The Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer Eddie Baily, who has died aged 85, went through a series of metamorphoses in his long career. As a player, he was, at first, the quintessential cheeky Cockney, a dazzling technician, a razor-sharp passer of the ball, excitingly quick in thought and movement, one of the best inside-forwards of his era. The way he played was reflected in the way he behaved off the field: self-confident, ebullient, sometimes to the point of arrogance;
I'm not sure if John Norman Haynes had a role model, but if he had I'll wager that Eddie Baily was as near to one as made no odds. There were a lot of similarities in the way that they went about playing football.
RIP Eddie.
