The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

I was in W.H. Smith today looking through their football mags and I was pretty bored by what I saw, covers with the same footballers all the way through; it’s all Barca, Real, Bayern, Liverpool with Ronaldo and Messi plastered everywhere, great players but characters? Not so much, in fact there was club magazines for Chelsea and Arsenal with Man. Utd. And Liverpool (Gerrard) specials on sale. However, was there anything about Scottish teams and I don’t mean the Rangers News or Celtic View? Of course not. Am I likely to see a magazine with Naismith, Maloney or Andrew Robertson on the front? No. I’m not and the likelihood seeing Scottish players on a national magazine is a non-starter. Maybe that’s why I like the mags from the sixties and seventies so much; the Shoot, Goal, Charlie Buchan monthly, their front covers weren’t always about one or two clubs or just the top players, they did like to mix it up a bit. (Of course if you do want a magazine with lots of Scots on the front . . . whisper it, you could buy the Scotland Epistles).
Anyway talk about characters, here’s a wild one. Stirling’s finest Billy Bremner. Normally I go on to details about the player on front but Billy needs no real introduction. The front cover is from Goal magazine December 18th, 1971 and I think our Billy is pissed. The other photo was published later in the mag but I think it confirms Billy had a jar or two the night before. Would do you think?
Elsewhere, there’s a photo of Ian Ross of Liverpool, whom I believe came from ‘the Milton’ in Glasgow (where some of the best people come from). There’s also black and white photos of Jimmy Gabriel ( 2 caps in the early sixties), George Graham and an article on Peter Marinello, promising his playboy days are behind him and how he’s going to prove to be a success at Highbury. Ho Hum.
Finally, do you think Billy’s pissed?

First posted on Facebook May 11th, 2015