When Shorts Were Short S2 E14 - TERRY BUTCHER

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we don't talk about it.

My guest this week is former Ipswich, Rangers and England captain Terry Butcher. We take a look at the second half of Terry's 1981-82 season when, playing for Ipswich in the FA Cup 4th Round at promotion-chasing Luton, he suffered a curious and near-fatal injury, one of the strangest injuries ever seen in English football. And yet somehow, Terry recovered to nail down a place in England's World Cup side that summer.

Plus Twitter’s unofficial bookshop @Biggreenbooks are giving away a book. To enter, listen out for the competition details towards the end of the episode.

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When Shorts Were Short S2 E13 - Lindsay Jelley

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we don't talk about it.

My guest this week is artist and landscape painter Lindsay Jelley who in another life was a designer and not just a designer, but the designer who through her work with Admiral from the mid-seventies to early eighties, whom she joined as a nineteen-year-old just out of art college, transformed the football replica kits market.

Plus Twitter’s unofficial bookshop @Biggreenbooks are giving away a book. To enter, listen out for the competition details towards the end of the episode.

Support the podcast via Patreon

Twitter @shortswereshort

Instagram @shortswereshort

Facebook shortswereshort

YouTube

Discord  

This work can also be supported via Ko-Fi, a tip jar for creators where you can buy them a digital coffee.

And please subscribe, rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or any other platform you may be using to listen to the show.

When Shorts Were Short - S2 E04 Bob Wilson (Part 1 of 2)

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we just don't talk about it.

This week’s episode is our first two-parter, a comprehensive interview with Arsenal’s ’71 double-winning ‘keeper Bob Wilson, also, of course, for an entire generation, the presenter of what was during his time with the show, the formidable Football Focus, the Saturday lunchtime preview show that existed within the BBC’s Grandstand.

Bob had three hugely successful careers. As the Arsenal number one of the late sixties and early seventies, and as we’ll hear, securing the number one shirt of his beloved north London club was far from easy. Then there was the football broadcasting career, first with the BBC and then later at the end, with ITV, but he was also the man who, after seeing the Brazilian ‘keepers training with a goalkeeping coach during the ’66 World Cup who brought that into the British game. Goalkeeping coaches, and goalkeepers, in this country owe a huge debt to the man whose signature save, diving head first at the feet of an opponent, arguably shortened his career.

This week we concentrate on Bob’s early life, studying at Loughborough University, almost becoming a Busby Babe, playing as an amateur for Wolves’s reserves during the back end of the Stan Cullis era, before he finally ends up at Arsenal where it’s five years before he finally nails down the number one spotwith a fine performance in a FA Cup fifth round replay defeat at Birmingham.

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SHOW LINKS

Twitter Bob Wilson

Willow Foundation

Twitter @Willow_Fdn

Quizball Appearance 1971

WBA v Arsenal 1969 FA Cup 5th Round

The podcast can be supported with a donation via Paypal.

This work can also be supported via Ko-Fi, a tip jar for creators where you can buy them a digital coffee.

And please subscribe, rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or any other platform you may be using to listen to the show

When Shorts Were Short - S2: E01: Paul Davis

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we just don't talk about it.

With guest Paul Davis.

Paul Davis was a mainstay of the Arsenal side for 15 seasons. In this interview, we discuss his breaking through under Terry Neill at the start of the 80s, a side in transition after losing its two outstanding Irish internationals, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton in the space of a year. We look at the Don Howe era, the bridge between Terry Neill and George Graham, a quiet period for the club in many ways but an important one too as Howe was the man who blooded many of the youngsters who would go onto help Arsenal re-establish themselves as the country’s leading club, albeit intermittently, for several seasons under Graham. And we look too at why that hugely gifted George Graham team, despite knocking Liverpool off that perch despite Alex Ferguson’s largely unchallenged claims to the contrary, couldn’t stay at the top for longer.

Why did Arsenal go from that outstanding title success of ’91 that should have made it the team of the nineties to morphing into a very successful cup side that played dull football but had an incredible get out in the form of the talismanic Ian Wright up front, and we also look at Paul's complex relationship with the hard taskmaster that was George Graham. Paul was one of the few senior players at the club to challenge the Scot, but he would pay a heavy price at times.

Support the podcast via Patreon

Twitter @shortswereshort

Instagram @shortswereshort

Facebook shortswereshort

SHOW LINKS

Paul Davis Testimonial

1987 Littlewoods Cup Final

Paul Davis goals

The podcast can be supported with a donation via Paypal.

This work can also be supported via Ko-Fi, a tip jar for creators where you can buy them a digital coffee.

And please subscribe, rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or any other platform you may be using to listen to the show