Great Reputations: When Sampdoria shocked the system
Think of Italian football and you come up with Juventus, Milan and Internazionale, in that order. Then add to that Roma and Napoli, perhaps Lazio. Toda…
Tag: Great Reputations
Great Reputations: Dinamo Tbilisi – Georgia’s on our mind
In 1980-81, Dinamo Tbilisi put on a scintillating display when they met West Ham United at Upton Park in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. They won emphat…
Great Reputations: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1974-77 – mythical rebels
It's part of popular football culture that Bayern Munich have always been the dominant force in German football. Certainly, Bayern is the country’s mos…
Great Reputations: Red Star Belgrade 1973-74 – the team that changed English football
In 1978, Chelsea chairman Brian Mears, desperate to change the fortunes of his ailing club, started to court Miljan Miljanić the Yugoslav coach rated a…
Great Reputations: Arsenal, the Art Deco club
In the 1980s, a television series called The Thirties highlighted a turbulent and exciting decade. An entire chapter was devoted, quite simply, to “The…
Great Reputations: Anderlecht mid-1970s, trusting in purple
Belgian teams never made much of an impact in Europe in the early years of UEFA’s club competitions, the country was largely seen as an also-ran when i…
Great Reputations: Torino 1940s – just how good were they?
The Superga air crash is embedded in the psyche of Italian football in much the same way that the Munich air disaster is in the history of the English …
Great Reputations: West Bromwich Albion 1978-79 – uncrowned people’s champions
The passing of Cyrille Regis is an appropriate time to assess the West Bromwich Albion team of 1978-79, a side that would have been very popular champi…
Great Reputations: Nottingham Forest under Clough
Brian Clough. Enough said, really. He was the driving force and the mastermind – along with his accomplice, Peter Taylor – behind Nottingham Forest’s g…
Great Reputations: Cagliari 1970, thundering to the Scudetto
As in England, there’s always been something of a north-south divide in Italy. The industrialised northern cities of Turin and Milan are a marked contr…