There is a temptation when talking to George Hamilton to fall into the trap of nostalgia. His voice is a launchpad for a thousand memories. “The nation holds its breath” is the most immediate and was the title of his first memoir, but there are so many others: ‘A miskick by Sansom, in goes Aldridge. And Houghton…1-0’ or ‘Baresi…on to it comes Houghton…and Houghton with the shot and it’s there’ or ‘Sheedy’s won it back and Sheedy shoots’ and my own favourite: “Oh Whelan…And Ronnie Whelan has done it”. It is not an exaggeration to say that these were moments…

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