Former Claret Dave Thomas delighted to see old clubs slugging it out at the top. please log in to view this image Glory year: The Burnley class of 1972/73 that went on to win the Second Division title, with QPR finishing as runners-up. Dave Thomas, transferred to Rangers in October 1972, is pictured second right, middle row by Chris Boden [email protected] Published on the 24 October 2013 It’s a strange quirk, but in 1972, Burnley sold their star player to QPR, only for both clubs to go on and challenge for promotion to the top flight. Fast forward 41 years, and could the same thing happen again? Back in October 1972, the Clarets sold winger Dave Thomas to the Loftus Road club for what was a Second Division transfer record of £165,000. As it turned out, Burnley, under Jimmy Adamson, strode to the Second Division title, with the Rs joining them in the top flight as runners-up. Back in August, Burnley sold 28-goal top-scorer Charlie Austin to the title favourites Hoops for a fee in the region of £2.25-4m. And just over a quarter of the way into the league season, the sides meet at Turf Moor tomorrow, with the Clarets leading the table by two points from Harry Redknapp’s men. Thomas will be at the game tomorrow, and he is looking forward to watching his former sides in action: “I haven’t seen much of Burnley but I’m slightly surprised to see them up there - although I’m delighted, I’ve always looked out for their results. “The table doesn’t lie, they’re resilient, have good forwards and I’m expecting a very tight game. “QPR are very solid and don’t concede many goals. “I’d imagine both sides would be happy with a draw, but it could go either way.” Looking back at his switch to London, the same route Austin has followed, Thomas admitted: “It’s amazing really how it’s working out again. “It’s bizarre. Back then I was having a few problems with the manager Jimmy Adamson, I played in the first 10 games, but while I respected Jimmy as a coach, we didn’t get on, I wasn’t a fan of his management style. “I wanted to leave, but didn’t want to go down south. “But the club told me they’d agreed a fee with QPR and I set off for London - Brian Miller took me to the train station, and off I went. “I ended up playing in a good side with Terry Venables, Stan Bowles, Gerry Francis...it was a risk for me, but it proved the best six years of my career, playing for a fantastic team. “But I had six great years at Burnley as well - and it is a great club - before leaving at 21. “The club was great at bringing the kids through, and I have great memories. “But they used to have to sell a player a year to balance the books.” That continues to be a familiar theme, with Austin the latest to boost the coffers at the club. But, for Thomas, who helped Burnley win the FA Youth Cup in 1968, he is disappointed to see the conveyor belt grinding to a halt, with a perceived lack of young British talent coming through the ranks: “Burnley used to breed players, but it seems to be a problem in English football now, with Greg Dyke’s FA commission trying to help bring players through. “You have to be careful though, when I went to Vancouver Whitecaps, they had a homegrown rule, where you had to have six homegrown players, but you don’t want top quality players to leave the country because of that, because the standard will suffer. “I came into the England side in 1974, and it was talked about then as well. The problem is, when I was playing, if you deserved a chance, you got one, but now, when clubs are expected to win every week, with so much money at stake, not everyone is prepared to take a chance with younger players. “The mentality in this country, even at school and youth level, is ‘did you win?’, not ‘how did you play?’, and players get a fear factor with that, getting rid of the ball rather than making a mistake. “We have to play out from the back, not boot the ball away, that’s Mickey Mouse football to me. “Young kids are coached from being six or seven, and they can be coached out of it, where they don’t enjoy it.”
The man and of course my favourite of the old guard ... Maybe the best wide player of all time As Brian Moore would say The ball goes wide to Dave Thomas let's see what he can do The rest is history
He's bang on the money there. One of my all time favourite players. I've a mental picture of him now, socks down, taunting defenders before skipping away and delivering an end product.
Played a blinder in this classic game...[video=youtube;PlxXQd9ggzM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlxXQd9ggzM[/video]
Nice find Seahoop, I love those opening credits and that unmistakable theme tune, it transports me back to my childhood. I saw myself in that clip too, At around three minutes when the free kick is taken, I'm sitting on the wall behind the goal in the school end wearing a brown parka jacket. I would've been about ten years old then.
Nice one Nines. I would have been sitting somewhere in what is now X block on that day. What a goal by Stan. Didn't Burnley simply replace dave Thomas with Leighton James,, who we had off them later? Or have I got my times wrong?
Loved those parkas....I had a green one with 3 qpr badges sewn to it at the front. I was 10 too, but didn't make my first game untill the next season at home to WBA. 1-0 to the hoops...Ian Gillard scored.
I think we signed James from Derby in a swap with Don Masson. We then sold him onto Burnley. James might have been with Thomas at QPR for a short time before he moved to Everton, but I'm having difficulty remembering the specifics of our club as time passes. Bushman will know if he looks in on this thread. Stan even fooled me as I watched that clip. I thought he was going to go for a far post curler like he did against FC Cologne in the UEFA cup.
Great clip, we were still a decent side that season......lost count of the number of times that Stan sent defenders the wrong way in that spot of the pitch over the years, you just knew that he would come in on his left foot and then turn on to his right and the defender wouldn't have a chance......
My recollection is that Leighton James was briefly in the same side at Burnley with Dave Thomas but only really came into his own when DT signed for us. Stan may be right that he played with DT very briefly but I don't recall it. Selling DT was one of a large number of mistakes made by Frank Sibley who was only a few years older than the team itself. He wanted to stamp his own authority on the team moulded by Jago and Sexton and our best team ever was broken up and scattered to the winds to be replaced by the likes of Brian Williams (a workhorse who had no ball skills at all) and Barry Wallace. My recollection is that Leighton James was brought in when Sibley realised the howler he had made. Not a patch on DT and a poor replacement. Within 12 months we had become a team of hustlers and spoilers who ran themselves into the ground and got the ball upfield swiftly. Our demise followed fairly swiftly
