We've done the second round of inductees for out Hall of Fame. They are: Geovanni Ken Houghton Pete Skipper Ambrose Langley Jimmy Lodge Tom Wilson (Committee's Choice) Just a reminder, players have to be retired, managers/owners have to have had nothing to do with the club for five years to be eligible. These names add to Ken Wagstaff, Ian Ashbee, Chris Chilton, Raich Carter, Dean Windass, Billy Whitehurst, Stuart Elliott, Justin Whittle, Nick Barmby, Billy Bly, Warren Joyce, Phil Brown, Andy Dawson, Adam Pearson, Tony Norman, Garreth Roberts, Andy Davidson, Harold Needler, Keith Edwards, Peter Taylor and Les Mutrie from last year's inductions. I know there are some big names missing. They simply didn't accrue enough votes. We'll be adding one or two names now on an annual basis after this initial glut. Importantly, has anyone got any memories of Tom Wilson they could share with us? Last year we made a book for Les Mutrie, with photos and memories from his team-mates and fans. It meant to world to Les and his family (after he died his family asked us to send up six more such book, which we did). We're looking to do the same for Tom this time around. He sadly lost his wife recently and we hope that receiving some sort of accolade such as this along with a commemorative book will give him a lift. Just DM if you can do this.
we didn't really get close to the top of the second division until 1970-71 by which time Andy Davidson had retired anyway the difference between attack and defence was only relative - the attack had an incredible amount of money spent on them
it would have been quite easy for some of the players in the teams of the 60s to look good but it took a special player to raise the players with City in the 90s
Fets was in the long list but didn't quite get enough votes. There are a lot of terrific servants to the club not in the full list (EGD Wright, Paddy Mills, Matt Bell, George Maddison, Viggo Jansen, Sammy Stevens, Brian Bulless, Paul Feasey, Cliff Britton, Ian Butler, Ray Henderson, Stuart Pearson, Richard Jobson, Billy Askew, Brian Horton, Wayne Jacobs, Alan Fettis, Gary Brabin, Sam Ricketts, Liam Rosenior, etc...) but each inductee is justifiably in there. I've voted for Viggo and Brabs twice, to no avail!
Yeah, we'll have to find room to nominate Boaz, Turner, Damien Delaney, Davies, Michael Dawson, Hudds, Elmo, McGregor, Meyler, McShane, Chester and a few others before long. Id' argue the Golden Age started in about 2003 though!
This obsession is unhealthy, x! You made this criticism last time, and 33% of those inducted this time are pre-WW2. As I said a year ago, I think that the nature of these things typically rewards the more recent. There was a well-backed poll on Twitter relatively recently that had Junior Lewis down as our worst ever player! (He isn't, it goes without saying. Not by a long way.) By and large, given how public votes tend to go, I'm still happy with the spread of pre-war/50s/60s players. I'd have had Matt Bell and Viggo in personally, but these things don't work like that.
Slightly tangential but on the Junior Lewis thing, I think any 'worst player' consensus will end up being about a player who it is or was popular to talk about being bad. But as you suggest, someone who actually played every week is unlikely to be the worst ever. That rules out Lewis but also people like James Harper who was similarly unliked. I can think of a couple of players who've played for us in the Premier League but were worse for us than those guys were.
I would imagine that a huge chunk of our 'worst' players would naturally come from the 1990s. Off the top of my head, Christian Samson, Robbie Turner, Rob Miller, Kenny Gilbert, Craig Lawford, Andy Mason, Andy Brown, Scott Maxfield, Scott Thomson, Simon Trevitt, Paul Wharton, Tony Brien and Jon French had me baffled as to how they were professional footballers. Lewis played about 50 games over two seasons that saw us promoted twice!
Junior Lewis was unpopular due to him being a go-to player for Peter Taylor at whichever club he was managing. Peter Taylor, despite him being the man who started our meteoric rise through the leagues, wasn't nearly as popular as he should have been; I put his unpopularity down to his refusal to wave on command like a performing dog, that, plus his disdain for numpties questioning his tactics/selections etc didn't go down well. Junior Lewis was so far from our worst ever player it doesn't really deserve debating.
I agree. I was just using it to try to make a point about how polls tend to be dominated by the more recent. I appreciated Junior at the time, but would agree with your assessment as to why some people got stuck in to him. I think he had six promotions in his career. That's not bad going. His attitude was always terrific too.
Donn't think we need bother to consider Delaney (displaced by far superior Turner/Brown). McShane?!?!?! Always felt like an accident waiting to happen. Robbo. Maguire gotta be in there.
it's not that much of an obsession, more like a passing annual thought. tell you what, get paddy mills and jackie smith in there and i'll try not to comment next year. xx
i agree. junior lewis had 8 promotions in his career, most of them under taylor. that's more than ryan france, possibly.
Delaney was/is a very popular figure. I don't know if you were at the Palace game at Selhurst Park at the back end of the 2016/17 season, but his popularity among City fans was very evident there. He'll be on the long list once he retires. Whether he gets picked is a different matter. And while Turner and Brown were undoubtedly superior for City round that time, the trio's post-2008 careers would suggest that Damien could hold his own in their company. Maguire and Robertson are a long way off retirement but when that day comes, no doubt they'll be in there (hopefully after a glorious late-career return to City).
