England. To a point, lagging behind Germany. Structurally, conceptually, and financially. England was slow to change its ways – tactical innovations did not happen; money were getting alarmingly short; stadiums were getting increasingly old and shabby; there was no vision for training kids new kind of game. All of that was becoming clear only when compared to the West Germans – most of Europe, including Italy and Spain, was in similar conditions, so it was not painfully obvious that English football was ill prepared for the future. The alarm came from another source: rapidly increasing violence among fans. So far there was no concept what to do with the phenomenon, so it just grew. There was even fascination with that, especially outside the British Isles – it was not long before the violent fan culture spread everywhere. Yet, English football preserved its competitive edge and continued to keep its entertaining standards. Which probably contributed to the painfully slow realization of the need for fundamental changes.


Anyhow, lets begin from the bottom. Cambridge United won the 4th Division, moving up to 3rd for the next season.

4th level football hardly makes big news and therefore there is next to nothing to say about the players. No big stars here, past, present, or future ones. However, Cambridge started its climb this year and more than maintained a momentum, but, of course, nobody was really able to envision that. One thing should be mentioned, though: Cambridge was the club with best record among all professional English clubs: out of 46 seasonal games, they won 26 and lost only 7.