"Best" programme of each decade

[derby1884]

I'd be interested in others' opinions as to which club they considered to, generally, issue the "best" programme of each decade.
It's not meant to be a serious debate as, obviously, a club can change design numerous times within a ten year period but here goes.
Do let me know your views.

1930s: Aston Villa (loads to read, stats galore, detailed match reports)

1940s: Arsenal (paper rationing meant a basic issue for many but the Gunners always managed to go above and beyond. I suppose it helped being based in London.)

1950s: Chelsea (always saw their programme as a prototype for the more club-orientated issues of the upcoming decades)

1960s: Coventry City (light years ahead of most clubs when it came to viewing the programme as a mouthpiece of the club rather than a chore which needed to be undertaken)

1970s: Hull City (I love their programme from the first half of the decade as it had just about everything, concisely contained and so well laid out.....much as I loved "The Ram" newspaper, it comes second due to the storage problem)

1980s: Manchester United (by now all programmes had evolved into more than just lineups/HT scoreboards and United were the first to define that fine line between current club news and historical interest)

1990s: Brentford (this was the hardest decade to decide as it was the decade when commercial interests really took hold and it was a matter of policy for clubs when steering that fine line between club news and marketing. I thought Brentford maintained a club persona better than most)

2000s: Sunderland (Many may argue but every Sunderland issue I've seen from this decade has, key point, serious, lengthy articles on current club issues and doesn't depend upon full page photographs to fill space)

2010s: West Brom (tough one as, by now, page count is what it is and marketing is all but their issue has the best historical articles of all bar none so, well, they win).
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[bigearl79]

Wrexam from the mid 80's and certainly in to the early noughtuies, was a jam packed read, good value for money. Exeter City from the mid 90's for at least ten years was superb, could easy spend a couple of hours on that. Bristol Rovers current issue has plenty of varied articles in it. As a Scunthorpe United collector I don't come across the bigger boy's very much. Based on our three Championship season's between 2007-11, I'm not missing that much.

[Dorking]

I'd agree Man United for the 1980s.

For the current decade, West Brom have made massive efforts over their programme, which hasn't gone unnoticed by me

[Five and In]

I have always loved the simplicity of the small West Ham programmes from the seventies.
QPR from the early seventies were pretty good as well and I know I'm biased, but from the same period, the Spurs programmes were great.

On the other hand, I always hated the late seventies/early eighties newspaper style programmes that a few tried and dropped, but Derby plugged away with for a few years. The worst part of my many visits to the old Baseball Ground was trying to read the bloody thing!

Equally, I never liked the early eighties "square" style adopted by WBA, Watford and a few others. I liked to keep my programmes as perfect as I could and the shape of them made that almost impossible.

In recent years, the Wolves "superhero" style covers were awesome.

[hibernian]

Obviously a bit biased but from 1949/50 to 1955/6 the Hibs programmes were superb with match action photos on the cover. More than a match for any other programme from that era

[Thedoog10]

Wolves in the seventys didn't Thay win an award for it.

[Dorking]

York City's foldout 'Chinese takeaway menu' of the early 1980s can do one!

[derby1884]

Quote:

I have always loved the simplicity of the small West Ham programmes from the seventies.

I'd have opted for West Ham from the 70s too, if it weren't for the fact that the Hull City issues I first got from Steve Earl when I started collecting in the early 70s were thefirst programmes I ever saw that really impressed me.
So I'm being a bit nostalgic opting for them, I suppose.
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[Eck]

In 70's the Wolves & West Brom covers take some beating,I loved those.

[Tynie Topics]

hibernian wrote:

Obviously a bit biased but from 1949/50 to 1955/6 the Hibs programmes were superb with match action photos on the cover. More than a match for any other programme from that era

It really was Hearts and Hibs who produced the best programmes in Scotland in the post war era.

As you say Hibs from 1949-50 to 1955-56, their large sized 8 page issues were fantastic, Hearts from 1952-53 to probably mid-60’s produced fantastically informative 12 pagers, and their gatefold issues 1946-47 to 1951-52 were wonderfully random content wise, if lacking a little in presentation. It probably wasn’t until the 1970’s that any other club came close to them.
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[chelseapeter]

I Would Say CHELSEA Pre-War though To 1970 SEVENTIES Were easily The Best Programes.full of Information.and the letters page was second to None.