Hi fellas, Thought some of you might be interested in this article on Sunderland legend Len Shackleton. Suspect most on here never got the chance to see him in action, but he was undoubtedly one of the great characters in football history, as well as not being a bad player. It's a real shame he never won anything as a player and only received 5 England caps. Anyhow, for those of you interested, story is here: http://ahalftimereport.com/2015/06/27/len-shackleton-crown-prince/ Cheers.
****ing dingo humper, lol. I see your lads are playing down the Ashes mate. You're gonna get ****ed off Pommie cock.
Yes, me and a few others on here - Nostalgic springs to mind. It's always good to be reminded of the great man, but must say the article is riddled with inaccuracies. For example, Albert Stubbins moved from Newcastle to Liverpool for a record fee of £13,000 in 1946. Newcastle weren't prepared to pay out more than they'd got in for Stubbins, so their top offer for Shackleton was £13,000. But Bradford P.A. wouldn't part with him for anything less than a new record fee. In the end, a Newcastle director put his hand in his pocket and threw a 3d piece on the table. "There you are then, you've broke the transfer record" he said, and Shackleton was transferred for a world recond of £13,000 0s. 3d. He'd broken the record by the modern equivalent of 1.5 pence ! The fee for the Newcastle-Sunderland transfer in February, 1948 was £20,050, not £20,500 as stated either. Stanley Matthews wasn't the only 'great' who admired Shack - speaking about the 1954 Germany game, Tom Finney once told Jimmy Armfield "Len beat them on his own that day". When you've Matthews and Finney rooting for you, you're a pretty damn good player of any age. I still consider it a privilege that, apart from measles and mumps, I saw almost every home game and a few away games Shack ever played for Sunderland. No one who saw that guy in full flow could ever forget.
Saw him play a few times and went to his testimonial, used to walk by our house on his way to the match, he was a football reporter for one of the Sundays and always had a word, a great character, and loved by those lucky enough to see him in his prime.
Shackleton can't have set the British record for £13,000 in 1946 as Arsenal paid £14,500 for Bryn Jones in 1938. Fair enough with the fee of £20,050, all modern sources seem to suggest £20,500 but I suspect that was someone at some stage assuming the figure had been wrongly printed, given £20,050 is a rather unusual fee.
My source for all this is Shackleton's interview tape/CD with Jimmy Armfield, dated 1996 (published by BBC and still available). If he's wrong in his recollection, I'm wrong - fair enough. Watch : at 5 mins 53. Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy the article. But the man himself disagrees with some of it. I'll leave that for others to judge.
I tell you what fella. I'm considering getting the record book(i'm getting the record book regardless of weather I update wiki) and using it to fill in Wikipedia . You know I'm a stat man and have no qualms in with the data entry part. But having you and @Nostalgic on board to give it a bit a human relation aspect making it a bit more personal would be fantastic. Would you and Nostalgic be up for providing some input from your own experiences? The Sunderland Wiki only goes back to 89. I'd like to proved the net with the full history and making it a bit more than just data. Having real people provide their experiences would go a long way towards doing our own club a big favour. Anyway, had right skinful today, But would like to discus it with you. Love the stories and experiences you both have and I think together we could provide the most in depth Wiki pages any British club have.
I think the England coach Winterbottom summed Shack up by describing that he had to have ball to feet rather than chase it thereby keeping his team guessing as well as the opposition. Stories are legend about him but rising above everything was his self belief and his skill using boots like barges and a ball like a christmas pudding. I was at the semis of 55 and 56 and he was absolutely devastated by both results as we had played well but still lost despite being the better team, but on both occasions their goalies had played blinders. My favourite non-football story about him though was when an England official asked if he would be available for an England tour of S America and Shack told him he was not sure as he had an ice cream kiosk to look after. As he said, a daft question deserves a dafter answer. He wasn't chosen.
Yeah, that semi of 1955 really was THE one we wanted to win - the other finalist was ... Newcastle! What a final that would have been.
Played in atrocious at Villa Park with mud over the boot tops and Burt Trautmann had a game and a half, together with the ball getting past him but sticking in the mud about a foot from the goal line. ManC had one attempt and scored with a super diving header just glad it was raining so hard it did not show the tears. But what the hell - there was always next season.
Good listen that, cheers. A post-war I suppose, but as you can see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progression_of_British_football_transfer_fee_record Jones went for more in '38. Thanks for the responses anyway chaps.
Did you get part 2 of the interview? See. Listen particularly to Walter Winterbottom's bit, where he says Shack didn't get so many caps because there were players who could link up with other players better - and then says "He could link up all right" ! The bottom line was, England wouldn't pick anybody who didn't toe the line, and they're still trying to invent some other reason. Listen for him contradicting himself here.
One week to go mate. First test Cardiff, ****ing ironic that like eh? England v Australia & its played in ****ing Wales. Sheep shagging twats, lol. I'll do a thread in a few days mate & see if I can get a mod to sticky it.
Well they've only got Cardiff to follow in the football mate so better give them something to cheer about Make sure that you get the tick of approval from funk regarding the thread I thought you and comm were the mods on ere? Lol
