I Division. The last three teams were doomed early, but there was a race between 5 teams for escape from the last relegation spot. At the top – the familiar dominance of Liverpool keeping the rest of the league far away, followed by rapidly improving Manchester United, also separated from the rest by a vast distance. Perhaps it is worth noting the success of players-managers: nothing new about it, particularly in England, but usually they were not that many and not leading winning teams – now Kenny Dalglish put a new twist to Liverpool’s tradition to replace one home-grown manager with his former helper and another former Liverpool’s star was successful player-manager of Glasgow Rangers – Graham Souness. Scots were the current best managers – Souness, Dalglish, and Ferguson and the helm of Manchester United.
Oxford United – last with 31 points and saying goodbye to top league football.
Watford – its great story ended: 20th with 32 points. Looks like the club followed the career of Elton John… the rock-star was no longer hot ticket and his club also declined.
Portsmouth – 19th with 35 points. Lasted a single season in the top league and was relegated.
No end to the suffering of Chelsea – 18th with 42 points and relegated again. It was not that didn’t try, but hardly bad luck (the larger relegation group because of the reduction of the league plus ending in that group only on goal-difference) – the squad was poor quality and there was hardly any other way because of still shaky financial situation.
Charlton Athletic survived: 17th with 42 points. Thanks to 4 goals better goal-difference than Chelsea.
West Ham United also survived on goal-difference: 16th with 42 points.
Derby County ended 15th with 43 points. Escaped relegation and may be Peter Shilton was the happiest of the bunch: still the number 1 goalkeeper of England.
Norwich City – 14th with 45 points.
Tottenham Hotspur – 13th with 47 points. Just a few years ago there were great hopes of Spurs going to the very top and rivaling Liverpool. Now the direction was the opposite. Ray Clemence and Ossie Ardiles, and Johhny Metgod were approaching retirement fast, their best years already in the past. To a point, Nico Claesen’s best years were in the past too. Chris Waddle’s… Terry Venables? Better look at Barcelona’s photo of this season, not at the above picture.
Southampton – 12th with 50 points. Their strong period ended and no surprise: the risky approach to recruit aging stars eventually run dry.
Sheffield Wednesday – doing well: 11th with 53 points, but seemingly on ascent.
Coventry City – 10th with 53 points.
Luton Town – 9th with 53 points and such position itself was achievement for them, but there was more to the team seemingly at its peak – arguably, they had their best season ever.
Newcastle United – 8th with 56 points. Optimistic season and fortune tellers were predicting great future. Paul Gascoigne was the trump card.
Wimbledon – 7th with 57 points. They finished a place higher in the previous season, but still this season was sensational and perhaps their best. The true Cinderella story… leaving Luton Town in the dust.
Arsenal – 6th with 66 points. Good work of George Graham, but not the finish product yet – if one can speak of Arsenal’s finished product.
Queen’s Park Rangers – 5th with 67 points. Strong season, bringing back memories of mid-70s, and good team in which Terry Fenwick was the current big star, but QPR usually did not last long among the best.
Everton – 4th with 70 points. Yes, they were still strong, but already the myth, based on ‘if’, was taking roots: if English clubs were banned from playing in the European tournaments, courtesy of hated Liverpool, Everton would have conquered the world already and sky was the limit from there. True, they left Liverpool 9 points behind in the victorious previous season, but now were 20 points behind Liverpool and 11 points behind Manchester City. Hardly a prove of greatness. And the squad was not all that impressive… even the English national team players in it were not leaders – the big stars of the moment played for other teams.
Nottingham Forest – 3rd with 73 points. Brian Clough still managed to keep the team high in the league, but it was already clear for some time that success was impossible. Not a title contender this squad, not even second-best.
Manchester United with reserve team, youth and all – 2nd with 81 points. Alex Ferguson was doing a good job, building and improving, and it showed – the rest of the league was left far behind. Yet, it was still a building process and the team was not ready even to challenge Liverpool.
Liverpool quickly recovered by the humiliating previous season, when they were left in the dust by city rivals Everton and came back thunderously: they lost only 2 games, won 26, tied 12, scored 87 goals, permitting only 24 in their net, and finished with 90 points. Nobody was even close to them – in anything! Manchester United was left 9 points behind and never mind the rest of the league. Liverpool outscored Manchester United by 16 goals and never mind the rest. Everton was bested defensively by 3 goals, but allowing only 24 goals in their net was astonishing achievement in the tough and attacking English football. Of course, the team was wonderful and full of well known stars and Kenny Dalglish was simply proving that Liverpool was grooming excellent managers one after another. Yet, Liverpool’s dominance was tiring and even alarming – after all, Liverpool sold during the season Lawrenson, Wark, and Walsh and still was head and shoulders above the whole league with second-rater like John Aldridge and risky goalkeeper Bruce Grobelaar. Was Englsih football becoming so bland that it was enough to have Aldridge to keep winning? No need for the likes of Rush, Keegan, Toshack… no need to hunt Gascoigne – Aldridge was enough… Then again, it was Liverpool – let not pile on Aldridge, because they already had youngsters going to be big – Peter Beardsley and Steve McMahon.
Just one more title for Liverpool… so routine.
Huddersfield Town was out of place this season – last with 28 points and 100 goals in their net.
Reading – 22rd with 42 points and out.
No steel enough in Sheffield United – 21nd with 46 points and relegated. Their neighbours were doing quite well in the top league and they were going down to third tier.
West Bromwich Albion could not stop its downfall, which started a few years back: 20st with 47 points and relegated.
Birmingham City survived – 19th with 48 points.
Shrewsbury Town – 18th with 49 points.
Bournemouth – 17th with 49 points.
Plymouth Argyle – 16th with 56 points.
Hull City – 15th with 57 points.
Barnsley – 14th with 57 points.
Leicester City – 13th with 59 points.
Swindon Town – 12th with 59 points.
Stoke City – 11th with 62 points.
Oldham Athletic – 10th with 65 points.
Manchester City – 9th with 65 points.
Ipswich Town – 8th with 66 points.
Leeds United – 7th with 69 points. Not a sign of recovery – looked like Leeds settled for mid-table existence in Second Division.
Crystal Palace – unlucky: 3 points short of promotion. 6th with 75 points.
Blackburn Rovers – looked like after so many years outside top league they had the appetite to climb back again. But failed – 5th with 77 points.
Bradford City – great season for them, even surprising one: they uncharacteristically fought for promotion and were unlucky to miss if by a single point. 4th with 77 points.
Middlesbrough succeeded to clinch promotion: 3rd with 78 points. Keep in mind – they were just promoted from Third Division!
Aston Villa – if not return to glory, at least return to top flight: 2nd with 78 points. Managed to come ahead of ambitious rivals at the end.
What a pleasant surprise – Millwall won the championship. Not quite a solitary favourite, but still finished 4 ahead of the tight pack of pursuers. Won 25 games, tied 7, lost 12, scored 72 goals, received 52. 82 points.
Perhaps not very impressive winners, but who would say anything against them? Just look at Leeds United, Mancester City, Ipswich Town, even Aston Villa. Millwall never played top league football, so they were going to debut next season and achieved their first ever promotion in the best way: as league champions. The team was relatively modest – which makes the victory even greater: Tony Cascarino was practically the only familiar name and he was hardly a first-rate star. But look there – young Teddy Sheringham was pushing his way up along with the team. For such a team one can only wish the best of luck. And some worthy reinforcements.
Doncaster Rovers – last with 33 points.
York City – 23rd with 33 points. Bested Doncaster on goal-difference, but so what? Relegated.
Grimsby Town – nothing to be happy about, really. 22nd with 50 points and joining IV Division.
Rotherham United – unable to survive: 21st with 52 points.
Mansfield Town – 19th with 54 points.
Chesterfield – 18th with 55 points.
Southend United – 17th with 55 points.
Gillingham – 13th with 59 points.
Port Vale – 11th with 65 points.
Blackpool -10th with 65 points.
Fulham – 9th with 66 points.
Bristol Rovers – 8th with 66 points.
Wigan Athletic – 7th with 72 points.
Northampton – 6th with 73 points. Running high – for them, that is.
Bristol City – 5th with 75 points.
Notts County – run for promotion, but missed it: 4th with 81 points. Back row; Kevan, Thompson, Belford, Dolan, Leonard, Kimberely, Atkin
Walsall – clinched 3rd place with 82 points and got promoted to Second Division.
Brighton & Hove Albion – battled hard for promotion and succeeded: 2nd with 84 points.
Sunderland dominated the championship and won it confidently with 93 points. 27 wins, 12 tiles, 7 losses, 92-48 goal-difference. They scored most goals in all leagues this season, which was great as well. If anything, Sunderland could not accept staying in III Division and climbed back to II Division right after they were relegated.
Newport County was hopeless outsider this season and was relegated with 25 points. They received 105 goals in their net.
Carlisle United – very weak this year, but safe: 23rd with 44 points.
Rochdale – 21st with 48 points.
Stockport County – 20th with 51 points.
Hereford United – 19th with 54 points.
Halifax Town – 18th with 55 points.
Crewe Alexandra – 17th with 58 points.
Hartlepool United – 16th with 59 points.
Cambridge United – 15th with 61 points.
Tranmere Rovers – 14th with 64 points.
Darlington – 13th with 65 points.
Scarborough, the first team directly promoted from 5th level, did very well for a debutante – 12th with 65 points.
Burnley – 10th with 67 points.
Colchester United – 9th with 67 points.
Leyton Orient – 8th with 69 points.
Peterborough United – 7th with 70 points.
Swansea City – 6th with 70 points. There was no end of misery… the Swans did quite well, yet, most likely for financial reasons they were out of the league in the next season. Remember their amazing climb to First Division less than 10 years ago? Looks like they were paying terrible price for that – now going out of professional football.
Torquay United ended 5th with 77 points.
Scunthorpe United – 4th with 77 points, ahead of Torquay on better goal-difference.
Bolton Wanderers clinched 3rd place with 78 points and was going to play in the III Division next season.
Cardiff City – comfortably 2nd with 85 points and promoted. Kind of relieve for the Welsh football – one of their teams was going to be higher than 4th level next year.
Wolverhampton Wanderers had no rivals this season: champions with 90 points from 27 wins, 9 ties, and 10 losses. Scored 82 goals, received 43.
Happy boys – after sinking to the very bottom, the Wolves were trying to climb back to glory. So far, up to III Division, but who knows?
Lincoln City, having the disgusting honour to be the first directly relegated team from the traditional professional leagues, was instantly seen as a favourite for promotion – and they did not disappoint. They won the promotion and were going back to IV Division after only a year of absence.
Mario Kempes started his second season in Austria for Second Division VSE Sankt Polten – after playing for top-league First Vienna the previous season. Hardly noticed by anyone… Kempes was going down by some time and practically disappeared from sight and mind already. Now 33 years old, he was no good for big and famous clubs, but for modest St. Polten was great help.
Austria Salzburg was next to last with 9 points and stayed in Second Division. Kremser SC was unable to get promoted – 6th with 12 points.
VOEST Linz ended 5th with 15 points and after many years in First Division was relegated.
Same for Linzer ASK, which topped the table – goal-difference placed them above Austria Klagenfurt, but no matter – keeping place among the best mattered. They had somewhat amusing spring campaign: did not lose even a match – the only team in the relegation group without a loss – but did not win often either. They won 4 games and tied 10! Consequently, they were modest scorers – only 16 goals, less than relegated city rivals VOEST and not even close to Kempes-lead VSE Sankt Polten, which scored 30 goals in their 14 games.
Sturm Graz – 3rd with 42 points (6th with 24)
Austria (Vienna) – 2nd with 46 points (2nd with 28)
Rapid (Vienna) – champions with 54 points (1st with 36 points). They dominated the full championship, way stronger than the usual rival Austria. 22 wins, 10 ties, 4 losses, 81-40. Austria outscored them by 2 goals, but that was nothing. Otto Baric kept his great work with the team, which, as usual, was completed with Yugoslavians – Zlatko Kranjcar (31 years old), Sulejman Halilovic (32), and Zoran Stojadinovic (25). Somewhat lesser names than Austria’s imports (Hungarian Tibor Nyilasi, Czechoslovak goalkeeper Vladimir Borovicka, and Argentine Jose Percudani), but as a whole Rapid’s selection performed much better.
Eventually, a Soviet player was added to the squad – the 31 years old former national team midfielder Sergey Shavlo. How much he contributed to Rapid is even unimportant: the big note here is the real start of USSR exporting players. Shavlo was one of the first, soon to be followed by many, but there was significant gap of years until the Soviets decided to follow up their over-careful opening some years ago, when Zinchenko was let play for same Rapid. In any case Rapid won one more title and no reason to mention how many they had.
Swarovski Tirol, a new ambitious project, was more ambitious than strong at the moment and unexpectedly lost the final. Too bad for the project… which was just a typical Austrian example of desperate efforts to keep football alive: the Innsbruck club was fairly well known and successful name, but behind the familiar name a history of trouble lurked: the club changed names, reformed, amalgamated, re-started, the famous sponsor Swarovski came to help, dropped out, came back again. This was fresh re-incarnation, barely 2 years old and not fully developed. Hence, ambition did not match strength and they lost.
Kremser SC from the city of Krems was modest club, usually playing somewhere deep down in the Austrian football system. Of course, they never won anything substantial and, to a point, playing well in the Second Division was the best they probably dreamed of. But they played well this season and had a chance even to get promoted to the top league. That chance they lost, but reaching the Cup final fueled hopes for success. They won the final a bit luckily, but cannot blame them for winning. A great victory of the underdog – their first and last! Such historic victory and one never repeated deserves better memory than the club has… their website practically does not mention the success and there is no picture of the club’s greatest heroes. Let put it like that: as a whole, Austria is not all that crazy about football and prefers alpine sports.
The best know abroad Belgian clubs had to save this season with a trophy, but Standard was less classier this time and lost, somewhat expected, 0-2.
This is not picture from the final, but at least gives some idea what Standard had this season and perhaps why they lost. Standing from left: Gilbert Bodart, Guy Vandersmissen, Alex Czerniatinski, Guy Hellers, Alfonso Fernandez, Zoran Bojovic
Anderlecht saved the season by winning the Cup and had to make the best of it. Which was not all that little after all – the last time they won the Cup was in distant 1975-76. More than 10 years later the won their 6th Cup. Long wait ended finally and although it was a title, still it was great to break the bad spell. Still, Anderelcht had the top squad in Belgium and more money than anybody else, so the relatively weak season could only fuel their ambitions.
Racing Jet (Brussels) – too weak for top league footballs: last with 21 points and relegated.
KAA Gent – 17th with 25 points and relegated. One point short of safety.
KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaandern – 16th with 26 points. Lucky escape.
KFC Winterslag – 15th with 26 points. Escaped relegation, but they ended with the worst goal-difference in the league: -42!
KSK Beveren – good years were over and now they fought to escape relegation. Ended well enough: 14th with 27 points.
K. Beerschot VAC (Antwerp) – 13th with 27 points.
RWD Molenbeek (Brussels) – 12th with 28 points.
St. Truiden – or Sint-Truidense VV – 11th with 29 points.
Standard (Liege) – 10th with 30 points. Very weak season.
KV Kortrijk – 9th with 31 points.
R. Charleroi SC – 8th with 32 points.
Cercle Brugge KSV (Brugge) – 7th with 33 points.
KSV Waregem – 6th with 39 points. Got UEFA Cup spot thanks to KV Mechelen’s European success. If you want, count the beer producers sponsoring Belgian clubs – Waregem was only one of many.
RFC Liege – or RFC Liegeois – 5th with 44 points. Rarely they came above city rivals Standard, so this was great season. With UEFA Cup spot as well – and Standard only had to watch international football.
As usual, few Belgians played regulars and the squad was the most impressive in the country, but weak and disappointing season for Anderlecht: 4th with 45 points.
Royal Antwerp FC – 3rd with 49 points. They were – untypically – a title contender, but eventually lost the race. Settled for bronze either on worse head-to-head record or less wins.
KV Mechelen – their best season to date and perhaps ever. 2nd with 49 points. Lost the battle for the Belgian title, but nothing to worry about – they conquered Europe in the same time. Finished with worse goal-difference than Royal Antwerp, but rules favoured them and they took the silver medals.
Great or not, FC Brugge – Club Brugge KV – won the championship. 23 wins, 5 ties, 6 losses, 74-34, 51 points. 2 points ahead of KV Mechelen and Royal Antwerp. Royal Antwerp scored most goals in the championship – 75, and KV Mechelen had the best defensive record, allowing only 24 goals, but the champions had the best goal-difference: +40.
Beringen FC – absolute outsider: last with 15 points.
K. Waterschei Thor SV (Genk) – 15th with 26 points.
FC Assent – 14th with 27 points.
K. Boom FC – 13th with 27 points.
FC Seraing – or RFC Seresien – 12th with 27 points.
KFC Lommel – or KFC Lommelse – 11th with 27 points.
KSC Hasselt – or Sporting Hasselt – 10th with 28 points.
FC Verbroedering Geel – 9th with 28 points.
K. Berchem Sport – 8th with 31 points.
FC Eeklo – 7th with 31 points.
KSK Tongeren – 6th with 33 points. Missed promotion play-off on worse goal-difference.
KRC Mechelen – or Racing Mechelen – was champion of II Division: 17 wins, 6 ties, 7 losses, 67-37 and 41 points. That was truly Mechelen’s season – the better known club conquering Europe and their local rivals winning Second Division and promoted up. Mechelen was going to have First Division derby next season.
RC Harelbeke – last with 2 points.
K. Patro Eisden – 3rd with 4 points.
KSC Eendracht Aalst – 2nd with 9 points. They did not a single goal in their net, but at the end goal-difference kept them in Second Division: they finished 3-0.
K. Lierse SV – or K. Lierse SK – also finished with 9 points. Compared to Eendracht’s, their defense was leaky – 4 goals – but the compensation was their attack: they scored 14 goals and that was far, far better than the record of the competition. Lierse SK won the promotion tournament and joined KRC Mechelen in the top league. That was also a great fit of the underdog – or smart planning: in the regular season they ended 5th, the lowest place team going to promotion play-offs and that only thanks to better goal-difference. Which was after all the reason for their final success too.
Admirable brave effort by Vitoria Guimaraes, but class prevailed. Too bad the underdog did not win, but that was the reality: after all, Vitoria desperately tried to escape relegation and barely succeeded in that, when FC Porto dominated not just the Portuguese championship, but was one of the best European teams at the time. True, Vitoria had good coach – Jose Alberto Torres – and plenty of Brazilian and African players, but they were not first-rate stars. Lost the final minimally, but were going to play in the Cup Winners Cup, so there was some reward for their efforts.
This is not the Cup-winning team – just a photo of FC Porto with their reserve kit for variety sake. Standing from left: Jozef Mlynarczyk, Geraldao, Celso, Fernando Bandeirinha, Jorge Placido, Augusto Inacio.
One more time – the double heroes.