PROGRAMME COVER CREATIVITY AWARD

(WEST MIDLANDS DIVISION)

Once in a while, something new will come along and make you wonder why on earth nobody thought of it before. Football programme covers are a case in point. They have essentially been the same forever: an action shot of a popular player, perhaps emerging from some kind of Photoshopped vortex if the design team has been guzzling too much fizzy drink. But over the last campaign, the West Midlands has seen an explosion of raw artistic imagination that has put this brand of same-old, same-old to shame.

Wolves set the bar very high with their epic fantasy programme covers illustrated by Alexander Wells. An absolutely terrifying lupine predator displays its fangs as a representation of the opponent’s mascot, helping you mentally picture the kind of battle that many fans love to imagine. And some of them are just downright surreal – wolf vs tractor! Wolf vs mad anthropomorphic tree! Wolf vs windmill! – but they’re all brilliant, really.

Gallingly for Wolverhampton, though, neighbouring enemies West Brom have only gone and bested them. Co-operating with their squad in the most creative way possible, each of their programmes this year has had an album-themed cover. And they’ve all been a delight: Jonas Olsen as Bowie’s Aladdin Sane; Jonathan ‘J-leko’ Leko as Jay-z on The Black Album; Chris Brunt as Elvis Costello; Johnny Evans as Don Mclean. Add in some reworkings of Sergeant Pepper’s, Born In The USA and Definitely Maybe, and it has been glorious and bonkers from the Baggies this season. We need to encourage much more of this kind of thing.