A couple of stories.... When the manager of Newcastle, he was on the training ground with the squad, when a car pulled up. A mate pulled up alongside "Jack, there's Trout in the Trent" Without saying a word to the players, he jumped in the car and gone. I can't remember who he was playing for, but it was against some foreign team, when some mucky bastard spat in his face. Jack chinned him, laying him out cold. The referee ran towards him, reaching for a card. Jack pointed to the mess on his face and the ref just held his hands up and walked away. Play on. RIP Jack Charlton
One of the greats from perhaps the greatest of all footballing families. RIP little Wor Jackie. A World Cup hero in two different countries. Not many can say that.
Recall him nearly tearing a fifa official a new one during the 94 world cup. When he refused to let John Aldridge on the pitch. Bloke was lucky to walk away with his teeth still in his head.
I heard the story of his mate turning up at the training ground at Newcastle .. I believe it was actually the salmon are in .. which prompted the legend to bugger off ASAP in search of them. Brilliant man .. said it as it was, and was a great character .. he WILL be sadly missed
Met him once at one of those sportsman dinner things, him and Nobby Stiles were the after dinner speakers. I told him I used to watch his Go Fishing programme on Channel 4 in the 80's and I had to wing a conversation about fishing for 10 minutes. He said it was nice to talk about fishing rather than football and stuck me a pint on his tab. Worra fella.
1966 World Cup quarter final against Argentina after match interview. “ Jackie we heard the Argentinians where that angry they where trying to get in the England dressing room. What did you say” Big Jack replied “ let em in” Rip
A hero to both the English and the Irish in equal measure, maybe honestly moreso the latter. RIP Jack. From the mouth of the definitely-Irish Tony Cascarino: "We went to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and it was quite funny because Jack Charlton was there and when Jack first saw the Pope he said to us: ‘Hey, I’m more famous than him.’ “But what not a lot of people know is, Pope John Paul II was a semi-professional goalkeeper, so he ended up having a chat with Packie Bonner about goalkeeping... we’re in the Sistine Chapel and we’re talking and all laughing watching Packie and the Pope talk about goalkeeping, and you could tell they were because of what they were doing with their hands. “Anyway, we played Italy in the quarter-finals of the World Cup we lost 1-0, and Packie Bonner has made the mistake for the goal.” “In the dressing room after the game Jack Charlton thanked us all, and his final words were: ‘We’ve had a great World Cup, we’ve had a great time, go and have great holidays…’ “… ‘Oh and by the way Packie, the Pope would have saved that!’”
RIP Jack, a great player and character. I was in Latvia in 1994 and R of I had played Latvia and won 3-0. I was in the queue to board the plane to Manchester and was behind him. I said some stupid to him like, strange seeing you here Jack, and he replied why they play football here don't they. End of conversation.
He managed Borer in 73/74. One of the best teams at that level I'd seen in the old football . Made up of journeymen but also with Souness, Bobby Murdoch etc they won the league at a canter. We still had Terry Neill who was unable to effect any type of meaningful improvement at City, but who knows if we'd have got JC in instead? A very good club manager and then international manager where he organised an ordinary bunch into a very difficult side to play against. Get the impression he never read a coaching manual in his life (like Clough). Just someone who was a shrewd man manager and observer of what worked and what didn't work.
In a similar vein Big Jack apparently once said : 'I wasn't very good at playing football. But I was very good at stopping other people playing football.' Know thyself as the Greeks were fond of saying.
Big Jack was always my favourite. Not the greatest player but absolute gem of a sportsman. When they say Application is always more is important than ability then you have Jack Charlton. A true great with a tremendous heart and soul. RIP Jack, one of a kind.
Someone needs to print sentence 3 on a banner and put it in the changing rooms for the next 3 games...
**** ****ity ****. I was fortunate to meet Jack a couple of times including spending a whole long weekend with him and his lovely wife Pat. Lovely bloke, lovely lady, great stories, RIP big man.
