That is a burning question … which decade produced the greatest teams ?
I think there’s more variety, or maybe it was just because I was 10 🤷‍♂️ and obsessed with it , that I too love everything 80’s
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Big Ron's Man United nearly men - Manchester United 1981-86

They win two FA Cups under Atkinson, but get knocked by #OUFC and Bournemouth in 1983-84 - pure entertainment. That Oxford-Man United trilogy and even if its doesn't rank as the greatest cup tie ever, this picture certainly ranks in the all-time great category

This United side win 10 on the bounce to start the 1985-86 season and are 10 points clear after 15 games before collapsing as injuries particular to Bryan Robson take a toll - prompting Jimmy Tarbuck (I think) to joke that United managed to finish fourth in a two-horse race.

Had a lot of fun helping come up with a non-goal scoring #OUFC eleven
- its actually a decent 11, albeit one that has never actually scored for Oxford before

It also gives a chance to enjoy again Gary Birtles brilliant beard

As luck would have it, Forest were one of the few teams I completed in my Panini Football 82 album - so was able to see the enormous time and effort Clough took to set his photo up that year to ensure the vent in the background got in,

Good shout -yes a remarkably similar sounding cup - football league centenary trophy - played pre-season i think between the top 8. The festival was originally meant to be 92-team 6-aside tournament - which would have been even better😂

16 side tournament at Wembley over two days - 40 min games - loads of them goalless draws decided on pens - Forest won the the final and Clough didn't even go to the game! Here's a link to some footage of the Forest-Tranmere semi-final

fb.watch/Dcz-U3jOqY/

Clough's Forest win 2 European Cups, 1 League Title, 4 League Cups, 1 European Super Cup, 1 Charity Shield, 2 Full Members Cups, 1 Anglo-Scottish Cup - but I choose to spend quite of lot of time talking about their triumph in the Mercantile Credit Football Festival - a gloriously flawed tournament

A special team for a special episode as unbelievably it is episode 100 of the podcast - so we went back to Forest who we covered in our second episodes (back when we tried to fit 3 teams in an episode). Having only spent 20 mins on them then, this time we go to far the other way (90 mins). Sorry

I do try to crowbar an Oxford United reference into each blog - in this instance Dino Zoff may have been playing for Italy at 40, but how many #oufc fans remember a 42-year old Alan Judge pressed into emergency action for the Us in a 1-1 draw against Cambridge United in March 2003.

That 1982 France-West Germany semi-final was the first #WorldCup Cup game to be decided by penalties and they didn't really know what they were doing yet - including how many pens to take @jamierooney.bsky.social watch this - it really is 6 penalties a side!

youtu.be/jiY_j0CFFa8?...

Here's a Sunday MOTD-style repeat for this week's By Far The Greatest Team football podcast related Substack on Italy's 1982 World Cup winners...

open.substack.com/pub/byfarthe...

This blog feels like it needs Marco Tardelli's scream to really lift it @noscoredraws.com do you know anyone who might have recreated an almost life-like representation of that moment?

Alongside Marco Tardelli's scream, this story is dominated by the late, but decisive, impact on the tournament of Paolo Rossi - who scores 6 goals over the last 3 matches (after not coming close in the first 4 games). In his defence, he'd barely kicked a ball for two years

If you are not familiar with Tardelli's goal - about 25s into this and take it all in (I think its partly relief after a slightly heavy first touch😀) And some extra love for the style of Italy's white track suit tops
youtu.be/Tv4SDyOBB9E?...