51 YEARS IS A LONG TIME IN FOOTBALL
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Take 1972, to whip a random example out of thin air, a year in which Manchester City got themselves into serious trouble over the distribution of money, in so much as they let Malcolm Allison spend it. Oh Rodney! How could you! But the rule doesn’t always apply. That year also saw Leeds United whip Manchester United 5-1, in a match which saw Mick Jones score a 15-minute hat-trick and his teammates string together a one-minute-and-20-second 22-pass sequence of contemptuous flicks and sassy feints with cheers of “easy” and “olé” ringing in the air. The famous 7-0 humiliation of Southampton (in their very next match, chronology fans and BBC 100 Great Sporting Moments completists) had nowt on this.
