Frank Large. Have Boots Will Travel.

[Funky Fulham Dave]

In reference to Fans Favourite Random Fulham player and Ray Smith's choice of the late Frank Large reminds me of the Frank Large biography HAVE BOOTS WILL TRAVEL. It was published last year and was written by his son Paul Large.

Chapter eleven of the book covered Frank Large's time at Fulham and is a thoroughly disappointing effort on the author's part. It is in effect a reworking of history. In short the author blames his father's failure at Fulham on of all things Johnny Haynes!

Apparently it had nothing to do with Frank Large's meagre return of three goals in 28 League and Cup appearances while with Fulham. No, the fault lay fairly and squarely at the feet of Johnny Haynes. Apparently Frank Large's game fell to pieces because Johnny Haynes and his cronies marginalised Frank. Oh and Frank was scared of Haynes. In fact chapter eleven is little more than an anti-Fulham rant with a bit of a North/South bias thrown in just for good measure.

I watched Frank play 19 of the 28-games he played for Fulham including his first - home to Bristol City – and was at Gigg Lane in August 1969 for his last against Bury. Rarely did the Fulham crowd get onto Frank. Of course there were moans when chances that he had confidently taken elsewhere never found the net. Whilst he was never up to the same standard as the player he replaced – Allan Clarke – Fulham fans appreciated his never-say-die spirit. But why Frank Large never scored the goals at Fulham as he had elsewhere is just I guess one of those things. After all he had the ammunition by way of a couple of speedy wingers Jimmy Conway and Les Barrett on either side who presented not only Frank but the other forwards with loads of chances. And not forgetting the number-10 a certain Johnny Haynes as well.

[bill taylors apprentice]

It was a long time ago but I remember his performances clearly and he was out of his depth in the old Div1.

He seemed to put in plenty of effort but was regularly off the pace and when he did get on the end of a chance his finishing was woeful.

[gang]

He was just bl**di** useless that's why he failed.

[St Eve]

How a cf can't score with the crosses provided by Barrett and Conway is a mystery

[RaySmith]

Interesting post Dave - it's true that there wasn't much, if any, hostility from the Fulham crowd at the time, just frustration at missed chances, when I think there had been quite high hopes for him, though there wasn't much animosity towards any Fulham player in those days as far as I'm aware.

I did have a soft spot for Frank at the time, and admired the effort he put in, often to little effect, though he obviously suffered in comparison to the great Allan Clarke -which put him on a hiding for nothing, and things didn't really work out for him at Fulham.

I thought he was a good choice for a random favourite - because he is an unlikely favourite.

[colinwhite]

I think we actually got 50,000 plus Frank Large for Clarkie.  Catastrophically poor piece of business on our behalf as was selling Supermac for 17000 to luton .
I never moaned at Frank Large , but it wasn't because of his work ethic it was because he was so pathetically poor that I felt sorry for him .
Undoubtedly the poorest forward that I have ever seen in a fulham shirt . Embarrassingly inept.As my dad used to say " he couldny burst a paper bag ! "

[ron]

[quote authgyor=colinwhite link=topic=49001.msg694180#msg694180 date=1439224331]
I think we actually got 50,000 plus Frank Large for Clarkie.  Catastrophically poor piece of business on our behalf as was selling Supermac for 17000 to luton .
I never moaned at Frank Large , but it wasn't because of his work ethic it was because he was so pathetically poor that I felt sorry for him .
Undoubtedly the poorest forward that I have ever seen in a fulham shirt . Embarrassingly inept.As my dad used to say " he couldny burst a paper bag ! "
[/quote]

Fifty grand was in fact Large's valuation. The balance in cash was 100k.  Still a piddling amount at the time for  sniffer's towering quality and talent.

[Twig]

He might be random, he was not a favourite of mine.  Not only did he fail to score goals, he was wasteful and demonstrated little or no talent. Effort is admirable but unless there is a modicum of ability it is just frustrating.

[gang]

He played 1 good game in his life, it was for Leicester City against Fulham. Fred Callaghan was the Fulham captain at the time and he told me he couldn't believe it when he was told of the deal.

[jarv]

I recall Clarke was valued at 150,000 and yes, Frank was valued at 50,000 in the deal. Whatever the figure was, it was bad business as stated. Not quite as bad as some of our 12 million pound men though.

[In the Enclosure]

One of the goals Frank scored at the Cottage was at the Hammersmith End.

Jimmy Hill reviewed the goal on TV and commented what a fine dragback Large had done in the penalty area to create space.
In fact it looked to most of the crowd that Frank had trod on the ball as he stumbled but it spun back to him to open up a shooting chance. (a deserved slice of luck for him)

Perhaps Jim was trying to big up the guys confidence or encourage another buyer.
Either way a dreadful season and relegated again.

Did we get a fee for him when he moved on ?
Obviously he did suffer in comparison with Clarke - Don't think the guy himself said a bad word about us ?

[Funky Fulham Dave]

Poor old Frank scored just a measly three goals in his time at Fulham.

It took him 12-League games to get on the score sheet with a double away to Birmingham City in a 4-5 defeat.

The other came on the last day of the 1968-69 season at Crystal Palace. A goal apiece from Frank and Brian Dear gave Fulham a 2-0 halftime lead over promotion hopefuls Crystal Palace. But it wasn't enough as three second-half Palace goals rubber stamped Palace promotion while Fulham dropped a division for a second consecutive season.

[colinwhite]

What a game that was . I can still remember the place fans celebrating after the game .Brian dear must have been about 15kilos overweight. It would have taken some preseason to get his body fat levels down !!!

[gerrys]

What a game that was . I can still remember the place fans celebrating after the game .Brian dear must have been about 15kilos overweight. It would have taken some preseason to get his body fat levels down !!!

When wasn't he overweight? ????

[Motown]

Loved him to bits. I can remember him skying the ball over the Putney End from about 10 yards out. Bless, it wasn't his fault he was the deadweight in the deal for Sniffer; turning circle of the Graf Spee, no first, second or even third touch and the movement of a humvee with a broken axle. But his appetite for the game and non stop effort can never be taken away from him. Great random choice. 049:gif