When Shorts Were Short Ep 12

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 guest is journalist and author Richard Sydenham whose book, Ticket to the Moon: Aston Villa, the Rise and Fall of a European Champion, details the steady rise of Aston Villa after their return to the old First Division under Ron Saunders in 1975, and the improbable success that followed, champions of England in ’81 and of Europe a year later, by which time Ron Saunders had resigned in dramatic fashion. It’s largely the story of the enmity between Doug Ellis, at the club for much of Saunders’ time, and Saunders, and how the club’s failure to recover from Saunders’ shock resignation led ultimately to their dramatic relegation just five years after lifting the European Cup.