A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Special thanks today to my old housemate, Steven Noble, who spotted this out and about. Apologies if I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent here mate. The Covid-19 enforced lockdown has starved us of social contact and encouraged us to rely increasingly on less traditional forms of communication. Whilst the majority of Britain’s population leant heavily on existing social media platforms and hastily developed meeting apps, others turned to more creative forms of reaching out to their local community. For example, in Walthamstow, a resident arborist has provided chalk annotations on the pavement next to the area’s trees while someone else has lovingly knitted a range of outfits for bollards indicating a one-way system. East London at its trendiest. Nearly 130 miles away in Poundbury, Dorset, someone else has taken to their local bollards in order to send a message. Sitting proudly at the end of a street is the image of Costa Rican defender Francisco Calvo. Why might...

Over to Richard Allinson again for today’s post. The text message with which he introduces today’s subject is 100% legitimate. However, he doesn’t mention my reply where I stated that I always thought that Ian Marshall looked like the hired muscle in a bad episode of The Bill. Not that there were any bad episodes of The Bill – it was flawless. Anyway, here’s Rich. “Mate, put BBC One on. Ian Marshall has legit just kicked Jim Leighton in the nuts.” Not a phone call from 1990 but a text in 2020 thanks to the BBC’s Coronavirus inspired FA Cup reruns. Still, that famous day in semi-final history (not for the boot in the balls, I hasten to add) is the inspiration for another delve into our own sticker book archives in the form of Ian Marshall. My own personal memories of Ian Marshall are ones of a man that was always 7/10 minimum, had great hair in his early days and sported the classic socks half rolled down the shin look. And I always, always got loads of ‘swaps’ o...

I would say over to Richard Allinson for today’s post on David Burrows but I feel that would be doing him a disservice. Not only do you get to find out about the former Liverpool and Coventry man, you also get to find out more about Rich’s own footballing exploits. Apologies in advance to members of the Calverley u12 team of the mid 1990s - this might bring back harrowing memories. Liverpool’s 1990 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace will go down in memory as one of the best cup ties in the tournament’s history for many a reason. However, watching back the recent BBC re-run I noticed something slightly odd about the eleven that finished the game for the Reds. They had four fullbacks on the pitch. That is, Barry Venison, Steve Staunton, Glenn Hysén and David Burrows. Perhaps the least talked about of the lot is Mr Burrows. My main recollection of him is of his time at Coventry City , largely due to stockpiling an inordinate amount of Burrows swaps. It has to be said ...

Searching through the sticker books to put together this blog has brought back many memories. It is impossible for me to see the front of the 1997 edition of the Merlin Premier League sticker book without being transported back to a corridor in my primary school. I had popped to the toilet during a lesson and, upon leaving the boys’, I noticed the corner of a shiny sticker poking out from underneath a plinth supporting a statue of the Virgin Mary. I checked the corridor. No one to be seen. I raised the cloth covering the plinth and, lo and behold, a wad of Premier League stickers. Hail Mary indeed. Sadly the following season did not reproduce a similar moment of divine intervention and, as well as reminding me of Palace’s dismal efforts in the top tier, the cover of Merlin’s Premier League 98 Official Sticker Collection will forever remind me of Sheffield Wednesday striker Andy Booth. This has nothing to do with Booth’s performance for a stuttering Wednesday side or his...

Over to Richard Allinson for today’s post where we get an insight into the power of nicknames and just how bad Fabio Capello was at managing the England team. That being said he might have upset Joe Hart in this story so at least there’s a silver lining. Won the FA Cup. Represented his country 53 times. Awarded an MBE. Played a lot of Tomb Raider. Looking back at David James’ career it is easy to get swept up with the bad stuff. Yes he was nicknamed Calamity James, yes he had bizarre haircuts, yes he wore a white suit before a Cup Final (I don’t think this was his fault to be fair) and, yes he blamed his bad form on spending too much time on a video console. However, David James was a bloody good goalkeeper. Just to reiterate he earned 53 caps for England. That is more than Teddy Sheringham, more than Trevor Brooking and more than Geoff Hurst (although surprisingly less than Joe Cole). Most people would give anything just to play 53 seconds of international ...