Roy of the Rovers accident had resulted in the amputation of his famous left foot, ending his playing career and resulting in his move to Italy as the manager of Serie A side AC Monza (a fictional top-level Italian club, rather than the real club of the same name). Reconciling the continuity of the monthly strip with the stories that preceded and followed it presented difficulties, forcing the story's writers to alter its history in a number of ways, a technique known as retroactive continuity. Significantly, the strip rewrote various parts of Melchester's history, and shortened Roy Sr.'s recorded playing career to a more
Roy of the Rovers as "a hot rocking heavy metal rap", which failed to chart in the UK Top 40. The confectionery company McCowans produced a pineapple-flavoured "Roy of the Rovers" chew bar in the 1990s. On 29 February 2008 it was announced that Titan Books had acquired worldwide book publishing rights to a range of Egmont's comic strips, including Roy of the Rovers. The first of their compilations of Roy's playing days, "The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s" was released in May 2008 and included the "Relegation" and "Who Shot Roy" story arcs. "The Bumper Book of Roy of the