Rothmans Football Yearbooks

I've become quite sentimental in my old age (well late 20s). Maybe it's stemmed from becoming a dad in the past year or possibly that an increasingly alarming amount of grey hairs are sprouting, but I've become all nostalgic for the 1990s - the periods music and the clothes for example. And, of course, the football. Football seemed sexy and classy in the mid nineties as SKY pumped its early money in - there were big transfers and foreign signings - and England nearly bringing football home in 1996. But although football was changing fast, in those pre-internet days there was only one way of keeping up to date with all of footballs statistics - The Rothman's football yearbook.

Nowt screams football like these blue backed beasts of knowledge. Starting out in 1970 Rothman's produced 32 editions before government legislation banned cigarettes advertising in sport, thus prompting the decision to quit - handing over to SKY for the 02/03 season. Probably a more apt choice of sponsor given their (like it or loathe it) link with football. Had a couple of Rothy's back in the day (books not cigs) but didn't exactly appreciate them (packed full of stats they're not exactly light reading for a not-yet-teenager) and they went the way of the car boot. So bought an edition I'd previously owned from the bay and it was like welcoming back an old friend. A couple more have since followed through the letter box. So many facts and figures from years gone by down in black and white, a fountain of footie knowledge. In an age now when everything revolves around the internet it's so good to actually have something in your hands to flick through, never to be lost in time or a power surge.