Emlyn Hughes was always good on question of sport. He also came to where I worked as a motivational thing but was absolutely great to listen to.
But that's not a success for a club like Barcelona is it? So if Ferguson had won 1 title after 26 years of waiting would that be a success? Venables is one of the worst managers in history - for either club or country - and the only thing he was ever good at was masking this so everyone somehow thought he was good. Every single fact or statistic you could ever consider would demonstrate that he was an awful manager. Put it this way - when he got the TWS job I punched the air in delight.
"A gift for malapropisms and an ability to confuse names became an endearing part of his legend. "Hello, Bobby," he once greeted his England captain, Bryan Robson. "I'm Bryan," the skipper replied. "You're Bobby." What, the young Newcastle forward Shola Ameobi was asked by a journalist, did his teammates call him? "Shola," he replied. And how, the disappointed but still hopeful interlocutor asked, did his manager address him? "He calls me Carl Cort."
Rodney Marsh When he was at Man City he was playing for England.Alf Ramsey was the manager.Before the game start he said to Marsh If you don't put in I am pulling you off at half time.Marsh replied Hell Alf all we get at half time at Man City is a orange and cup of tea/He never played for England again. I am proud to say I got his autograph when he was a Fulham reserve. Another character was our own Chris Simpkin.Although it was when he was at Blackp[ool he casually trod on Marshs head when he was on the ground. My favourite story about Cloughie when I think he was at Derby a Derby player was concussed and Peter Taylor told Clough he doesn't know who he is.Clough told Taylor to tell him he was Pele. Finally when Clough was at Forest he dropped Martin ONeill to the seconds and ONeill demanded to know why he had been dropped to the seconds.....Well you see we don't have a thirds.
****e job? Newcastle fans today would love a manager who could do the job Robson did. I think they qualified for the Champions League a couple of times!
I got to know George Lyall when he retired, he told me a story of when he played for Clough at Forest. He was on the subs bench for a home game and Cloughie told him at half time he intended to put him on after about 60 minutes. About ten minutes into the second half the home crowd started chanting for George so he stood up to start warming up, knowing he was going on soon as the match score was the same. Cloughie told him to sit down, " I run this team, not them" he said, and he never got on.
Worthington definitely one of the major characters of the game, but in that era there were several, including rodney marsh and besty
Stan Bowles. There's a famous story about him nipping out of the changing room at half time to put a line on. Top character. Also Tony Currie. Similar to above but in an era where flare players could be 'tackled', he made quite a few thugs look like dopes in a distinguished career...
Tommy Smith. A god amongst men. I once had the honour to interview him for an article in local rag. He was a master of the technique and apart from Brian Johnson, the best after dinner speaker I've seen over many years. He had little time for Emlyn Hughes, and some of the stories he told me 'not for publication' would have seen us all in court!! Is he still writing for the Liverpool Echo I wonder? I know today's local hacks read these pages looking for what they call 'news'. Does anyone know if Tommy is still writing? I heard he was quite ill at one point, and as I am not one to read the crap in newspapers (guess I've written too much of it myself over the years to respect it), indeed he may have even died? Unless it's high profile real news, I tend not to keep up these days. And let's face it nowadays most of the stuff that they call 'news' is merely filling spaces around adverts, or padding out dead airtime.
Jimmy Geaves is at Deaths door. He has suffered a stroke, I think - I heard on TalkShyte that he was rushed to hospital.
Of course it was a success for Barca. Do you think their fans thought he was useless when he brought the league title back after 11 years of failure?
Before your time probably, but ever hear of Vic Buckingham? Roy Hodgson has had a bit of success abroad.
I miss the programme seller for outside the South Stand. Young lad with a nasally voice who'd shout with great enthusiasm; " Get your programme, £3 your programme". Even as he was serving you he'd shout it at an impressively loud volume. All the other programme sellers are just playing at it, he was the real deal and I miss him very much.
