As a teenage apprentice based in SW3, I watched this guy in the the flesh during the early seventies at the Bridge playing alongside my favourite player of all time, Peter Osgood. They both fell out with Sexton and that was that. What a pair they made. They ran rings around the likes of Bremner, Giles & Co, and made them look like pub players. Ossie has long gone with a sudden heart attack quite a few years back, now it's down to this for Huds - so sad. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/alan-hudson-hits-rock-bottom-1981623
As you say, very sad - I saw him play as well. Your thread could have been called 'Sign of the times', because that describes some of the heartless remarks in the comments section below the article which just about epitomize how our society has become since those days.
Unfortunate it isn't ,I hate to say it but there is only one person to blame in all of this and that is AH So he didn't get a testimonial , so what , if he'd had a testimonial Ladbrokes would be that much richer, these guys have had their chance , they have had the wages us mere mortals can only dream of, they have been to places we only see on the telly ,and I haven't mentioned the girls they 'walked' around with, WAGs in those day start with nothing and leave you with nothing. Sorry .....but, we survive on much much less and we never have our 15mins of fame either
I would like to sign a 3 yr contract even on his wages of the day , no one else to blame but him im afraid
Not really concerned about the written article, just a player who gave me so much enjoyment football enjoyment 40 years ago now looking like death warmed up. It comes to us all in the end, but somehow it comes as a shock when you see someone you remember and admired in your youth reduced to that. Opinions about him such as "pissing his money away" etc might have some vailidity, but the money the players earned then bears no comparison to the obscene rewards demanded by the current crop, many of them with a tenth of his abilty. The tone of the article does seem to suggest that he's pleading for sympathy - that wasn't the reason I posted it. More often than not you reap what you sow, but that doesn't lessen the impact of his fall from grace at a personal level whether you sympathise with him or not.
Sparks, Husdon was a quality player and if I recall correctly their was a little group of Chelsea players at the time who were regarded as "the Kings road Kings" or something like that which included Osgood and Hudson. They were always seen out and about in Chelsea living the high life. Not knocking it because they were young and having a good time. Wouldn't be tolerated in todays game.
Taff - today's game has changed out of all proportion that it's beyond compare because of the circumstances. It had changed way back in the Osgood/Hudson/Hutchinson/Cooke Chelsea era of the early 70's from just a few years earlier in the John White/Greaves maximum wage era, but to a much lesser extent. There was a new found freedom through the late 60's early 70's that was typified at the time by the Chelsea clan. It was frowned upon but tolerated by the football clubs and authorities at the time in the same way way that the later Stan Bowles/Rodney Marsh era was more or less accepted as just extrovert behaviour. It all changed with the vast amount of money pumped into the games from the 90's onwards and today's clubs couldn't possibly ignore such behaviour due to the vast amount of money at stake for success, and the potential financial catastrophe that failure would bring. Times change and not always for the better.
I read an article the other dayregarding the cost of holding the Olympics and the world cup. Given all the rioting in Brazil because the bus fares were increased at the same time as millions being spent on the 2014 world cup. It appears that football is in danger of pricing itself out of the market in Brazil and other emerging nations.
seems they havent learned anything from 2010 south africa WC, the same happened there, such a shame. i cant wait to see the olympics next year in a football crazy nation like brazil i think it'll be the best in years.....
Can't say I have much sympathy for him, given the comments from people who grew up next door to him, and folk who drank with him will testify to his poor personality, doesn't seem to be much of a human being if these comments are true, and they do seem very genuine, but after that article I'm sure the Mirror would have paid him handsomely, and no doubt Stoke or Chelsea will do something too, though he does seem to have reaped what he has sown, and in his own false statement regarding his wife leaving him, supposedly because she didn't want to push his wheelchair, but it's refuted with someone who new them both: Some people just can't own up to the facts of their own actions, and Hudson to some extent is one of those, by the way he paints a rather one sided hard luck story which isn't true in reality, as he's simply another 'George best' wasted talent, that's how I see it anyway....................
Talented player in his time. Has he got a pocket full of change or is he still exited when seeing a lady walk by?
Something still works then..... As far as the comments regarding him being the master of his own downfall, it's hard to argue with that. In pure footballing terms, that doesn't take away the contrast between the "then" memories and the "now" reality for me. His footballing exploits with Ossie and Co is something I will never forget watching as an impressionable teenager with some local mates I made up there, standing in The Shed, and being absolutely deafened by the noise it generated.
It's always sad to see a player fall on hard times whatever the circumstances taking into account the pleasure they have given their fans over the years, e.g. Hudson, Gazza, Kevin Beattie etc. Whether they are the architects of their demise or not doesn't take away the memories of what they did on the park. It is a pity and very sad but the same can apply to anyone from any walk of life, it is just that players like those mentioned were very much in the spotlight when at the top so it inevitably comes back to haunt them with emphasis when they fall from grace.
Reality check... ...his mates haven't been blown to pieces have they? he hasn't been shot has he? he hasn't seen his mates brains blown out the back of his head has he? He hasn't experienced true fear has he? No he fekkin hasn't. Lets get real, he's simply an ex sportsman, an average ex-bootballer [that's what he really was] who had the great honor and privilege to play for a fantastic team in a fantastic era for football [remember the Chelsea Vs Leeds opera]. But to play for this great team wasn't enough for him. He wanted and demanded hero worship and couldn't cope when he didn't get it. He's had 40 years to do some good but he decided not to. Before his 'illness' HE decided to pish and gamble his life away, HE decided to hit the bottle and everyone around him. This failure of a man is reaping what he's sown. Simples
sparkey tiz sad 2see the oldies, the true footballers end up with nothing apart from what they are standing in.......shame the players union has let em down again. stumpy
stumpy u should have joined a bowls club instead of the army...... sparkey yep sad ending for a quality player........the buggers 2day don't know what the fk 2 do with theyre stash of booty...spoilt brats some of em....well most of em.
Aber - different time, different world mate. OK, Hudson and his contempories got a couple of hundred aweek at best in those days. Sure, it was bloody good money when the average wage was probably on no more than about 30 quid a week. The problem is today there are average players in the Prem picking up about 50 grand a week now, and they don't possess a fraction of the skill displayed by those guys in the 70's. That's the way it is I suppose, but the current going rate for anyone half decent is obscene by any standard.
"Huddy’s career can be likened to that of George Best. Both players blessed with an incredible talent and yet both guilty of wasting what should have been the greatest time of their career. George Best was effectively finished in English football at 26, and Alan Hudson was packing his bags at Arsenal and heading off to America at 27. Both players seem to have self-destructive tendencies which cannot have helped them during their playing days. With Best it was a basic lack of discipline and an obsessive love of the fast life. Though Huddy is well renowned for his social activities it is more likely his mouth which has got him into the most trouble." - the oatcake – stoke city fc fanzine King of the road Link : http://theoatcake.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/king-of-the-road/ Read the full article on the link, very good read indeed!............. PS: By the way the more you know about Hudson, the more you'll come to the conclusion, that he was the architect of his own downfall, he alienated many who could have helped his career, and while he had many businesses, they all failed including his nightclub, in Newcastle. What the Mirror doesn't tell you though, is that after his playing career was over, he made a success of publishing some books! His autobiography 'The Working Man's Ballet' was a critical success and led to work as a columnist on the Stoke Evening Sentinel and The Sporting Life. A further book 'The Tinker and the Talisman' was self-published in 2003. In 2004 Hudson appeared as himself in a cameo appearance in the British film The Football Factory. In June 2006, Hudson joined Radio Napa in Cyprus, where he commentated on the FIFA World Cup in Germany. In 2008 Alan Hudson released his 3rd book titled “The Waddington Years” which described his great friendship with former Stoke City manager Tony Waddington. The book 'From the playing fields to the killing fields' is another book by Hudson still selling well, so the question has to be asked, where are his royalties from these books? did he lose them when he became bankrupt? like I've said the more you get to know this guy, the more you realise he was in the mold of 'George Best'...........
