Sorry to say there is a helluva lot of rose tinted going on here We were a middling to average team through the 60’s waggy was an exceptional goal scorer who never played at the highest level To say he shoulda played for England is crazy sorry
Disagree Chazz and I think Brian Clough would too, because he said so. If he'd have signed for Cloughie I'm sure he would have gone onto greater things, after all Clough made some very average players into exceptional players, and Wagstaff was far from average. The team never got out of the old second division because we were two players short, a goal keeper and a centre half. I still say when Terry Neill signed for us from Arsenal in the summer of 1970 that he was the worse player in the team. The keeper we should have signed was Alex Stepney from Millwall, instead we plumpted for Ian McKechnie, a free transfer from Southend who had packed his cases to emigrate to Australia. With Ian McKechnie in goal we had to score three goals to get a point, although he was a huge character in the team and I'm not knocking his memory because he has left us with some great ones, I think we could have done better at the time.
Waggy played and managed George Cross, I think twice? He took a few Hull lads to Australia with him too, from memory didnt Billy Wilkinson play for them too?
He could have made the grade. Put two past Chelsea and Stoke( Gordon Banks) in 2 FA Cup quarter finals. No Rose tinted glasses. However each to their own.
But presumably nobody came in for him? Chilton didn't do too well at Coventry I recall, Cov fan I knew at the time called him a big donkey. I think that Chillo/Waggy partnership was a one-off, neither would be as good without the other.
Back in the day( there’s a quote) players were often happy where they played. Don’t know if that was the case with waggy. We will never know.
Chiton was technically struggling with constant back problems and was past his best. City did well out of Coventry.
I think Waggy relished being a big fish in a small pond and showed loyalty to the City of Hull, his team mates and the City supporters. He was a wonderful player, and as Urika said, Clough was very interested in signing the Waggy/Chilton duo. What might have been !
If you read Chris Chiltons autobiography he thought he was going to sign for Leeds Utd under Don Revie. Despite Harold Needler saying he would want 'Three George Bests and £100,000' after the 4-4 Sheffield Wednesday game, City were willing to sell him to Leeds who were a top team in those days. Chris thought he was going but a sudden change of mind from either Harold Needler or Leeds saw them sign Mick Jones from Sheffield United instead. Chillo said he was devestated when he heard about it in the morning papers. Jones went onto play for England and I believe he was the second choice to Chilton at Leeds. When Chilton was finally sold to Coventry for just short of £100,000 which was a colossal fee in those days he was suffering from a back injury and his best days were behind him because of this, not that Coventry realised at the time. Ken Wagstaff always says he was 'well looked after' by City under Harold Needler and the club received several offers for him all of which were turned down. Brian Clough certainly wanted to sign him for Derby.
Leeds signed mick Jones who was younger than Chris and had scored 21 in 40 in 66/7 in the first division for 100 grand Chris had just come from the third division It’s a no brainer mate come on
A 'lower league legend' who was the only player in the entire Football League to be voted the favourite all time player by the fans of two different clubs, Hull City and Mansfield Town. I was once at a City film night in Waggys pub, The Golden Ball on Aire street. The film clips, mostly from Yorkshire and Anglia tv, were eventually cobbled together into the excellent 'Waggy and Chillo' video. I actually had to sit with Waggy when the video was released and talk him through some of the goals on it because he'd forgotten most of them. Towards the end of this 'film night', which Im sure Dave Dewberry of Action Group fame was instumental in organising, Waggy went upstiars and came down with an old brown suitcase which he placed on top of the Pool table. In it were newspaper cuttings of his footballing career, including soveniers from his tour to Australia with the FA team, all lovingly collected by his sister. As interesting as they were to myself and the other City fans present I personally found it a bit sad that the contents of this suitcase were all Waggy had to show for his goalscoring exploits, not forgetting he is still Hull Citys all time record goal scorer. Far lesser player at that time went onto far more glittering and probably more lucrative careers than he did because they played for more 'fashionable clubs' Which is, sadly still the same today, ie; Jarrod Bowen, Harry Maguire, Jake Livermore, Andy Robertson.........
I’m not saying they weren’t interested but ultimately they didnt and I have read waggy was tapped up by Cloughy I’ve read plenty of cloughy books if you haven’t try No one ever says thank you it’s excellent And waggy does get a mention After he scored against derby cloughy tapped him up Apparently he often tapped up players who scored against them Ken was one of many who never went
Brian Clough told of the Waggy interest stories when he did an 'Audience With' at the Old Jacksons Club, on Cottingham Road, along with fellow guest Geoff Boycott and Waggy was in the audience. Cloughie really did spreak highly of him, even pointing him out to the audience, most of who didn't realise Waggy was there, and saying 'That man would have played for England......if he'd of signed for me'.
I'm sure that would surprise the 65/66 team with 69 pts (equivalent to 100 now) and 109 goals when winning Division 3. And Wagstaff and Chilton were part of the 70-71 team that reched the qusarter final and almost got promoted to the top tier. But yes, some of the other seasons were decidedly average. not sure how this stops us seeing Wagstaff as an exceptional player.
