Watching the marvellous tributes to the Great Man over the weekend should have given every football fan food for thought. Not only were his career statistics amazing, his 'life statistics' said a lot about the man, too. 569 appearances for his home town club, Preston North End 433 league appearances and 187 goals. Married to his childhood sweetheart for nearly 60 years Served in Monty's 8th Army, and saw active service in North Africa In short, Sir Tom was a proper person, and the type of man we used to look up to in this country The comparisons to the society we live in today, and the type of characters who now play the Beautiful Game, are not just inviduous, they are positively embarrassing. Nobody who has watched the tributes to Sir Tom over the weekend can tell me that both society and football are better off now than they were when Sir Tom was a player.
P.S: No jokes along the 'Captain Mainwaring' lines please...but some pernicious evils have afflicted our country & society over the last 20-30 years.
Also a huge difference in the character of supporters in Tom Finney's day. The constant factor is the large amounts of money that disappear into black holes at most clubs, then and now. A childhood hero of mine was Frank Beattie, who led Kilmarnock to their only league triumph in 1965. Until the age of 25 he worked down the mines from 6am till 2 pm, he'd have a bite to eat at his Dad's, then train in the evening with the club he graced for over 20 years.
Agree, Vol. RIP Sir Tom. His autobiography, published a few years ago, is well worth a read. As is Stanley Matthews' autobiography 'The Way It Was'. Tom Finney and Stan Matthews in the same England side, with Nat Lofthouse up front... those were the days.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan told a great story about Sir Tom at the weekend. Whelan had just returned from a broken leg, and was due to go head to head with Finney when Blackburn played Preston. Finney was at the peak of his powers, and approached Whelan before kick off "I won't run at you today, you deserve it after the bad injury that you have had"
Along with Stanley Matthews / Bobby Moore / Sam Bartam / Nat Lofthouse / Bobby Charlton etc... another Footballing great I really wish I'd seen Following on from Vol's initial post its laughable the games being cancelled when they've been using this photo for Tom
He used to turn up at the training ground with a big brown bag, when asked what was in it he replied that it was his tools because he had a plumbing job to do after training. That was when football players were real men!
Can anyone think of a modern footballer who could fit into same category as Sir Tom Finney, not just for the footballing side but equally the non footballing side? The only possible contender I can think of in my era is Billy Bonds.
Great thread Vol...!! It's so very rare for a footballer to be so widely loved as Sir Tom is/was. In defence of some modern day footballers... take someone like David Beckham. He has done a hell of a lot for numerous charities.
