Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s AC Milan were without doubt the biggest club in Europe and Italian football the most popular league.Milan boasted a Dutch holy trinity of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard but the local lads weren't bad either. Consider Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, Alessandro Costacurta and Carlos Ancelotti. Yep, the bloke who managed Chelsea for a while.
Back then European teams would often stage mini tournaments, usually featuring four clubs, but as ever England was behind the curve. Until, that is, 1988 when Wembley Stadium decided to get in on the act.
They invited Milan as well as Arsenal, Bayern Munchen (sorry, calling them Bayern Munich is naff; Bayern is the German spelling of Bavaria, Munich the English spelling of Munchen) and that lot from up the Seven Sisters Road who had just signed Paul Gascoigne.
Also featuring in the Milan squad, under Arrigo Sacchi, was goalkeeper Giovanni Galli. I have no idea whether he played or not but that is not relevant. His son, Niccolo, was to later sign for Arsenal as a defender just over a decade later and was highly rated by the club until, tragically, his life was taken from him in a car crash.
The Bayern squad is not without interest either. Their keeper, Raimond Aumann, went on to play for the club for many, many years and is still involved as a Fan Co ordinator while new signing Johnny Ekstrom was tall, blond and Swedish. Another Scandinavian was Erland Johnsen who was to sign for Chelsea within 24 months of this competition.
Bayern's coach that year, his first of three stints, was Jupp Heynckes who of course steps down at the end of this season to be replaced by Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal won the trophy defeating Bayern 3-0 and Tottenham the following day 4-0. For several years I had the video and it got pretty well worn I can say! At least we won this trophy emphatically. At the end of the season we went to Anfield needing to win 2-0 to lift the title and we managed it in the last minute thanks to Mickey Thomas.
A long season, a long journey and one that began at Wembley against Bayern.
The programme for the two day tournament was a typical oversized Wembley affair priced at 2 quid and featured a couple of pieces by the eternal Brian Glanville reflecting on his Milan memories.
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