When Shorts Were Short S3 E04 Alan Smith (Ex-Leicester, Arsenal and England)

When Shorts Were Short

When Shorts Were Short concerns itself solely with what was actually a very narrow window in football history when teams wore, well, short shorts. The podcast takes 1954 as its starting point, when Umbro made their first England kit with shorter shorts, to 1992, when short shorts were all but finished as Umbro's baggy shorts for Tottenham's new kit, ahead of the '91 FA Cup Final, quickly caught on.

If the shorts weren't short, we don't talk about it.

Alan Smith was an English forward untypical of his time, in possession of one of the best first touches in the domestic game and while primarily left footed, the Birmingham-born number nine fired in plenty with his right boot too and was formidable in the air. He was a centre forward who would’ve comfortably fitted into the early years of the Wenger era that he narrowly missed out on.

Alan was kind enough to come on the show as we looked back at his career, from his time at non-league Alvechurch, through his formative years at Leicester partnering Gary Lineker up front as the Foxes reined in Fulham to sneak promotion to the old First Division in 1983, to winning two league titles at Arsenal and the little matter of winning two golden boots too. We discuss those golden years at Highbury, a sense of disappointment at his England career being one of unfulfilled potential, the injury that ultimately and very quickly ended his career in the ’94-95 campaign and in and around all that, I also posed the question whether Graham’s brilliant young side ultimately underachieved.

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