Go to War: Football on the Brink in the '80s

by Jon Spurling

Set against a backdrop of economic recession, rampant hooliganism and suspect fashion, Go To War tells the story of how triumph and tragedy shaped English football during the 1980s. It was a decade in which some fans died watching the game they loved, and at times, the 'slum sport' seemed set to implode. Yet, remarkably, the game was on the cusp of morphing into the behemoth it has become today.

Throughout this explosive book, author Jon Spurling delves into the stories behind the successes and strife at clubs including Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal, investigates the trials and tribulations of the England team and explores how 'small-town boys' from Luton, Watford and Wimbledon made their mark. The decade also heralded the arrival of artificial pitches and fanzines, and Spurling introduces us to the new breed of high-profile executives, like Irving Scholar and Martin Edwards, who soon got busy changing the face of football.

Thirty years in the making, Go To War draws heavily on interviews conducted with '80s icons including Terry Butcher, Graeme Sharp and Ray Wilkins, managerial legends like Howard Kendall and Bobby Robson and FA Cup heroes Ricky Villa and Norman Whiteside. Like its precursor, the bestselling Get It How the '70s Rocked Football, Go To War provides a unique insight into a pivotal footballing decade.

Genres: Football, Nonfiction, Sports, History

434 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2024

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although my interest has since waned - a lot - I was obsessed with English soccer as a kid in the 1980’s. So this book is at once both nostalgic and refreshing. It’s brilliant!

The era is re-captured perfectly, and for some reason the slightly cheap and shabby game of Allison, Saunders and co still fascinates far more than today’s perfect product.

Each chapter addresses a theme, a team, a game or a person. And often unlike the person studied, each one is a winner. The first-hand contemporary accounts add real authenticity, and the author doesn’t just know his subject intimately, he has a real feel for the game and the era.

I particularly enjoyed those chapters which shed new light on old perceptions. Often uncomfortably so. Mighty Liverpool’s slightly unsettling dressing room culture; the pervading racism dismissed as banter; the weird world of Robert Maxwell at Oxford. And it was certainly weird.

One or two parts felt a bit forced (inflatable bananas?) but that’s just nit-picking. This book is a joyous parade of polyester, mullets, and mucky pitches. A celebration (and condemnation) of when football was crap but real.

Perhaps if football is not your thing this book won’t mean much to you, but it hasn’t been my thing for 25 years and I thought it was fantastic.

And it’s got Brian Clough!

[Ipswichblade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following on from Jon Spurling's great book about football in the 70s this is an absolute delight. I always think I have read all the anecdotes from the main football characters of the 80s yet within five pages of the start of the book there is something brand new

[Stephen Orford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Spurling has written for many football publications down the years and has penned an always engaging, nostalgia-filled book looking back at football in the 1980s. On the face of it the 80s were not football’s most glorious decade. There were hooligan problem and three major match day tragedies which saw the deaths of a total of 192 people. Crowds were low as even though TV broadcasting rights were often non-existent. Yet if you’re of a certain age, i.e around my age, you will have plenty of far happier memories of football at the time.

Like what? Well, like Aston Villa winning the European Cup. Like Ricky Villa’s endless slalom through the Manchester City defence to win the FA Cup final replay for Tottenham Hotspur. Villa was Argentina and had come over to London with 1978 World Cup star Osvaldo ‘Ossie’ Ardiles. Just a year on from Villa’s goal both would be forced to leave the UK as Argentina and the UK went to war over the Falklands. There’s also Coventry City’s 1987 FA Cup win, when Spurs were the shock losers at Wembley at a time when the FA Cup final was still English football’s red letter day.

The tragedies are covered with empathy, with Spurling mostly leaving those who were there and who survived at Bradford and Heysel in 1985 and Hillsborough in 1989 to tell their stories. Spurling also explains how these dreadful events, particularly Hillsborough, helped shape the game that we know today. Not everyone is totally in love with the power that broadcasters have over the running of the game but surely even they wouldn’t want to go back to TV blackouts and ramshackle stadia. The latter played a huge role in all three of the tragedies and if having sports stadia located in out of town retail parks or industrial estates is the price paid for greatly reducing the chances of any more like them then I’m all in. As a wheelchair user I can also attest that the facilities at the newer stadia are a world away from what was on offer during my childhood.

My love for 80s football comes from the fact that I was a child supporting Liverpool. You will never have quite the same enthusiasm for anything than you had as a child. I can probably still remember the names of all those who lined up for the Reds in the European Cup finals of 1981 against Real Madrid and 1984 against AS Roma. Though I still follow Liverpool quite avidly I no longer soak up information about them like the proverbial sponge as I did back then. I’m not sure I could name the side which won the 2019 Champions League final against Tottenham so easily.

England’s World Cup campaigns of 1982 and 1986 are also covered superbly and there’s a fascinating tale about Robert Maxwell’s chairmanship of Oxford United and the former Mirror owner’s relationship with U’s manager Jim Smith. There’s not much not to like about Spurling’s book if - like me - you like your football nostalgia. Though I did wince a bit as he recounted Arsenal’s last gasp title win at Anfield and didn’t care too much about why inflatables were briefly turned into a craze by Manchester City fans. I guess that unlike in recent years they needed something to distract them from the football.

I recommend this book 100% and am looking forward to reading Spurling’s similar treatment of football in the 1970s - subtitled ‘Get It On. Though I won’t have been around for much of it.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Go To War” is a superb account of a decade when English Football nearly went to the wall. Jon Spurling recounts an era when the game was dominated by route one-hoofball played in emptying and crumbling stadiums, stalked by ‘The English Disease’ of persistent hooliganism, scorned by police forces and political elites and – most starkly - beset by the horrors of Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough.

This could have made for grim reading, and Spurling doesn’t shirk from showing much of a basket case English Football was in terms of administration and fan safety throughout the 1980s. But Spurling also shows how the era was one of innovation – of plastic pitches, the inflatables craze, fanzine culture – and the seeds of the game’s 1990s resurgence were sown during this decade.
This highly readable book is helped in that regard by having a wide cast of villains: from the ghastly wheeler-dealer Robert Maxwell to the Luton Town chairman & arch-Thatcherite David Evans, and arguably Wimbledon’s thuggish ‘Crazy Gang’ (the 80s being a decade where even the underdogs had a dark side).

“Go To War” is a terrific account of a tumultuous decade for English Football, a clear-eyed assessment of the era rather than an exercise in nostalgia, and the book is easily the equal of Jon Spurling’s previous book on the game during the 1970s. And it is also pleasing, at least to this reader, to be reminded of a time when Everton were actually quite good.

[Simon Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book captures all of the significant elements of English football in the eighties, the good and the bad. What elevates it to 'Unmissable' level is the fact that the author had the foresight to interview its major figures decades back, so people who died years ago still have a voice, and contribute hugely, to the narrative. If you have any interest in football from this era, first read 'Get It On', the same author's book about the seventies, and then read this. Two masterpieces.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following on from his previous book about football in the 70s, this latest trip down football's memory lane covers all the triumphs and disasters of a decade beset by economic turmoil, tragedies and some seriously good football.

[Gary K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and written book about 1980’s football . A decade where a lot happened and not all of it good. This is a follow up to the author’s book about 1970’s football Get it On. Both worth a read.

[Stephen Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always really good. Really hit at the heart of what football was in the 80s

[Gary Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb, couldn’t put it down , highly recommended