United finished with the best defensive record in the league, allowing only 29 goals in 42 games: traditionally, United emphasized scoring and did not care much for defense.

Ipswich Town at its finest – running for the title, but losing it. Second with 83 points. However, there was a sense they run on inertia, reaching their peak in the previous season. Still on top, but already over the peak and going down was the inevitable next step. Hard to believe that when they just challenged Liverpool, but one look at the squad tells all: it was the same as 2 years ago. Key players got older.

All depends on the standpoint: for Liverpool fans, it was great – 13th title, wonderful squad, constantly strong team. But others grumbled – Liverpool became a superclub, dominating English football and thus destroying all fun and intrigue. England was not supposed to be like continental Europe and Liverpool made it the same as Italy, Spain, West Germany, not to mention smaller countries: one huge domineering club, always winning. Boring… Not for the boys in red, though. 87 points from 26 wins and 9 ties. Only 7 times they beaten this season. 80-32 goal-difference. Top scorers of the league. No point to compare their current record with previous ones: the English championship introduced 3 points for wins exactly this season, so the numbers were higher at the end – the change hardly affected Liverpool, but, in a sense, reaction to the club’s success: it was felt that winning was no longer a big priority, scoring was getting lower, gates suffered, the arguments went on and on. Indirectly, Liverpool was to blame – so strong they were, they demoralized the rest of the league. What was the point of trying to win against them? What was the point of winning anyway? Liverpool would be champions, no matter what. Of course, Liverpool was not the prime cause for the change of rules, but indirectly they were. No matter – wonderful squad, wonderful season, the most consistent club in the country, and not even a tiny sign of going down. Liverpool was a dynasty, already one of the few greatest clubs in the world. Studded with great stars and also up to modern times: they had their 2 ‘continentals’ – the Zimbabwean goalkeeper Bruce Grobelaar and the Israeli Avi Cohen. So much success and still hungry for more – the whole difference between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

 

Second Division. Orient finished last – the league’s outsider with 39 points. Eight clubs were preoccupied with mere survival – two Welsh teams were unlucky.

Wrexham ended 21st with 44 points.

Cardiff City topped Wrexham on better goal-difference, but they were 20th and had nothing to cheer – relegated with Wrexham and Orient.

Bolton Wanderers, Shrewsbury Town, and Grimsby Town finished with 46 points each. They survived. Bolton was 19th.

Hard to think that Bolton was playing first division football only two years ago… Relegation was blamed for their fate: they were hit hard by dismal gates, having in the same time players on first division salaries. Money crisis plummeted them down. Dusan Nikolic had to go – and he returned to Crvena zvezda (Belgrade). Aging, but expensive Mike Doyle and Steve Whitworth were more bruden than help. There was no money for strong reinforcement. That was the reality… so 19th place was just fine.

Shrewsbury – 18th, and

Grimsby was 17th, but deserves a note: a fantastic ascent gave them the unique chance to be the first club climbing from 4th to 1st division in four years. Small and modest Grimsby was at the bring of making significant historic record. That was before the previous season started and they had only to finish it with promotion. But it was only a wishful thinking – Grimsby was not up to it, although they tried hard. 1981-82 was another and much more realistic story: the boys fought to escape relegation and managed to do it.

The last three clubs involved in the battle for survival were different… they all finished with 48 points, but two of these teams appeared weird in the company of Grimsby and Shrewsbury.

It was not so long ago when Derby County was one of the strongest in England, yet, it may have been some ancient story… The Rams lost their way, to put it politely. They were much more involved in controversies than winning matches after 1975 – and the rapid decline lead them not only to Second Division, but to the bottom of it. 16th this year and happy to be at this place – they survived.

And so did Crystal Palace – 15th. One is more used to see them in First Division, but Crystal Palace was notoriously shaky and unstable: one year up, the next down. Now they were just down and, by the roster, were going to stay down. A company of Shrewsbury, Grimsby, Cambridge, not of Liverpool and Arsenal.

Speaking of Cambridge United, they were 14th this season – the highest placed of the lowly survivalists. 48 points, but better goal-difference placed before Crystal Palace and Derby County. Not bad, though – not bad for a modest club.

Charlton Athletic was in solitary position – 13th with 51 points. Well bellow the comfort zone and closer to the lowly, yet, not in danger. Nothing special, but nothing unusual either – a typical season for the club at that time. Alan Mullery managed them – one of the recently retired stars, who was trying to establish himself as manager. The new decade brought new young crop of managers – the playing stars of the 1970s. There was hope in that – new blood. And as anything new, there was doubt: a great player is one thing, a great manager – something else.

The ‘comfort zone’ started right above Charlton, but went all the way up to the 3rd placed team, so it was not really ‘ a comfort zone’, where disinterested clubs existed in tranquility, but was a race for promotion. A race too much depending on money – rather, the lack of money – and current team’s shape.

Chelsea was the perfect example of the financial problems English clubs were plagued with at the time. They were fittingly at the bottom of the ‘comfort zone’ – 12th with 57 points. Impoverished, Chelsea was unable to build a strong team – the team was unbalanced, new players were badly needed, but without cash it was mission impossible. Hence, the strange squad – a bunch of experienced, but second-rate at best, players like Droy, Britton, and the Yugoslav goalkeeper Borota, surrounded with nobodies. Enough for Second Division mid-table position and nothing much. Take away the known names and… third division would embrace Chelsea. Keep the veterans and first division is out of question. And no other options… Chelsea was not yet hitting the bottom, but was heading fast to it.

Oldham Athletic – 11th with 59 points. The usual performance of Oldham, nothing different.

Blackburn Rovers, a place above Oldham because of better goal-difference, but, like Oldham – their usual. Blackburn faded away long time ago, settling into mid-table second-division club. First division was not even a dream.

Newcastle United – 9th with 62 points. A sad story of decline. Money were a factor, surely, but not the decisive one – the Magpies made huge policy mistake, neglecting their youth system more than decade ago. Their area was fertile on football talent, but Newcastle, reputed to have one of the best youth system in the country once upon a time, failed to put to good use its own talent. The result was slow decline of the first team, marked by the exodus of Malcolm Macdonald, Terry McDermott, Alan Kennedy, and Bobby Moncur back in the 1970s, without finding them suitable replacements. Meantime parents lost confidence in the club and thinking of better future for their kids started sending them to train elsewhere. Newcastle slowly sunk to second division and seemingly settled there without hopes and ambitions. The squad shows that, although the Hungarian Imre Varadi is missing and he was just just bought to add some flair to the attacking line. Chris Waddle is here, but he was still a nobody – and like many other local kids will move to better club soon.

Leicester City, pretty much similar to Newcastle, was 8th with 66 points. The exciting players of the early 1970s squad were gone long time ago. There were some fairly well known names in the current squad, but aging and past their peak. Gary Lineker was the only hope for the future, still trying to make impression, but still caged in second division.

Rotherham United was one of the nice surprises this season – Rotherham was one of the three newly promoted teams to the league and did not play second level football since 1973. Not much of team, but the work was the young manager Emlyn Hughes was impressive. Not having classy players made Rotherham erratic and clearly new players were needed to make the team consistent, but they finished 7th with 67 points, which was more than admirable.

Barnsley, the third newcomer this season, finished 6th, edging Rotherham on goal-difference. Like Rotherham, Barnsley was mediocrity for so long, that its mere return to second division was great success. But suddenly they run for promotion to the top league and were good at that for big part of the season. Then they dropped out, paying the price for having insignificant team. Still it was very strong season, largely due to yet another young manager – Norman Hunter.

QPR – 5th with 69 points. Well, here is a different team, perhaps showing why the likes of Barnsley and Rotherham had no real chance. Hardly well rounded squad, but having more strong players than most teams in the league – starting with veteran star Tony Currie and finishing with the up and coming Terry Fenwick. Perhaps not very well balanced team and still shaping to win promotion, but otherwise QPR had splendid season – for a second division team, that is.

Shefield Wednesday took a huge step towards full recovery this year – the squad was good, played well, and they were one serious candidate for promotion. But finished 4th with 70 points at the end – one point short of promotion… Then their manager said something sounding very strange today and even quite unusual in that distant past: losing promotion was a good thin for the club. The team was not ready yet for first division and one more year in the second division will give them a good chance to mature. A manager, preferring to stay in second division… and name was Jack Charlton. One of the bunch young managers making impression – Hughes, Mulligan, Hunter. Charlton was older than them, therefore retired earlier than the others, thus having more managerial experience, but he was still young manager – and doing well. Have been quite right about his squad too.

Norwich City clinched the third promotional spot with 71 points. Norwich had announced its aim to get promoted, but the road was more than rocky. The ambitions of the governing board clashed severely with the new manager Ken Brown from start. Even before start, for he was told at first that he was not going to be hired. And soon after the season started he was almost fired. The club sold its prime stars – Martin O’Neil and Justin Fashanu – a deal in exact contradiction of declared intentions. Dave Watson suffered from injuries – and he was not alone. Everything was against Brown, but he persevered and managed to add at least one classy player – Willie Donachie, bought from Manchester City. The season was difficult and the squad not really convincing, but at the end Ken Brown fulfilled the unseemly aim. Catching 3rd place a bit by chance, but promoted they were. Norwich was going back to top flight after been relegated in 1973-74.

Rock’n’roll rules! Elton John’s Watford was 2nd with 80 points. Promoted! Let’s step back just for perspective: in 1973-74, when Norwich City was relegated from First Division and Luton Town was just promoted to it, Watford had a relatively strong season – 7th in Third Division. The next year they were relegated to Forth Division. Nothing strange, nothing surprising – a club like Watford was not making news, it was enough to know they existed. Somewhere low. Then Elton John came on board and steady climb up followed, crowned by promotion. This was not a club spending money on big names, so the players were relatively unknown, but together for quite some time. Well, some names were going to become very well known soon. A great moment in the club’s history.

Luton Town – unquestionable champions of Second Division: 88 points from 25 wins and 13 ties. Only 4 matches lost. The best scorers – 86 goals. Their defense was not that strong, but that clearly suggested attacking approach and hunger for winning. Good work of their manager David Pleat, but the squad was not so great and suffered from inconsistency. Wonderful season anyway. But… there was a big ‘but’. Luton was promoted in 1973-74 only to be relegated back to second division an year later. They were seemingly best adjusted to second division football. There was talk the club are frightened of life in first division – and it was not just journalistic speculation: Luton clearly needed stronger additional players, but real class was out of their reach. They had to do with little and little was not going to be enough among the big boys. What possibly they could get? Raddy Antic, an aging and not a first rate Yugoslav. And it was difficult to keep even him… So, the best was just to enjoy winning the Second Division title – it was their biggest success. So far, Norwich had only this slim line of trophies: champions of Forth Division in 1968 and champions of Third Division in 1937. Meaning 1981-82 was their best season ever!

 

 

 

III Division. Five teams at the bottom, bellow the level of the league, and four teams in a race for three promotional spots. Chester was the absolute outsider – 24th with 32 points. Bristol City was a place above with 46 points. Swindon Town lost a three-team battle for survival – 22nd with 52 points. Wimbledon and Walsall were tied with 53 points, but Wimbledon finished at the unlucky 21st place on worse goal-difference.

Above relegation zone the bulk of the league spread comfortably, one or two points difference determining positions.

Preston North End – 14th with 61 points: goal-difference placed them above Bristol Rovers, but bellow Portsmouth.

Chesterfield – a bit of a mystery now. They had wonderful previous season, when they came close to promotion, but finished 5th. The text of the picture confuses the seasons… in 1980-81 neither Fulham, nor Carlisle United played any part in the promotional race, both teams weak and laying low. In 1981-82 both teams were favourites, indeed, but Chesterfield was down – unless they played strong in the fall and gradually faded away: 11th with 64 points.

Brentford – 8th with 68 points. Nothing special, but if Chesterfield is compared to them why Chesterfield was a news? Brentford was not and they still finished higher.

Oxford United was in the news: they were at the brink of bankruptcy and disappearing for good. Then the controversial publisher Robert Maxwell stepped in and saved the club – out of gratitude, he was made chairman of the governing board of the club. Ian Greeves was appointed manager and the team improved at once – and the saga got its next chapter. Woolverhampton Wanderers noticed the manager’s work and snatched him. Maxwell bitterly protested, accusing the Wolves of breaking the gentleman’s agreement forbidding poaching of managers, Greeves of going back on his promise and letting down Maxwell personally – he said he would not have made the cash injection if he knew Greeves was going to leave. For his part, Greeves claimed he had no contract with Oxford, neither written, nor verbal. But the team, quite surprisingly, continued to play well after Greeves left – and finished 5th with 71 points. They played no part in the promotional race, but finished at the top of the bulk of the league – well done indeed. Oh, the cash injection saving Oxford from extinction? 120 000 pounds. Small change today… a week salary of a single player today. An average player, not a big star.

Hard race at the top between four teams. Lincoln City, the least famous of the quartet, lost – they were 4th with 77 points. Had the best defense in the league, though.

Fulham bested Lincoln City by a point and took 3rd place, thus, going up to II Division. It was a testimony to the good work of young manager – less then 2 years earlier Malcolm Macdonald was still one of the top English scorers. Cash crisis, plaguing English football, was taken philosophically by Macdonald – he was happy to reach promotion, not worried about not finishing 1st.

Carlisle United ended 2nd with 80 points. Like Fulham, they had better days in the past and were eager to climb back at least to the second level.

They were bested by Burnley, which also finished with 80 points, but had better goal-difference. Just a bit better – 66-49 Burnley to 65-50 Carlisle. The difference between champions and vice-champions and Burnley had been happy, naturally, but there was little grief in the Carlisle camp – promotion was most important and Burnley, Carlisle United, and Fulham got it.

England – business as usual, despite the gathering dark clouds of financial troubles many clubs were getting into. By now England was a curiosity: internationally, she had the most successful teams and the boring, constantly failing national team. The discrepancy, unfortunately, became the rule. But it was still exciting football at home.

IV Division. Nothing much…

Northhampton Town represented the lowest: they were 22nd in the 24-team league.

Aldershot – the mid-table bulk. 16th this season.

Hull City – one of the clubs, having better days – much better – in the past. Now – 8th and 30 points behind the the league champion! Well, not 30 – just 27 points behind. Astonishing difference.

The top 4 promoted as usual:

Bournemouth was 4th with 88 points – the lowest promoted team, but nothing uncertain about it: they were 6 points ahead of Peterborough United, which itself was 0 points ahead of the 5th placed Colchester United.

Wigan Athletic was 3rd with 91 points, behind Bradford City on worse goal-difference.

Sheffield United had no trouble winning the championship, excelling in everything: 96 points from 27 wins and 15 ties. 94-41 goal-difference. They lost only 4 matches. Champions… but 4th Division champions. A club wanting to climb back to its rightful place, but still far away from restoring its former class.

 

The Cup final opposed Inter to Torino – an intriguing duel, for Torino reached the final for third year in row and so far lost two finals. Inter, naturally, was hungry for a trophy – it is easy to assume, that so famous club as Inter won the Italian Cup many times: in fact, they won it only twice so far. Torino won 4 cups. Another chapter of the great Milan vs Turin rivalry. Two-legged final still and the first match was in Milano. The hosts won 1-0. Seemingly, Torino had a good chance – but if it was another country and another football culture: in Italy 1 goal was a huge advantage. Used fully by Inter – they tied the second leg 1-1 and won the trophy.

Not many clubs in the world lost three consecutive finals, but the distinction is negative – three time losers is something to be ashamed of. Torino never lost by much – the results were almost exactly the same in every lost final – but they lost. Twice to Roma and now to Inter. One can really feel sorry for this team – so close… and so unlucky. But it was the end of the strong years of the club and the results strongly suggested that. Torino was running on the inertia of the 1970s, yet, it was downhill run. Unable to win anymore. No surprise here: only Zaccarelli and Pulici remained from the strong champions squad and both were over the hill by now. Danova, Dossena… good players, but nothing like the veterans when they were at their prime. The Dutch defender Van de Korput was strong addition, but let face it: he was not even close to star like Krol. Torino was going down… losing by little, but losing.

Unlike Torino, Inter looked fine – the squad was seemingly stronger than the team winning the Italian title not long ago. Bordon, Bergomi, Altobelli, Oriali, Baresi will be world champions in less than two months after winning the cup. Add fairly famous names and future stars – Serena, Marini, Gori, Rocca. And add Prohaska – the Austrian playmaker was one of the top in the world at his post and he solved the problem in midfield for Inter – they had no real chance of getting the leading Italian midfielders, but lift of the prohibition on foreign players instantly solved the problem. Yet, this squad was underperforming in the championship. Winning the Cup was a fine achievement, compensating for rather insignificant season, deep in the shadow of Juventus. And this trophy Inter very rarely won, so it was great – a 3rd Cup. Bravo!

 

Serie A mirrored second division somewhat – one outsider, 9 teams practically struggling to avoid relegation. Six teams comfortably above, but only 2 involved in the title race. More or less, only 2 surprising performances. The usual abundance of ties – only 4 teams ended with tell than 10 and Napoli had the most, tying half of its total games – 15. Low scoring – 8 teams finished with less than a goal-per-game average. Only 2 teams reached the 40 goals mark after 30 matches played. Even the champions were far bellow 2-goals-per-game average. And one note referring to the vote for the European player of the year: Paolo Rossi played a grand total of 3 matches this season! How come he was voted best?

Como, the hopeless outsider. Last with 17 points. The only noticeable player was the Austrian defender Dieter Mirnegg, who came from MSV Duisburg (West Germany) for this season and left immediately after the season ended. Could be said that his move to Como was a big mistake, for he was never called to the national team after leaving MSV Duisburg, but, on the other hand, Mirnegg had remarkably long career – he debuted in 1973 and retired in 1995. Anyhow, he did not save Como.

Bologna finished 15th with 23 points. Certainly a season everybody there wanted to erase from memory. Bologna was not doing well for some time, but to be relegated? It was too much.

But the fate of Bologna was nothing compared to the third relegated team: Milan just returned from second division and it was expected to be at least a mid-table team. Still wounded by the Tottonero scandal, Milan had no great team, but was Milan, a mega-name! And the squad was not so weak, if compared to more than half the league. This was the true disgrace – the first relegation was administrative, but now… 24 points and second weakest attack. Quite a surprise.

Genoa survived with 25 points – 13th.

Cagliari was 12th on better goal-difference than Genoa’s.

With 26 points, Udinese finished 11th.

Standing from left: Genzano, Mei, Recchi, Verza, Schachner, Oddi.

First row: Filippi, Ceccarelli, Piraccini, Garlini, Lucchi.

Cesena – 10th with 27 points. Two more teams had 27 points as well, but better goal-difference – Torino, 9th.

And Avellino – 8th.

Catanzaro was 7th with 28 points – on top of the group preoccupied with survival. Not a single team of this big group had a positive goal-difference. Not a single team won 10 matches. 5 points divided the 7th from the 15th – it was a close race without a single minute of relaxation.

Ascoli enjoyed a wonderful season – they were the pleasant surprise this year. Usually, a prime candidate for relegation, but this time they soared to 6th place with 32 points. They were not a title contenders – far from it – and most likely a one-time wonder, but this was perhaps one of the finest seasons in their history. May be the best.

Inter was 5th with 35 points. Nothing much, really. Inter somehow was unable to restore its leading position, remaining rather shaky and inconsistent.

Napoli, with freshly recruited Ruud Krol, had a very strong season – may be even exceptionally strong – but still, coming out of the blue, more or less, they were unable to push really far. 4th place with 35 points, beating Inter on goal-difference. The trouble was, there was hardly anybody similar in class to Krol for something more and for continuity too.

Roma continued its ascent – 3rd this year with 38 points. Not ready yet for real run for the title, but coming close to its peak. Perhaps if they got rid of the old-fashioned by now pants the guy in the middle is wearing… Small details were still needed, a little refining.

The battle between Juventus and Fiorentina went head to head to the last. Fiorentina lost by a single point.

Fiorentina had of its best season since the 1960s and it was too bad they lost the title – it was wonderful squad and perhaps the only match to Juventus: Antognoni, Bertoni (Argentina), Graziani, Cuccureddu, Galli, Vierchovod, Massaro. A combination of experience and new talent, the right blend, the right number of stars… That was the time to win and the team did its best, but missed.

Standing from left: Scirea, Bettega, Brio, Zoff, Gentile.

First row: Marocchino, Cabrini, Prandelli, Fanna, Liam Brady, Furino.

Not the easiest victory of Juventus and not very convincing one either, but… predictable, expected, same old, same old. Juventus was the dominant Italian team for a long time now, very consistent, having the most versatile squad, making the right adjustments and not losing ground. Names, well known for 10 years now. Coached by Giovanni Trapattoni – may be at this time he was recognized as a great coach, becoming not a promising young coach, but a famous one, a leading coach on world scale. He used 13 players regularly – a very small number by today’s measures, but the right one at the time – a great team meant the same players on the field. Frequent changes suggested trouble. No trouble here – so far, the squad was adjusted and readjusted carefully and there was no reason to think that it will be different in the future: some old players clearly were going to exit – Furino, Bettega, Zoff. But Scirea, Gentile, and Cabrini were the solid backbone for the next seasons. The Irish great Liam Brady achieved something well beyond his reach in England – he became a champion. He was just the right addition, but also unlikely to stay, for even Italy was increasing the number of foreigners to two, Juventus wanted Platini and, as it turned out, Boniek, and there was simply no place for Brady. Paolo Rossi played only 3 matches this year – contributing nothing, really – but was expected to be a regular the next season. Prandelli, who is on the photo, was not among the regulars at all – he played just 8 times. Juventus had the team to continue winning. And the coach. Juventus had everything.

Second Division or Serie B. 20-team league, mostly consisting of former first division members. Small fry, though. Two exceptions: Lazio, which decline after 1975 lead out of Serie A, and Sampdoria. However, one should be careful with Sampdoria: their familiar name was established later in the 1980s. They were still relatively unknown club, more likely to be found in the second division – the bigger local club was till Genoa. Anyhow, 4 teams were relegated and three promoted. One hopeless outsider this season and two more just hopeless. Ten clubs tried hard to avoid the dreaded the 4th relegation spot – that is, more than half the league was preoccupied with mere survival. But 7 teams competed for the top spots – not bad, a tough, if not particularly exciting, race.

Once upon a time Pescara was in first division, but those days were gone – tremendously weak, they were last in the league with 17 points.

Compared to Pescara, SPAL were giants with their 28 points. Which translated only into a meek and half-hearted battle for 18th place. Lost promptly… the great years of SPAL were very long ago, almost forgotten and it had been steady downhill pretty much since the mid-1960s. Now even second division was too much for them.

Brescia won the battle with SPAL with 31 points. Which hardly meant anything… not only they finished 18th , but had no chance to escape relegation almost from the beginning of the season. Their horrible season was a bit of a surprise, though.

Ten teams – half the league! – generally fought to escape the last relegation spot and at the end 2 points was the difference between 8th place and relegation. Goal-difference decided final places, including the 16th place, which meant going down to third level. Perhaps head-to-head records determined final positions, for goal-difference clearly was not decisive factor: four teams with 36 points, three of them with -7 goal-difference and one with -6. And that team went down…

Standing from left: BRUNO (all.), CERAMICOLA, MERLI, FAVERO, PARLANTI, MARTINI, PETROVIC, SALTUTTI, DEOGRATIAS, BUCCILLI, TRAINI, DI GIOVANNI (vice all.)

Crouching: ALBANI (magazz.), BALDONI, DONATELLI, SARTORI, CORVASCE, BILARDI, NEGRISOLO, MAZZONI, SOCI (massagg.)

Poor Rimini… they won 11 matches, 2 more than Pistoiese and equal to Cavese and Foggia. They outscored all their rivals and by far with 39 goals – the second best in this group, Pistoiese, scored only 31. They had the best goal-difference of the four… and they were 16th and out.

The luckiest of those 4 teams was Foggia – 14th. Almost joining Brescia on the way down, but surviving at the end.

Four other teams ended with 37 points, fretting to the end of course.

Cremonese was 11th and obove them was the only team with positive goal-difference finishing bellow 8th place. The name would be more than surprising today:

Lazio. 37 points, 38-35 goal-difference. In the middle of second division, but lucky to avoid relegation. Surprising today, but not so back then – Lazio was hardly an impressive name before 1970, more likely to play exactly second division than top flight, and the successful 1970s were more of an exception than the rule. But there were no new Cinaglias and Wilsons, coming from the foggy Albion, and the club sunk at the end of the decade – that is, for many, going back to where “The Eagles” belonged. And barely surviving even that. They were 10th.

A point above were two teams – well, this is already the upper half of the final table, but remember: 38 points was only 2 points more than what relegated Rimini had! Survival, not comfort.

Catania was 9th, losing 8th place on goal-difference.

And Sambenedettese was 8th – the highest placed of the those trying to escape relegation and the one of the best goal-difference among them: 38-33. They were, with Lazio, the only 2 teams of the lower 12 teams ending with positive goal-difference.

Standing from left: Zenga, Caccia, Bogoni, Cavazzini, Pedrazzini, Garbuglia.

First row: Speggiorin, Falcetta, Ranieri, Cagni, Colasanto.

Recognize a name? Well, nobody knew this guy yet. Walter Zenga – one could say he and his teammates did well this year. After all, they were 8th… but the final table looks prettier than reality: the boys could have been relegated just as easily.

A strange season – practically no comfortable and disinterested mid-table teams, but sharp division – 13 teams fought to avoid relegation and the other 7 – to get promotion. 6 points divided 1st from 7th. Six teams finished with equal points.

Palermo was last of the favourites – 42 points and 52-42 goal-difference. The photo is misleading – the ofiicial final table places them 7th, not 6th – and there was no real reason to be 6th, if goal-difference is considered – the higher placed team had better one. Palermo, however, scored the most goals this season and was the only teams scoring more than 50 goals in the championship. Which is quite telling… 52 goals in 38 games is nothing to brag about and that was the highest number.

Perugia was 6th – also 42 points, but their 37-26 record was just a goal better than Palermo’s: +11. Was that the final criteria is hard to tell – it was not at the bottom of the league, so why here? May be head-to-head results determined positions.

Varese was 5th with 45 points and 42-30. Again, worse goal-difference seemingly placed them lower than Bari.

Bari – 4th with 45 points and 47-33. They and those bellow them lost the race by little, by they did.

Sampdoria ended 3rd, losing second place on goal-difference. 47 points and 41-25. Not exactly great performance, one may think, but it was enough to get them promotion. And that was all that mattered – second league champions may be sweet, but much sweeter was to go up and they achieved that.

Pisa was second with slightly better record than Sampdoria: 45 points and 47-26. Well done.

And lastly – the champions. Hellas Verona. First with 48 points from 17 wins, 14 ties. 7 games were lost – more than double the number of Pisa, which lost only 3. Frankly, Verona – there was no reason to call them Hellas Verona yet – did not excel in anything, but squirreled most points somewhat and finished at the top.

Standing from left: Gibellini, Penzo, Di Gennaro, Lelj, Cavasin, Garella.

First row: Fedele (cap.), Odorizzi, Emidio Oddi, Manueli, Tricella.

There was no reason to pay much attention to Verona at the time – the league was not great, promotion was a matter of luck to a point, and Verona was a club nobody heard of. Great for them, but in terms of Italian football getting stronger… hardly anything optimistic. Verona looked like accidentally promoted team – one-time wonder at best, most likely to be relegated in the next season and forgotten. And a glance of the final table supported such a view: it was the usual doggy, boring, stifled Italian football from the late 1960s and the 1970s. Few goals and plenty of ties: only one team had fewer than 10 ties and this team was dead last. In the same time Pisa, 2nd and promoted to first division, tied 23 matches! Reggiana – 21! 13 teams scored 1 or less goal-per-game average. Not a single team managed to win 50% of their games – the highest number was 17 wins, shared by Verona and Sampdoria. So to see some nobodies winning the championship was hardly a positive sign – rather, it was a pessimistic sign, suggesting general weakness. Lazio barely escaped relegation, Brescia relegated… how good Verona could be in view of that? Not much. Some guys named Tricella and Di Gennaro? And who exactly were they? But it was fantastically happy ending at Verona, they went up – let them enjoy the moment. And prove pessimists wrong eventually.