Players from days of yore

[Sutekh]

OK so thought I'd start a thread where you could post about players from (probably) your childhood/younger years who you saw either live or on MotD or The Big Match (or whatever highlights programme you got where you were living) and reminisce or just update on what became of them or whatever floats your boat.

I'll start with Mervyn Day, probably most famous for being West Ham's young keeper from the mid to late 70s although he made more appearances for Leeds than West Ham and was amongst the Leeds squad when they won the title in 1992.



Seems to have followed up his playing career with a successful management run, took Carlisle to promotion to division 3 (or 2 as it was then) in 1997 and won the FL Trophy with them before falling out with the chairman. He then partnered Alan Curbishley at Charlton until Curbs left and then went with him to the Hammers. Last involvement in the game I can find was as a scout at WBA which he left in 2015, surprisingly he's still only(!) 66.

[Sanguine]

Became inadvertently interested in Bobby Mimms through my first sticker collection, which was Panini's 1989 effort. Mimms, then the Spurs keeper, seemed to be one of the most frequent stickers, and his swap value was near zero - to the extent that one kid in my year spent a few months being known as 'Mimmsy' because it transpired one morning that he didn't yet have the sticker in his collection.



So, I knew him as a Spurs keeper, but he never really established himself there. The most successful part of his career was his spell at Blackburn, where he was part of the 1992 promotion-winning side from then Division One into the Premier League. Mimms didn't survive Jack Walker's spending spree, however. Tim Flowers arrived at the club and sadly for Mimms his mere four appearances in the 1994-95 season weren't enough to get a Premier League winners' medal after Blackburn took the title.

Since ending his career in the lower leagues in 2001 (Mansfield), Mimms has worked all over as a goalkeeping coach, most notably at Wolves for eight years, and then returning to Blackburn. Currently a coach at East Bengal of the Indian Super League, who are managed by Robbie Fowler.

G'arn Mimmsy!

[Simmops]

Hamilton Ricard

[paultheroyal]

This man was my childhood hero. One of my first live football memories was "that goal" in european final with the fall onto the shotput area or similar.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Became inadvertently interested in Bobby Mimms through my first sticker collection, which was Panini's 1989 effort. Mimms, then the Spurs keeper, seemed to be one of the most frequent stickers, and his swap value was near zero - to the extent that one kid in my year spent a few months being known as 'Mimmsy' because it transpired one morning that he didn't yet have the sticker in his collection.



So, I knew him as a Spurs keeper, but he never really established himself there. The most successful part of his career was his spell at Blackburn, where he was part of the 1992 promotion-winning side from then Division One into the Premier League. Mimms didn't survive Jack Walker's spending spree, however. Tim Flowers arrived at the club and sadly for Mimms his mere four appearances in the 1994-95 season weren't enough to get a Premier League winners' medal after Blackburn took the title.

Since ending his career in the lower leagues in 2001 (Mansfield), Mimms has worked all over as a goalkeeping coach, most notably at Wolves for eight years, and then returning to Blackburn. Currently a coach at East Bengal of the Indian Super League, who are managed by Robbie Fowler.

G'arn Mimmsy!

Didn't know he played for Spurs, only ever knew him as Blackburn keeper. Apparently he used to have nightmares that Blackburn signed Tim Flowers.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot? Match got me hooked on the 1992 Sunderland team. Luckily only for that season...



John Byrne. Scored in every round of the 1992 FA Cup, apart from the final, when they lost against Liverpool.

I also became a bit obsessed with the early 90s Norwich team. Jeremy Goss, Mark Robins, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and... Mark Bowen.

[Simmops]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot? Match got me hooked on the 1992 Sunderland team. Luckily only for that season...



John Byrne. Scored in every round of the 1992 FA Cup, apart from the final, when they lost against Liverpool.

I also became a bit obsessed with the early 90s Norwich team. Jeremy Goss, Mark Robins, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and... Mark Bowen.

I used to get Match. That Norwich team has Bryan Gunn in goal and almost beat Bayern Munich iirc

I loved the old Middlesbrough team with Juninho, Ravanelli, Beck, Ricard, Festa etc etc

[From Despair To Where?]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot? Match got me hooked on the 1992 Sunderland team. Luckily only for that season...



John Byrne. Scored in every round of the 1992 FA Cup, apart from the final, when they lost against Liverpool.

I also became a bit obsessed with the early 90s Norwich team. Jeremy Goss, Mark Robins, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and... Mark Bowen.

I used to get Match. That Norwich team has Bryan Gunn in goal and almost beat Bayern Munich iirc

I loved the old Middlesbrough team with Juninho, Ravanelli, Beck, Ricard, Festa etc etc

Err, they did beat Bayern Minich, 2-1 in Munich and 3-2 on aggregate. Mark Bowen scored in Munich and Jeremy Goss thumped in a winner from 20yds.

[Simmops]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot? Match got me hooked on the 1992 Sunderland team. Luckily only for that season...



John Byrne. Scored in every round of the 1992 FA Cup, apart from the final, when they lost against Liverpool.

I also became a bit obsessed with the early 90s Norwich team. Jeremy Goss, Mark Robins, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox and... Mark Bowen.

I used to get Match. That Norwich team has Bryan Gunn in goal and almost beat Bayern Munich iirc

I loved the old Middlesbrough team with Juninho, Ravanelli, Beck, Ricard, Festa etc etc

Err, they did beat Bayern Minich, 2-1 in Munich and 3-2 on aggregate. Mark Bowen scored in Munich and Jeremy Goss thumped in a winner from 20yds.

Sorry I'm not ancient so can't remember everything

[6ft Kerplunk]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot?

Shoot magazine for me. There was a small article after the '82 World Cup about Eder and he gave about 5 tips on how he kicked the ball with different parts of his feet depending on what combination of power, dip and swerve he wanted. Cue me cutting that out and heading to the back garden to recreate this type of thing, it didn't work and just felt like I'd broken a couple of toes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx9KMhX4lzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFL1UEJ47M (such a shame this didn't go in but LOL at the keeper making a brilliant save only to realise his teammates had so little faith in him saving it they didn't bother running ready to clear any rebounds.)

[Pepe the Horseman]

Anyone else used to get Match or Shoot?

Shoot magazine for me. There was a small article after the '82 World Cup about Eder and he gave about 5 tips on how he kicked the ball with different parts of his feet depending on what combination of power, dip and swerve he wanted. Cue me cutting that out and heading to the back garden to recreate this type of thing, it didn't work and just felt like I'd broken a couple of toes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx9KMhX4lzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFL1UEJ47M (such a shame this didn't go in but LOL at the keeper making a brilliant save only to realise his teammates had so little faith in him saving it they didn't bother running ready to clear any rebounds.)

Ha, shocking!

[Sanguine]

Used to be a big fan of Tony Daley. That sort of winger has disappeared now - early John Barnes, Chris Waddle, Reading's Tony Rougier. I guess Traore the nearest incarnation we have now. Daley would get the ball and run at players. Every time. Lightning quick, lots of tricks, and he'd get to the by line. Only played 7 times for England, which always seemed a travesty to me.

Had a Google to see what he was now up to - he's a health and fitness coach and still an absolute unit, even at 53 years old.

[From Despair To Where?]

Remember him tearing us a new arsehole the week before we won the Simod Cup.

[leon]

Going international old skool. Two favourites from my childhood.

The great Oleg Blokhin, striker in that great Dynamo Kiev team and scorer of long range screamers for the Soviets.



And arch Gallic midfield loafer turned dodgy dealer Michel Platini. Unlike comrade Oleg, he was a good looking bastard as well.

[Simmops]

Jeez. Old school for me is Zidane or Owen.

[6ft Kerplunk]

Going international old skool. Two favourites from my childhood.

The great Oleg Blokhin, striker in that great Dynamo Kiev team and scorer of long range screamers for the Soviets.

Speaking of which Vasili Rats name has always stuck in my head after his screamer against your m8 Platini's France in the '86 World Cup.

[leon]

Going international old skool. Two favourites from my childhood.

The great Oleg Blokhin, striker in that great Dynamo Kiev team and scorer of long range screamers for the Soviets.

Speaking of which Vasili Rats name has always stuck in my head after his screamer against your m8 Platini's France in the '86 World Cup.

Yep I remember that goal. They were a decent side.

[South Coast Royal]

Stanley Matthews was the Ronaldo of his day and I once saw him playing as a winger for Stoke at the top level when he was about 48 years old.
Some years later I went to a sponsored lunch at the Polygon Hotel in Southampton where he was due to be the guest speaker.
A major disappointment was that he was ill on the day and couldn't make it so instead of listening to one of the all-time greats the substitute speakers were Wilf McGuinnes and Nobby Stiles and all they went on about was fcuking Man Utd!!!

I do count myself lucky at having seen Ronaldo, Messi and Matthews all play although on the day (only saw each of them live once) neither Matthews nor Messi had the best of games.
3 very different players who all at some time (Matthews all the time) played as wingers.
Ronaldo taller than expected, Messi even smaller than expected and playing alongside Xavi and Iniesta showed that size is far from being everything!!

BTW Dalglish was very, very good and ,replacing a Liverpool icon in Keegan couldn't have been easy, he is definitely one of the best players I have ever seen and never saw him have a bad game.

Just a comment on leon's choice Platini, what a shame that many will remember him for his post-playing days when as a player he was right up there with Cruyff, Maradona ,Eusebio ,Pele, and co.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Bit of a more recent one, but I loved Matt Jansen at Blackburn. At age 24 he was due to go the 2002 World Cup after scoring 16 goals for Blackburn. He ended up missing the warm up friendlies due to illness, then Sven shunned him at the last minute, and took Martin Keown. So instead of being in Japan and South Korea, he went on holiday to Rome, where he hired a scooter. He got knocked off his scooter by a taxi, fractured his skull, and came back a shadow of his former self, before slowly dropping down the leagues.

[Sanguine]

This is a great thread.



Ronny Rosenthal. Most players become cult heroes for a brilliant season or two, or long-term service to a club. Rosenthal did it in eight games. Liverpool were a little light up front in the run-in in 1990, and Dalglish signed Rosenthal on loan from Standard Liege. Rosenthal hit the ground running, scoring seven times in eight games, including a hat-trick against Charlton, as Liverpool secured what would be their last title for 30 years.

That was peak Rosenthal, though. The following season he scored just five goals, and was restricted to a place on the bench once David Speedie arrived. His remaining time at Liverpool came to be characterised by his infamous miss at Villa, where he rounded the goalkeeper only to unfathomably chip the ball on to the cross bar.

Rosenthal was the first £1m non-English transfer in England. His son Tom, born in England, where Rosenthal still lives, was on Watford's books, but now plays in the Belgian First Division (the second tier).