Chelsea in Magazines - Goal, Issue 1, 10th August 1968

 

This is the first in a series where I find old magazine articles about Chelsea and/or Chelsea players.

Like most print media, football magazines are struggling but were a part of every football fans journey growing up.

First up, we have the very first issue of Goal magazine from August 1968.

A popular magazine for its time, Goal ran for 6 years before being absorbed into Shoot.

The first item up, is about play-makers and for Chelsea that meant John Hollins:

To summarise, Kev here thinks the game is too dominated by the big, physical players with little room for flair. Hollins is highlighted as an example of the more skillful player he has high hopes for.

Doing less well however, is Alan Birchenall:

As if to show that Chelsea big money signings (Birchenall cost Chelsea £100,000, big money at the time) not working out isn't a recent phenomenom, Birchenall wasn't assured of a starting place in Dave Sexton's team.

Now, this little bit:

I haven't checked but I've got a feeling Cambridge got their bonus.

And finally:

If there is a criticism that could be made of Charlie Cooke it would be that he didn't score as many goals as a player of his ability perhaps should have.

So in this article, Charlie is promising to score more goals for the Blues. Did he succeed?

Erm, not really, no. In 1967/68 season, Cooke scored five goals in total. In 1968/69 he scored two.

That's all for this first issue Readers but there will be more exciting things to come in future!