Supermac, Super Style, How big a knot have you got in that tie?

For the exclusive man

These days even the most run-of-the-mill players earn so much that they never have to worry about saving to buy a car, or paying the bills, or paying a court fine. But in the seventies times were much harder. Even superstarts like Supermac had to find alternative sources of income

For the real stars the most popular way of supplementing their meagre basics was to open a shop; or should I say boutique. George Best and Mike Summerbee had their own outlets and Supermac followed suit.

The shop, imaginatively called "Malcolm Macdonald", was housed at 20 Newgate Shopping Precinct and as the advert shows "catered for the exclusive man" His outlet described by Mac at the time as "an exclusive fashion house" didn't sell any old rubbish, this was exclusive stuff such as a white suit (modelled by Mac himself below) by John Peter of London

Supermac said at the time that he "couldn't bear to be seen in anything sloppy" although once he had retired he seemed to have changed his tune. "My personal appearance does not concern me much...It wouldn't worry me if I found out that I had been walking around all day with my flies undone and hair all over the place"

Supermac's clothing connection also benefited the team. For the 1974 FA Cup Final he arranged for exclusive Northamptonshire shoemakers, Frank Wright, to make the smart black and white shoes seen below. Unfortunately the team tracksuits were not so sartorially elegant. A last minute refusal to wear the supplied Gola tracksuits led to their replacement with a hideous purple and yellow tracksuit. Perhaps this was an omen for the traumatic "bruisin" that was about to be handed out to them

Supermac, Tartanman, my ma can drink twice as much as you can

Another avenue open to the stars was to advertise products. These days players are expected to promote healthy living but in the seventies a player would be most likely to endorse beer and tabs. Supermac amongst others was involved in an advertising campaign for Younger's Tartan Bitter.

Mac saw it as a harmless way of scraping together a few more pennies, after all "everyone knows that players like a pint after a game". Manager and arch enemy Gordon Lee thought it wrong that professionals should advertise alcohol and tried to put an end to it