i never compared him to any norwich defenders! why has it always got to be about rivalry? my opinion was that he was not a great player - he gave his all for the cause but that doesn't make him a great player. there were better centre halves such as des walker who should have played before him but robson, of course, rated him for obvious reasons and thats his prerogative.
Terry Butcher is a legend at every club he played for and I appreciate your age so you cant really judge him as you haven't seen him play that often. He was solid as a rock and he could pass the ball out of defence rather than just hoof it. You don't get to the number of England caps that he did without being a decent player.
its true i only saw the latter stages of his career. apart from the world cup qualifier, my main memory of him was being completely overrun in italia '90 by 93-year-old roger milla to the extent he had to go off exhausted. he was utter, utter ****e that night, so maybe i'm influenced by that. mind you, even one of my heroes des walker played in that game, though thank god he did or we'd have lost by a cricket score!
i'll also add that emile heskey has more than 60 caps for england. would you say he is any good? its all about opinions but for me, on what i saw, butcher was slow and sloppy but as you say, i never saw him in his prime when he was a bit younger
In Italia 90 Butcher was reaching the end of his career by then. His game wasn't about pace but about always being in the right place at the right time. God knows why we got onto the subject of Terry Butcher but to use one of your favourite phrases in his prime he would have walked into any football team.
Yes butcher probably did struggle in 1990, and may have been past his peak, but you could also say the same about Shilton that year, and nobody could say that he wasn't worth his caps. IMO, despite Butcher playing for Ipswich , he was a class act. Maybe a few of the so called superstars that play for england now should take a leaf from his book.
Just as a matter of interest JWM. How old was Butcher when he: 1) Made his debut for you? 2) became a regular 3) Made his England debut 4) Did he ever play in any other position, or was he always a centre half?
Terry made his debut in 1978-79 and came in for Beattie who by that time was struggling with injuries. Russell Osman came in around the same time for Allan Hunter. The 2 of them formed a fanstastic central defensive partnership. They both got a good amount of goals as well. The memorable Butcher goal was the header away against Hamburg in the UEFA Cup Semi Final, 64 Minutes! Im not sure when he made his England debut I think it was 1982-83.
out of interest, do any ipswich fans give a hoot about england these days? does anyone for that matter?! i think everything regarding the england set up, the players, the wags, lack of coverage, lack of discipline, lack of passion and everything else has left me feeling a total lack of interest in how they do. i didn't even watch most of the matches during qualification. i want to get my passion back for england but i'm struggling to find any reason to watch them at the moment. sad times...
Couldnt care less about them tbh. Gave up on them mid 90's when the likes of Shearer were guaranteed a place in the squad, even when he had been out injured for the past 6 months and had only made 1 club appearance. Since then we have had foreign managers, scumbag fans, sleazy story after sleasy story. Inadequate performance after incompetent performance and the likes of the *un newspaper building us up just so they can knock us down again. Luckily I havent watched an England match since Euro 96 so at least I have banked several hours which a lot of others have thrown away on the useless tossers and dont even get me started on the worldwide superstar status that Beckham and Rooney have been tagged with. Bloody ITV commentators should be shot at birth. Rant over
