Alex

The building that was the Oxford dance hall was Tiffany’s night club iirc before the Studio / Ritzy days, in case that rings a bell

Blaydon tbh

Was going to say, I think that is / was a cafe or sandwich shop over the road from the Trent House

The needy, tragic cunt has certainly found his spiritual home on RTG

I read quite a good piece on some boring work-related website. Either the House or Civil Service World. The gist of it (written by a bloke) was that leaks are coming from senior civil servants who have an axe to grind with Gray. And also the belief that a lot of it was misogynistic and born out of jealousy. I.e. the stuff about her thinking she’s the deputy pm and the toxic way no 10 is being run. And there’s an appetite for it in the media, because apart from a lot of the press being right-leaning, no 10 is no longer leaking stuff directly to them

You lost. Get over it

Aye. It’s one of those where it’s completely embarrassing if he’s made that up to impress people. But even more so in the unlikely event it’s true .

Driving a car they’ve stolen whilst pissed before dumping it is really something to be proud of like.

On the river where they want to stop the boats…

He almost got there. He just needed to make them a kebab shop that does cheesy chips

The very old guard

I think I’ll try and rewatch this over the next night or two: I don’t think I’ve seen it since the time but it was part of a series of video diaries from back then. Where the beeb basically just let people have a lend of camera and make their own documentaries. Talking about Schillachi and italia 90 reminded me of it. Incidentally, @spongebob toonpants and @PaddockLad the teenage versions were a spin off from this. Including the ‘In Bed With Chris Needham’ mentioned on and sampled in the titles of the Chart Music podcast

One last thing, I obviously wasn’t there ( I was only 15 anyway) but I liked the way he talked about the fans. Not in a sociology essay way but how sone were odd fanatics who went everywhere with England, even losing jobs over it, a lot were canny lads, many were just a bit fucking uneducated and ignorant and easily led. A product of the typical secondary school education at that time. But lastly, there was a hard core minority of nasty, racist cunts determined to kick off

Yeah. It’s very behind the scenes. And it doesn’t really describe the games in huge detail. Like as a fan where a very tense match can fly by in parts and drag in others, but where it’s almost a bit if a blur afterwards bar some key moments. Interestingly the best experience from an England fan pov was in Naples. The only place they weren’t treated like cattle and had a decent fans’ camp, with plenty access to basics like food and running water. I think he basically described the locals as mental but friendly on the whole. Re: the press there were stories just invented about players in night clubs and shagging lasses. Whereas that’s what the (married) press lot were often actually up to. And they actively wanted England and Robson to fail until it looked like they might not. So they got what they deserved, as the couldn’t bask too much in the glory but the best performance since 66 was anything but failure either.

Standard stuff from the mackem misanthrope. You can possibly tell I’ve just read it but ‘All Played Out’ (later republished as ‘One Night in Turin’) by Pete Davies is a great read. It’s mainly about England plus how they qualified. Davies had almost exclusive access to the players, management etc. He was entrusted on the basis none of anything he learnt would come out until the book was published (December of that year I think). But he also travelled about with the fans a bit and used his connections, friendships and press access to go to as many games as he could. As well watching games in bars and cafes in Italy. It’s a bit of a shuddering reminder of how long ago it was and how much football and the world has changed. But the way it isn’t sugarcoated is also why it’s so good. What’s also apparent is what a shower of cunts most of the English press were. Not just the lads from the red tops either.

You don’t think of Mexico 86 as much because Italy had such a poor tournament. But the 82/86/90 Italy kits were all beautifully stylish and simple. And yeah, that was a proper iconic celebration. He’d definitely had a paper round as he looked rock hard with his wiry physique and (to me then at least) much older than his years appearance. I don’t suppose growing up in a poor part of Palermo in the 70s was particularly easy going like

I was just thinking about Paolo Rossi too. I know it was an earlier tournament (82) where he made an even bigger impact. But he was only a bit older when passed away a few years back

He sort of did. In that it was just typical of how insular English football was back then. I.e. you wouldn’t have known about someone like Scifo or Hagi in this country before the tournament. He’d already been at Juve for a year. But he wasn’t expected to be the star. Vialli was the one expected to main man upfront. He got injured (although it was speculated by some Vialli bottled it, as the physios couldn’t find an issue, but it was nearly 35 years ago too so it’s not like the technology they have now). Vialli was fit later in the competition but it was Schillaci and the young Baggio (who’d also recently gone to Juventus) that ended up starting in the latter stages after they both grabbed their opportunities. He later ended up at Inter but never really hit the heights / lived up to that promise. There was an amusing incident a few years back where one of Italy’s most wanted, some mafia boss, was arrested visiting a hospital at the same time as him. In Sicily I think. It wasn’t stated explicitly but the speculation was they both used the same plastic surgeon

You have to be on the pitch at the end of the match to take one. But you can change the order they are taken in once everyone in the team has taken one, if it gets that far.

Do you think maybe he’s a decent player that Southgate couldn’t get the most out of?

Last one contains far too much detail to be on RTG

I watched parts one and two last and him and another lad didn’t get a visa. Which I assume will have been because they were going to India and their parents and/or grandparents were born in Pakistan.

Joyant?

Aye Lambert’s being doing his even stupider version of Le Tissier thing for a while now. I wouldn’t even call it a grift, as he’s sincere. Another one for whom covid and all the conspiracy theories that emerged sent him completely beyond the point if no return. He’s thick as pig’s shit even by the standards of the lot who think ‘they’ control everything

You know the lad Umar with the prominent birth mark on his face? I’m not sure if he’s in season two as I’m just about to start watching it. He was killed in a car crash the other day.