Question for the older posters on here.... | Page 2 | Vital Football

Question for the older posters on here....

Foreign players were pretty rare.
I remember Ipswich signing a couple of Dutchmen which sorted of started it off.
There was a cap in those days but I cannot remember how many.
I recall that Irish didn’t count as Foreign in those days for some reason.

Was there officially a cap or was it a case that players would rather play in Spain etc? Most of the time I don't think teams had more than a couple of players from outside the UK and Ireland. I'm not sure if the general lack of players was more down to then not being in vogue. Even when the Maastricht Treaty was signed it took a while for foreign players to start to come over and only really once Sky started to pump in stupid amounts of money into the game and the Italian owners started to almost bankrupt themselves that we started to be flooded with foreign players.
 
I don't think there was a cap , but squads were a lot smaller. During the Peacock years if i remember we operated with around 18 full time pros plus the apprentices. Resting players was unheard off and they regularly played carrying injuries. Probably why so many suffered poor health from their mid fifties onwards.
 
I used to attend Gills matches in the Football Combination. 1st Division clubs (I.e. today’s Premiership) used to field teams so games against Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea were regular fixtures although at any one time some didn’t field a team in the division. Games against these teams regularly attracted crowds of more than 1,000, sometimes up to 2,000. A benefit of going was that you would find out the Gills score during the course of the match. In the early 60’s the only information you would get on away games on the TV or radio was a half time and a full time score. The only information on how we’d played would be the Sunday papers.
Aaah. Sent me on a nostalgia trip there Waldo as I did the same.
 
I think one of the big differences is now all the youngsters are being snapped up from very young ages and stockpiled. Yes, all clubs previously had reserve teams but the age range in them was 18-30, not 16-23.

I recently saw a facebook post of a newspaper spread from the early 80’s listing the Player of the Year for every club in all 4 divisions. In Div 3 and 4 you could pick out many names that we now know went on to become stars in Division 1. Can’t remember which players (it was a month ago) but the likes of the Keegan’s, Rush, Speedie, Dixon, our own Steve Bruce etc, that all started out in lower leagues rather than today’s trend of them sitting in U23 football for 5 years.

Edit - it was heart warming tho, to see it pointed out that most of England’s starting XI v Wales all plied their trade at EFL clubs originally. Although I think a lot of them were in the Championship rather than L1/2.
 
Teams are paying a fortune today compared to the 50/60's, there wasn't the vast sums of money around and wages were a lot lower. Players once signed were trapped until the club no longer wanted them, until the Bosman ruling changed things forever.
Players were so badly paid, and conditions poor, that when a player was injured, there would be a blanket paraded at half time for people to throw money into for his food and rent. I don' know if this was for league 1(premiership), but certainly happened in the lower leagues.

Indeed and the local paper & supporters' publications would treat us to stories of what the players did in the close season. No exotic hols more like window cleaning, teaching people to drive, helping a self employed family member and so on.
 
I think one of the big differences is now all the youngsters are being snapped up from very young ages and stockpiled. Yes, all clubs previously had reserve teams but the age range in them was 18-30, not 16-23.

I recently saw a facebook post of a newspaper spread from the early 80’s listing the Player of the Year for every club in all 4 divisions. In Div 3 and 4 you could pick out many names that we now know went on to become stars in Division 1. Can’t remember which players (it was a month ago) but the likes of the Keegan’s, Rush, Speedie, Dixon, our own Steve Bruce etc, that all started out in lower leagues rather than today’s trend of them sitting in U23 football for 5 years.

Edit - it was heart warming tho, to see it pointed out that most of England’s starting XI v Wales all plied their trade at EFL clubs originally. Although I think a lot of them were in the Championship rather than L1/2.

Even madder than that OSK I'm sure I remember young Hess signing for Chelsea at 8 or something similar. Add to that as well as the development players they send out on loan there are also the 26 year olds never previously heard of.
 
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During the 80 and 90 did premier league/ division one teams have these huge squads like they do?

I seem to remember only collecting 14/15 panini stickers for each team?

What happened to all these 19 23 year olds we get on loan now back then? Were they just realised unless exceptional and find a club and worked there way back up?

I only remember seeing a loan arrive at the gills if a player was injured!
15 stickers would have sufficed.

I've found a programme from Feb 1982 - Tottenham v Aston Villa
It lists who wore each shirt - at a time when only 1 to 12 were used.
Spurs had played 34 games - including Cups

Shirt - name - played
1. Ray Clemence - 34
2. Chris Hughton - 34
3. Paul Miller - 34
4. Graham Roberts - 27 / Paul Price - 6 / Paul Miller - 1
5. Ricardo Villa - 19 / Mike Hazard - 15
6. Steve Perryman - 34
7. Osvaldo Ardiles - 34
8. Steve Archibald - 21 / Mark Falco - 8 / Garry Brooke - 4 / R.Villa - 1
9. Tony Galvin - 34
19, Glenn Hoddle - 34
11. Garth Crooks - 22 / Mark Falco - 12

Also, I have a Gills programme a month earlier.
Player highlights being:
1. Ron Hillyard

4. Steve Bruce

7 Dick Tydeman
 
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Before 1965 there were no substitutes in league or cup football, so only 11 players were needed. Maximum wage had only just ended. squads did not need to be big. British clubs were doing well in Europe mostly with British and Irish players, this continued until the Hysel disaster. All through these years and earlier almost all football clubs at all levels had a reserve team operating in some league or other. Then TV got involved, and the downward spiral began, in time the Premier league was formed by the FA, they then lost control and the Premier League began to run the show, the FA were and still are gutless. Foreign owners and their placemen have taken over, they care little for clubs like us or any interests outside the Premier League.
Their long term plan seems to be to form a European League, hopefully that will finally be a big turn off for TV audiences (how many viewers will want to watch games like Rosenberg v Fernabache?) and prove to be the end of big business in Football. UEFA must have the courage to stop any move towards this, very few players would play for them if told they will forefit any chance of ever play under FIFA control again.