football stickers

[ESG]

 

"got, got, got, haven't, got, got, got, haven't, haven't"

 

memories ....

 

 

http://www.sportsbooksdirect.co.uk/produ...D=171%09 %09 

[GHA EFM]

In my day it was 'got, got, need, got, got, need, got, need, need, got'

 

<img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

[ESG]

It became apparent a long time ago that nothing is sacred in these days of cash-thirsty footballing lust. I could not however refrain from shedding a tear upon hearing of the imminent Premier League induced demise of the Panini sticker.First and foremost let me establish: Football stickers for me WERE Panini. I know that for many years before there were football "cards" given away with cig packets and bubble gum but I weren't for mauling about with glue (at least not for that) or licking something that tasted of cat urine. Nevertheless, I concede that Panini stickers themselves weren't exactly flawless for clumsy kids who frequently plonked them in at [****!!****] eyed angles and then ripped the page trying to adjust it, or even worse, put the wrong player in the wrong space. In the heady excitement of getting a new pack it was quite easy to confuse Archie Gemmill for Cyrille Regis. More addictive than crack cocaine and twice as expensive, you'd pedal your granny for one of those FA badges that used to go right at the front.

 

If you're wondering where and how your local dealer developed his savvy nous for wheeling and dealing, there's a good chance that his technique was honed whilst cutting illicit deals of football stickers in the playground. As dinner money was inevitably frittered away within minutes on a short and unsatisfying game of pitch & toss, Panini stickers were the next best form of currency. Market valuations would vary extensively due to geographical regions and the general shiteness of the team. This is a fact, I mean how many times would you fill the entire Norwich City page before you even managed to get just one Spurs player? And why is it you could pick up 15 Ian Bowyer's before you got a single Man Utd foil badge? In our house, the Forest twat was even more unpopular than his scowling mess of a son was to become.

 

Business types always advise that when shares and currencies are [******], gold is always safe as houses. For gold read foil badges - the ultimate tradable commodity. Very often restricted to one per pack yet even the cheapskate Division Two attempts where they "split" two badges on the same sticker were a prized asset. They even sunk as low as Division Three once but for most of the eighties we had to endure footballing giants such as Hull City and Shrewsbury Town getting the Div 2 badge and team shot treatment. Even more disturbingly, contemporary footballing minnows such as Swansea City, Oxford, Notts County and Stoke all got the full two page spread due to their collective short lived top flight status' during the 80's.

 

The albums themselves of course cost next to nothing to buy, in fact they were often given away free with "Shoot" or "Match" magazine, but as kids we were too naïve to realise that the real expense came with the long and laborious task of filling the blighter. I recall that I had success in filling my Espana '82 album, Panini '83 and Panini '85. The rest I gave up on I think. At least the manufacturers of this adhesive addiction gave the serial collector a slight helping hand, because when you got down to the last 50 (or was it 75?) "needs" you could send off for them at the scandalous price of 3p each. Even the object of this was defeated somewhat, as by the time you got close to filling your first album you had started a second album to put your mountain of "swaps" in.

 

After a while the manufacturers tapped into the fact that they could take this further than just football, with cricket stickers, Star Wars and "Smash Hits" albums and before you know it, it was getting ridiculous with the likes of Batman, Inspector Gadget and even bloody Barbie jumping on the bandwagon. The World Cup/Euro Championship efforts were a must for the ground hopper as they were bolstered by studio info and a couple of foil efforts of some hideously disfigured mascot.

 

There was one Cockney in our class called Ross who was a right spoilt get who had mastered the art of "swapping" to the verge of extortion. You would find yourself parting with dozens of players and a Boba Fett Stars Wars figure in exchange for just one Ricardo Villa or a Motherwell badge. Demand for certain players often but not always followed their own value as a professional footballer. For example, Coventry's back four of Micky Gynn, Greg Downs, Brian Borrows and Brian Kilcline were piss easy to get hold of whereas the likes of Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish were a much more prized acquisition. Beckham must have pissed the Premier League off big time by doing one to Madrid. One can only speculate whether crafty Luigi, the production manager at Panini has been "holding back the Becks" over the last few years so as to uplift his playground transfer fee and boost sales to schoolgirls who no longer think "Woz is fit" and desperately need a piccy to cover over what they've written on their pencil cases.

 

I do have vague memories of seeing the "Premier League" all stars nonsense still there though next to the horrendous Pokemon's and the other [******] that today's gullible kids go for. Whatever the case, it's fair to say that a large part of our incomes went on buying these little bleeders and it either made or broke your day, depending on whether you got the much sought after George Wood of Everton, needed to fill the page, or a bunch of "doubles" including no less than 3 Kilmarnock players who were ugly enough to give 10 year olds savage nightmares.

 

It would of course be abrupt to neglect the wonderful assortment of comedy haircuts, Alan Sunderland, George Berry to name but two and the likes of Frank "The Poodle" McAvennie sporting a bleached blonde look in his first season at West Ham after appearing a couple of years earlier in the Scottish Prem pages with his hair looking distinctly mousy. And who could forget the undisputed ugliest forward line in history namely the Newcastle United 1985 effort of Peter Beardsley, Joe Allon and George O'Reilly? Like most kids, as my teenage years progressed, the demand for buying stickers waned in favour of cigs and booze, and I think I realised it was time to call it a day shortly after turning 16, getting my first ever proper wage, walking into Smiths and buying A WHOLE BOX in one go, and I still don't think I filled the bugger! It was however, not a totally useless experience, I mean without these things how else would an 8 year old know that Terry Butcher was born in Singapore or that Hearts were formed in 1874?

 

Coming next - Those sinister "rub on action transfers" which you were meant to use a pencil or a coin to recreate famous action moments but invariably Trevor Francis ended up sprawling on the back of your hand not the perimeter track of the Olympic Stadion, Munich

 

Oh yeah and Airfix models were the work of Satan