When Shorts Were Short S3 E22 - ALISTAIR ROBERTSON WBA and Wolves

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.

There’s not many players who can say they’re cherished by both West Bromwich Albion and Wolves supporters but this week’s guest made a combined 762 appearances for both, 626 for the Baggies and for 136 for the side in famous old Gold who could not have been more in the doldrums when they were when he joined them in 1986.

Alistair Robertson spent 18 years at the Hawthorns and after an initial stop-start time with the club, his Albion career really got going when Johnny Giles arrived as player-manager for his first spell in charge in 1975 and for eight seasons, him and John Wile formed an outstanding partnership at the heart of the defence as Albion secured third and fourth place finishes in the late seventies and early 80s and reached the last eight of the UEFA Cup in 1979.

While most would trace the club’s decline to Ron Atkinson’s move to Man Utd in the summer of ’81, taking Remi Moses and more importantly, Bryan Robson with him, Alistair has a very interesting different take on this.

After a disappointing end to his time with the Albion, where after nearly two decades of service, he deserved a much better send off, Alistair moved to Wolves in 1986 after WBA’s relegation. Wolves could not have been more of a mess, languishing in the bottom division but under Graham Turner and the captaincy of this week’s guest, Wolves secured back to back promotions and won the 1988 EFL trophy at Wembley before Alistair’s retirement in 1990.

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