Football's 'bygone Bovril era': Photos celebrate 'a different game'

Samuels captured important moments for the North West's top teams, including Manchester City manager Joe Mercer (right) with the FA Cup in 1969

Images from a renowned photographer's life-long "love affair" with football have gone on display, showing a "bygone era... of Bovril, packed terraces and Northern rain".

Sefton Samuels' photos at Manchester's National Football Museum chart the game from the 1960s to the 1980s and include the likes of Liverpool manager Bill Shankly and Manchester United's George Best.

The 90-year-old said given the changes in football, the images "almost seem like they're from a different game".

A museum spokesman said the exhibition shows a time when supporters were "watching fantastic footballers with equally fabulous haircuts".

One of Samuels' first photos, taken from the crowd at a Manchester City game in 1947, is included in the exhibition

Samuels often captured his subjects away from the pitch, as in his photo of Manchester United manager Sir Matt Busby

Samuels, whose images of Northern working class life are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, said his "love affair with football began as a kid growing up in Manchester in the 1940s".

The Manchester City fan said he used to cycle to what was then the club's stadium, Maine Road, "pay twopence to leave my bike in someone's garden, and then get into the ground for sixpence, and, of course, sneak my camera in".

"I went on to spend decades photographing players and matches across the North," he added.

Samuels' work captured both formal team shots, for the likes of Everton...

...and much more informal moments, such as Joe Mercer carrying a staff member

His subjects included some of the biggest names in the game during the 1960s and 1970s, but he often captured them away from the pitch.

One photo shows Manchester United's legendary manager Sir Matt Busby at work in his office, while another captures the team's star player George Best outside the fashion boutique in Sale that he owned with his friend and footballing rival, Manchester City's Mike Summerbee.

George Best was photographed leaning on the door of his boutique in Sale in 1968

Samuels also took shots at games, including many of his beloved Manchester City

Samuels said though the game was starting to pay larger salaries to players, football at the time was a far cry from the era of the Premier League and was "a world where you could casually bump into megastars like George Best, or City goalie Frank Swift, in the street".

"It's mind-boggling that a generation or so later we're now talking about £100m players," he said.

"I remember when only the team captains were allowed to own cars.

"These photos aren't just from a different era, they almost seem like they're from a different game."

The exhibition features a number of portraits, including one of Liverpool manager Bill Shankly

The photos capture some of the biggest personalities, such as Derby County and Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough

A spokesman for the museum said Samuels, who still lives in Manchester, was painter LS Lowry's favourite photographer and was once described by a national newspaper as "the photographic equivalent of Ken Loach".

He said the exhibition "highlights a bygone era".

Referring to the beef tea some fans would drink at half-time, he said it was "a long-ball world of Bovril, packed terraces and Northern rain... with supporters watching fantastic footballers with equally fabulous haircuts".

"The photographs present the game in a world away from the bling and ka-ching of the modern top-flight game."

Samuels said his "love affair with football began as a kid growing up in Manchester in the 1940s"

The exhibition, When Football Was Football: The Photography of Sefton Samuels, 1960s-1980s, is on display at Manchester's National Football Museum until 31 December.

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