Old Sod's Army

[HatterDon]

The flip side of the question is how many of the players I enjoyed watching in the late 60s/early 70s could stand the pace of the matches and the training regimen on "off days." Players like Best and Marsh would be throwing up on the sidelines after 30 minutes.

I used to hit a pub in a village about 8 miles from Kenilworth Road, and usually ran into at least two and usually a half-dozen Luton Town FC players two hours after the final whistle on a Saturday. I don't think a lot of players in the English system do that so much these days.

[bog]

I do concur about Billy Bremner. A 6 foot player in a smaller frame. So much fight for the cause. A lot of what he did on a pitch was what Revie told him to do. Johnny Giles said later in life that some of the things he did on pitch now made himself feel sick. But this was because of Revie's demands.  Dave Mackay said that that photo of him lifting Bremner up he hated. 
I remember John Chennell. About 4 foot wide.
As one answer has said a lot of the namby pamby pampered players now would not have lasted ten minutes back then. 

Michael Brown is name who, as far as I am concerned, never played for Fulham. 

Thank you and good night.

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[Snibbo]

Kevin Muscat continued his thuggish behavior in the A-league, and now manages the nasty Melbourne Victory.  Committed about the worst foul I've ever seen, and voted dirtiest player ever

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/kevin-muscat-named-footballs-dirtiest-player

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Was that the same Kevin Muscat that played for Wolves ?

Yep. Palace, Wolves,  Rangers,  Millwall

[cmg]

The days of hard drinking and homicidal tackling players is in the past now, and I suppose the game is better for it.... I'm just glad I was around at the time.

The Chelsea side of the 70s was, aside from being successful and entertaining, a notably booze-happy crew. Fans might find a number of their heroes in any one of a number of pubs from Fulham Road to the top of Crystal Palace Hill - sometimes on a Friday before a match!

I'd say Tommy Smith was the hardest player I saw, but Johnny Giles, mentioned by Bog, was, apart from being a sublimely creative talent was as evil a player as they come. With the aforementioned Hunter and Bremner as well as Jack Chalton, Leeds were not an outfit to be messed with.

The most cynical and ruthless destruction of a player I recall was the time the frightening (and ironically named) Claudio Gentile kicked Maradonna all over the Sarria in Barcelona in 82. Amazingly Gentile didn't get booked until the second half. His first tackle would probably have got a red today.
(Actually this World Cup saw an even more evil assault - that of Shumacher on Battiston - but that was a one off.)

[bog]

I seem to recall a player in Italy who really injured Maradona and was so proud of this had his boot that inflicted the injury stuffed and mounted. That one by Schumacher was the worst I have ever seen. Stood looking so arrogant whilst Batiston was being treated.  :031:


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[bog]

Just watched the footage of scummy Muscat down in OZ. How could they make that animal captain?  fp.gif :031: :dft007:



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[cmg]

I seem to recall a player in Italy who really injured Maradona and was so proud of this had his boot that inflicted the injury stuffed and mounted. That one by Schumacher was the worst I have ever seen. Stood looking so arrogant whilst Batiston was being treated.  :031:


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Yes. This was not an Italian but a Spaniard (or, more accurately Basque). Andoni Goikoetxea. Barca v Athletic Bilbao. This is the tackle. Ref thought it merited a severe talking to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8_JYHtvTS8

[bog]

cmg I remember his name now. What an evil 'player'. Just watched the Michael Brown challenge. Just about the worst tackle I can recall by a Fulham player. Oh wait a minute he never played for us.   

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[toshes mate]

Perhaps this thread should be amended to include players who lasted ninety minutes and shouldn't have.  Did anyone see the awful, reckless tackles by Gareth Bale and Neil Taylor in the match between Ireland and Wales last night?  Neil Taylor rightly got sent off for breaking Seamus Coleman's leg but Bale was only yellow carded for an equally callous lunge seconds before.   Refereeing incompetency and inconsistency in action in the space of several seconds showing why it is so damaging to the game.

[bog]

Tosh, sadly, you will always have this. I recall a Wigan player a few years back, Callum Macmanman?, who did one of the most horrendous tackles ever seen and was not even booked. There are so many of these. Tragic for Seamas Coleman, I really like and rate him.

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[toshes mate]

Tosh, sadly, you will always have this. I recall a Wigan player a few years back, Callum Macmanman?, who did one of the most horrendous tackles ever seen and was not even booked. There are so many of these. Tragic for Seamas Coleman, I really like and rate him.

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Agree.  It is so hard on the player whose career can be ended by such stupidity.  Why do players do it?

[bog]

Tosh, I think at times they lose all rational thinking. The time when most of the horrendous ones happen, I think, is when a player's first touch is poor and the ball runs away from them. Thinking they look daft to make up for this, in annoyance, they lunge for the ball losing all self control. Then, when they claim, 'what me ref?' as the other player lies writhing about in the mud this makes them look even worse. That's what I think.

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[toshes mate]

bog, Gareth Bale certainly lost all rational thinking last night arguing 'his tackle' was an attempt to poke the ball into the back of the net when his foot was two feet off the ground, aimed at the defender's upper shin and was as gut wrenching as anything you'll ever see.  And it was apparent to me, Bale being Captain and all, it was then seen as a license for anything goes to his younger and lesser team mates.  Taylor's tackle was just senseless.

[bog]

I didn't see the game, I wonder if Bale got off because of who he is?

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[SG]

When younger in the 60s my mate, an Arsenal supporter, and I used to watch Arsenal at home one week and Fulham the next. We used to call Bobby Keetch - killer Keetch. We both remember the time he did what seemed a 20 yd sliding tackle on a very muddy pitch and deposited Joe Baker the Arsenal centre forward into the enclosure railings. Probably a straight red nowadays.

[bog]

I think it is safe to say that Bobby Keetch's approach to the finer arts of defending left little to be desired. But he loved Fulham and was very upset to be sold to QPha ha.

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[Woolly Mammoth]

I think it is safe to say that Bobby Keetch's approach to the finer arts of defending left little to be desired. But he loved Fulham and was very upset to be sold to QPha ha.

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Killer Keetch's philosophy, and it was stated in one of the evening journals back in the sixties. He was quoted as saying, " The days of the footballing centre half are over, modern soccer demands a stopper, a man who destroys attacks and clears quickly. "
Bobby Keetch could and did destroy attacks by just glaring at an opponent.

[Twig]

Well, I'm of the old sods era but I don't look back with anything like the same rose tinted specs that you guys seem to.  I have seen too many ex players of that era with long term injuries that left them with severely limited mobility in later life. Nothing clever about that and if those who didn't relish thuggish tackles are "pansies" sic then I'm with them all the way.
Add in that thuggery on the pitch stoked the same on the terraces and I can well remember why I became disillusioned with football for a decade or more.

[Arthur]

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Well, I'm of the old sods era but I don't look back with anything like the same rose tinted specs that you guys seem to.  I have seen too many ex players of that era with long term injuries that left them with severely limited mobility in later life. Nothing clever about that and if those who didn't relish thuggish tackles are "pansies" sic then I'm with them all the way.
Add in that thuggery on the pitch stoked the same on the terraces and I can well remember why I became disillusioned with football for a decade or more.

Agreed, Twig. In my opinion, the sentimental view that football was a better game in the 60s and 70s when skilful football was so often inhibited by players such as Smith, Storey and Harris, who were permitted to intentionally and dangerously kick opponents, is not the case.

Jimmy Conway and Les Barrett - our own flying wingers of this era - were often the victims of cynical, malicious fouls by opposition full-backs which went unpunished. Back then, thuggish players could commit up to half-a-dozen fouls that would earn a yellow card now before being booked. Indeed, Jimmy Conway had been playing superbly for a year-or-more when he suffered a knee injury in October 1970 - the result not merely of a single, crude challenge but of having been kicked on that knee time-and-again over a series of matches. Although Jimmy returned to action later that season, he was never quite the same player thereafter.

[bog]

Twig, I never look back wearing tinted glasses. Some of the heavy booted players back then only played because they were allowed to and get away with horrendous tackles. The 1970 FA Cup final with Eddie Gray being kicked senseless was a disgrace. George Best used to get battered every game but as soon as he retaliated he would be booked. Nonsense. Whatever we say about the authorities they tried to clean up the game by outlawing tackles from behind. Some of these were career threatening. Mind you a lot were under instructions by their managers. I have no time for those old crunchers who had nothing else to their game but I have had a lifelong love of football but through those times there have been parts that I do not like but have had to put up with it. The modern ones being a lack of loyalty with some players but most of all the cheating and diving.   

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Thank you and good night