Monday Fulham Stuff (21/12/15)...

[WhiteJC]

 
USMNT Rising Stars – Emerson Hyndman

Emerson Hyndman comes from a footballing family. His grandfather Schellas Hyndman was a former manager of FC Dallas, while his father, Tony, represented the United States national team at the youth level. The young Hyndman has been making strides of his own in his career in football.

The youngster, who also holds Portuguese passport on account of his lineage, signed for English football giants Fulham's youth academy in 2011, while he was still only 15.
Hyndman, now 19, went on to make his professional debut for the Cottagers in a Championship fixture against Ipswich Town last season. He has gone on to make 14 first team appearances for the London outfit since in his customary position in central midfield.

This season, he has been a regular for the Fulham Under-21 side in the Under-21 Premier League Division 2 and has gone on to make six appearances for them as they sit ninth in the league standings and attempt for promotion.

He has been called up to the first team by manager Start Gray in the recent weeks. Hyndman made a second half substitute appearance against Nottingham Forest earlier this month, although the game ended in a 3-0 defeat for his side. He made the bench in the subsequent fixture against Brentford, and went on to play quarter of an hour against Ipswich Town in a 2-1 defeat last weekend.

The youngster has been able to hold his own in the limited opportunities he has had at Craven Cottage and will be eager to get more opportunities to impress in the upcoming festive season games.

Hyndman got his first call-up for the United States Under-17 team in 2012 and went on to play three times for them.

He got a call from senior team manager Jurgen Klinsmann for a friendly against the Czech Republic last year and subsequently went on to make his debut for the Stars and Stripes' first team when he came on as a second half substitute.

The youngster was appointed the skipper of the United States Under-20 side during their Under-20 World Cup campaign in New Zealand last summer. He was on the scoresheet for his team during their 2-1 win over Myanmar in their opening game of the tournament. The United States went on to reach the quarter-final, but their campaign was cut short after a penalty shootout defeat to the eventual champions Serbia.

However, Hyndman has earned plaudits from his manager Tab Ramos: "Emerson has all the tools to be a 10-year national team player. Not many of those come around, and I can say that without worrying how he's going to feel when he hears that because he's a very hard worker, and he's constantly working on his game."

Hyndman's father, Tony, is also impressed with what he has seen of his son.

"That composure, it sure didn't come from me.

"But Emerson is very logical, he doesn't get real emotional about anything, he doesn't go from one side to the other. He thinks things out, he's very cerebral. He takes risk at the right times if you will."
United States football fans will hope that Hyndman fulfils his undoubted potential.


http://destinationsoccer.com/usmnt-rising-stars-emerson-hyndman/?

[WhiteJC]

 
Jimmy Hill: Visionary footballer and manager whose greatest legacy was abolition of sport's maximum wage
Jimmy Hill was an enlightened, even revolutionary thinker consumed with phenomenal enthusiasm

Contrary to popular but chronically misguided belief, Jimmy Hill was one of the great achievers of English football since the war, an enlightened, even revolutionary thinker consumed with phenomenal enthusiasm. Yet frequently he was lampooned as a loquacious busybody with a ski-run chin, a wide-of-the-mark image fuelled by decades as a television pundit during which his fearless, passionate, straight-talking style could stray, some would say, into the realms of self-righteousness and pedantry.

His most lasting legacy to the game for which he lived was his mammoth part in the successful crusade to abolish the maximum wage for footballers, an iniquitous anachronism which persisted into the 1960s. Certain modern stars who mocked Hill owed much of their personal prosperity to his pioneering efforts.

He was an exceptional manager, too, leading Coventry City from the lower reaches of the Football League to its top flight before veering off the conventional path – as was his wont – to become a ground-breaking broadcaster. True, his adoration of the limelight could be as irksome as it was transparent, yet he was, for all his immense ego and multiple eccentricities, a man who knew what he was talking about, and who had the good of the game at heart.

Hill grew up in wartime south London, the sparkily intelligent son of a baker, obsessed with football but not endowed with extravagant natural ability. While thriving as an energetic amateur player, he worked as a clerk for an insurance company and with a firm of stockbrokers before his National Service.

He did well in Army football and, hearing that his progress was being monitored by Reading, he showed characteristic enterprise, knocking on manager Ted Drake's door and asking for a trial. After a handful of appearances for the Third Division club's junior sides he was told he wasn't wanted, but he had been spotted by Second Division Brentford and in 1949 began a professional playing career which owed more to effort than inspiration but which was to last 12 rewarding years.

Hill joined as an archetypal, bustling centre-forward but was converted to wing-half and enjoyed most of his outings for the Bees in that role, also earning selection for prestigious FA representative sides. However, differences with Brentford's manager Jack Gibbons prompted a move to Fulham in 1953, in exchange for Jimmy Bowie and £5,000, and the most memorable chapter of Hill's playing days was under way.

At Craven Cottage he was transformed into an industrious and determined inside-forward, forging a fruitful partnership with the sumptuously gifted Johnny Haynes. Highlights included promotion to the First Division in 1959, scoring in every round as Fulham reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1958 and a five-goal spree at Doncaster that same season.

In a side notable for its swashbuckling characters, Hill stood out as something of an anti-hero, a regular target for terrace critics. Even then, there was something about him which attracted jeers. Perhaps – it seems ludicrous now – he was singled out because as the first high-profile bearded player he was difficult to miss. He was dubbed "The Rabbi" and "Castro" and appeared to revel in his notoriety.

However, it was Hill's off-the-pitch activities which were of most significance. He became a fervent believer in the rapidly evolving practice of coaching, preaching its gospel at every opportunity and qualifying, an attainment which was to prove invaluable in later life.

It was his leadership of the Professional Footballers' Association, which he chaired from 1956-61, which had the most dramatic impact. He railed against the injustice of never earning more than £20 per week despite being part of a hugely profitable entertainment industry. He saw the maximum-wage rule as tyranny, vowing to oppose it with every means at his disposal, and in doing so successfully he laid the financial foundations of the modern game.

Hill was a born orator, persuasive, eloquent and logical, and he flexed his muscles impressively when defending Sunderland players accused of breaking feudal regulations over so-called illegal payments. Then, in the wage war which followed, he reached new heights. Marshalling his forces brilliantly and tapping into the deep well of grievance which had built up among his fellow professionals, he bombarded the authorities with irrefutable arguments. At first it seemed as if he could never prevail against the draconian, all-powerful League mandarins, and there were times when it seemed the will of his members would buckle against the weight of tradition. But Hill was indomitable and he outflanked the enemy with the threat of a strike, which was averted with three days to spare in January 1961.

His victory, which meant players could negotiate their own deals, rocked the game to its Victorian foundations and led three years later to the abolition of the archaic retain-and-transfer system, which allowed a club to control the future of a player once he had signed a contract, even when the contract had elapsed.

In fact, Hill's overall triumph was even more far-reaching. During his emotional campaign, his articulacy and diplomacy had shown footballers in a new light, dispelling their image as muddied oafs and gaining them overwhelming public sympathy. Having been the prime mover in the freeing of the "wage slaves", the 32-year-old Hill found himself at a crossroads. A knee injury forced his retirement as a player in spring 1961 and he was inundated with offers from the media, while considering a partnership in an agency which represented the business interests of top sportsmen. However, he turned to football management after being offered a challenge he could not resist; that of transforming lowly Coventry City from Third Division also-rans into a major power.

When Hill breezed into Highfield Road in November 1961, the place was in the doldrums, the team drab and lethargic. What followed was little short of a sporting miracle as he presided over one of the most stimulating periods in the history of any club. Hill thought big and possessed the priceless ability of being able to instil his confidence into those around him. Soon his side was revitalised, both by new recruits and a fresh approach, and developments off the pitch mirrored the enterprise on it.

Backed by Derrick Robins, a chairman both rich and bold, Hill made the club progressive and family-friendly at a time when such notions were unheard of. A marketer supreme, he cast away the old striped kit in favour of an eye-catching pale blue outfit. There followed an explosion of razzmatazz: a Sky Blue song, Sky Blue Radio, Sky Blue train specials to away games, Sky Blue children's parties. Attendances rocketed, cash rolled in and the tatty old ground was rebuilt; many away games were screened on closed-circuit TV; the traditional matchday programme became a trendy magazine.

Hill was a symbol of a new footballing age and his team kept pace, lifting the Third Division title in 1964 and the Second Division title three years later. But then, on the threshold of the top flight, Hill dumbfounded the fans by resigning.

He felt capable of establishing the Sky Blues among the elite but believed it would be a lengthy process and requested the security of a 10-year contract. That was not forthcoming and Hill bade farewell to his own astonishing creation. However, testament to the solidity of the foundations he laid at Highfield Road is the fact that Coventry City, under-achievers for so long, remained in the top division until 2001.

In autumn 1967, having passed his screen test, as it were, working for the BBC during the 1966 World Cup finals, Hill became Head of Sport with London Weekend Television, which was due to start broadcasting in 1968. In five years with LWT he practically re-invented television football coverage, starting by fronting The Big Match, ITV's Sunday-afternoon answer to BBC's Match Of The Day. Until then most on-air football criticism was mealy-mouthed and unopinionated. Hill instituted the age of the pundit in a blaze of flamboyance and controversy, leading the way with his colourful World Cup 1970 panel, which featured passionate extroverts such as Malcolm Allison and Pat Crerand and easily won the TV ratings war.

In 1973, having set up a consultancy group to negotiate sports sponsorship deals, Hill switched to the BBC, becoming front man and analyst on Match Of The Day, continuing to be forthright and upsetting many in the process.

While still working for the BBC until he joined Sky Sports in 1998, Hill remained hugely active in football and business. In the mid-1970s he served Fulham as commercial manager, then returned to Coventry in 1975 as managing director (until 1983) and chairman (1980-83). During this second successful sojourn at Highfield Road, City consolidated their First Division berth and he played a prominent part in the club's prosperity and development.

In addition, from 1976 to 1979 he made a fortune as football adviser to Saudi Arabia, but lost much of it when he bought the Detroit Express club, a venture which failed miserably after the sport failed to take off in the US. His next port of call was cash-strapped Charlton Athletic, of which he was a director from 1984-87 and acting chairman for six months from December 1985. The club was in a mess, and he was closely involved in the temporary, unpopular but necessary move from The Valley, whose terraces were condemned as unsafe, to Selhurst Park.

Fittingly, Hill's final club contribution was made to his beloved Fulham. In 1987 he commenced a turbulent 10 years in the chair, when plans were afoot to merge with Queen's Park Rangers and sell Craven Cottage for housing. Skilfully harnessing public outrage, while recognising that the Cottage might have to go, he steered the club through a series of crises.

Many of his decisions were vilified, some were drastic – once he took charge of the team from manager Don Mackay at half-time of a particularly painful match – but he always did what he thought best for Fulham. In the end he was instrumental in the Cottagers retaining their traditional home and in the thriving club remaining intact to be handed over to Mohammed Al Fayed in 1997. Not the least of Hill's achievements was his recovery from bowel cancer, having kept his condition secret, while engaged in the battle to save Fulham.

To any unbiased observer, British football has never known a more courageous, far-sighted reformer; he was advocating all-seater stadia and three points for a win long before they came to pass, and had long demanded sweeping changes to the outdated Football Association, for which he waited in vain. In 2013 it was revealed that he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for five years and was living in a nursing home near the south coast.

In the heat of the moment, Sir Alex Ferguson once described Hill as a prat, but for once the Scot's judgement was at fault. The name of Jimmy Hill deserves a place of rare honour in the annals of the game.

James William Thomas Hill, footballer, manager, administrator, businessman, television pundit and executive: born Balham, London 22 July 1928; OBE 1995; married 1950 Gloria (divorced 1961; one daughter, two sons), 1962 Heather, (divorced 1982; one daughter, one son), 1991 Bryony; died 19 December 2015.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jimmy-hill-visionary-footballer-and-manager-whose-greatest-legacy-was-abolition-of-sport-s-maximum-a6780501.html

[WhiteJC]

 
FULHAM ARE SET TO APPOINT JOKANOVIC AS THEIR NEW MANAGER

EXCLUSIVE By Editor Wayne Veysey| Former Evening Standard, Press Association and Goal chief correspondent with 17 years experience of breaking big stories, including exclusives like this

Slavisa Jokanovic is close to being appointed the new Fulham manager, Football Insider sources understand.

The Londoners are in advanced talks with Maccabi Tel-Aviv about a compensation deal for Jokanovic, whose team were eliminated from the Champions League last week.

A senior Fulham source has told Football Insider that the club are increasingly confident that Jokanovic will be their next manager.

Discussions are set to take place about a deal that would take Jokanovic to Craven Cottage although the Championship club have taken the precaution of lining up Coventry manager Tony Mowbray as a back-up candidate.

Fulham chiefs have struggled to find a replacement for Kit Symons and, as revealed by Football Insider, appointed Stuart Gray as caretaker manager earlier this month.

A deal was agreed in which Gray will stay on as a coach at Craven Cottage and work alongside the new manager if he did not land the manager's job on a full-time basis.

Jokanovic guided Watford to Premier League promotion last season and his stock is still very high in England. He would also like the chance to work in this country again.

Fulham have already held talks with a number of managers but suffered a series of setbacks as discussions with Steve Clarke, Gary Rowett, Nigel Pearson and Mark Warburton collapsed.

Fulham owner Shahid Khan is keen to appoint a head coach who can work under transfer chief Mike Rigg.



http://www.footballinsider247.com/news/12289?

[WhiteJC]

 
Ross: Missed Chances Cost Us

Following the 2-2 draw against Bolton Wanderers at the Macron Stadium on Saturday, a visibly disappointed Ross McCormack caught up with fulhamfc.com and voiced his frustration about the plethora of missed opportunities for the Whites.

"We are pretty downbeat after that result," McCormack said.

"We had numerous chances to put this game to bed and we didn't take them. Moussa is through one on one, Kača is through one on one.

"Even towards the end I had a shot and hit the bar and Ben has put a good chance into the side netting. It was not a good day at the office for us. We failed to take the chances we had to finish Bolton off".

The attacking abilities of a Fulham side who are the top goalscorers in the Sky Bet Championship were once again on display. McCormack admits that it is now a matter of finding the right balance between attack and defence.

"It has been a bit of a catch-22 for us this year," he continued.

"I have said it numerous times, there are not many teams in the world that can go and score the amount of goals that we have scored and not concede.

"We have gone full circle, we were trying to solidify and concede less but we were not an attacking threat. However, we found our attacking form once again but just couldn't put our chances away.

"We really went for it today in the first half. We took the approach that attack was the best form of defence and we could have had at least two more before the half."

Having failed to capitalise on their first-half dominance, McCormack was displeased that in the second half some bad habits crept back into the Whites' play.
"In the second half it was our inability to defend crosses, clear our lines properly and get hold of the ball, whether it be upfront or midfield," he added.

"We have worked on trying to iron out these weaknesses in training recently, so it was frustrating that they came back into our play."

Fulham will be back in action on Boxing Day against a Derby side in fine form and fresh from a battling win 1-0 win away at Ipswich Town.

"We have to get back on the training pitch and have solid build up to the match against Derby, who are a very strong side," said McCormack.

"Players will know what they did wrong in the performance and will try to rectify it. We have to get back into training this week and be ready for a tough match against Derby on Boxing Day.


http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2015/december/20/mccormack-reaction?

[WhiteJC]

 
Fulham star explains catch-22 situation at Craven Cottage

Whites are the Championship's top scorers but also have the worst defensive record


Goal-machine: Ross McCormack of Fulham
Frustrated Ross McCormack says Fulham find themselves in a catch-22 situation.

The Whites find themselves at the bizarre situation of being at the top of the Championship's scoring charts but rock bottom of the defensive league table.

McCormack's late free-kick rescued a point for the managerless side at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday and took his individual tally to 14 strikes for the campaign.

Fulham have scored 36 times already this term, twice more than west London neighbours Brentford, but are unable to move up the table due to their leaking backline at the other end.

The Cottagers' defence has been breached 38 times this term once more than current drop-zone occupants Charlton and Rotherham, to keep them some way short of play-off contention.

Had it not been for the sharpshooting of McCormack and Moussa Dembele, Fulham would surely find themselves in the bottom-three and the Scotsman admits the mood in the camp is downbeat.

"It has been a bit of a catch-22 for us this year," he told the club's official website after the stalemate at the Macron Stadium.

"I have said it numerous times, there are not many teams in the world that can go and score the amount of goals that we have scored and not concede.

"We have gone full circle, we were trying to solidify and concede less but we were not an attacking threat. However, we found our attacking form once again but just couldn't put our chances away.

"We really went for it today in the first half. We took the approach that attack was the best form of defence and we could have had at least two more before the half.


Still looking for a new boss: Shahid Khan
"We are pretty downbeat after that result.

"We had numerous chances to put this game to bed and we didn't take them. Moussa is through one on one, Kača is through one on one.

"Even towards the end I had a shot and hit the bar and Ben has put a good chance into the side netting.

"It was not a good day at the office for us. We failed to take the chances we had to finish Bolton off."

Fulham senior coach Stuart Gray was similarly angry with the Whites' poor finishing at Bolton. The rudderless Cottagers have not won since October 31.


http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fulham-star-explains-catch-22-10628849?

[WhiteJC]

 
Bolton 2-2 Fulham - Five things we learned as Whites rescue a point in the rain

The major talking points as the Cottagers search to end a winning drought on a day the heavens opened in the North West

Fulham battled to a draw at the Macron Stadium - but what should have promised a first win in eight matches needed Ross McCormack's eye for a dead ball to rescue a dire situation.

Crosses equal noughts as far as Fulham wins go
Coach Stuart Gray reckoned the one saving grace from the midweek defeat to Ipswich was neither away goal came from a set piece - but deliveries into the box?

Fulham have become suckers for centres -low or high. Both Bolton goals came from crosses from the right that were not dealt with. The second must have had the acting gaffer pulling his hair out.


Challenge: Ainsley Maitland-Miles of Ipswich tries to tackle Luke Garbutt

Fulham could take a leaf out of the QPR book - hateful as that might be to Whites fans.
Rangers appear to have stopped the rot when it came to a central defensive pairing of Grant Hall and Nedum Onuoha separated only through injury midweek.

Whites have discovered that spending the best part of £4million on Richard Stearman and Tim Ream has yet to reap the same benefit as they strive to find the right formula.

Tim Ream at left back? Hmmm...
Both Bolton goals started on the right, and the USA international might not want to see again the space between himself and the winger from his old club as both mortal crosses came in.


Tough going: Tim Ream gets in a tackle

Confidence is as thin as the ice on London skating rinks
Bolton were there for the taking. After all, they've not won since September. But the rot set in when the unpaid Trotters scored the equaliser, with the second not long in following.

Fragile egos are feeling a chill wind despite an unseasonable rise in temperature.

There won't be much paint left on Championship goalposts if Fulham players keep on battering them
Whites were unlucky at Bolton when both Alex Kacaniklic and McCormack cursed the carpentry for getting in the way of their drives.

Andy Lonergan then followed Richard Stearman's example against Brentford last week of taking it out on the woodwork for goals conceded as Fulham frustrations boiled over.


Dejected: Andy Lonergan


http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bolton-2-2-fulham-five-10628640?

[WhiteJC]

 
Football: Jimmy Hill transformed the game and that's how we should remmeber him


In this April 9, 1987 file photo shows footballer turned broadcaster Jimmy Hill at Fulham Football Club in London. Photo / AP.

Some 20 years have passed since that winter midnight when Jimmy Hill sat in the bar of a Midlands hotel, sipping Scotch and telling stories. Earlier that evening, he had spoken at a charity dinner, charming his audience with a string of breezy anecdotes. Now, in reflective mood, he looked back down the decades.

He recalled his broadcasting career and the central part he played in pioneering televised football. He touched on his experiences as a club chairman, director, chief executive, coach and manager. He mentioned his firebrand days as leader of the players' trade union.

But his warmest memories were of his playing days, especially those at Fulham, when life was less complicated and pressures were lighter and the worst that could happen was a bellowing curse from Johnny Haynes when yet another exquisite pass was wretchedly squandered. Jim's face would light up when he told his Fulham tales. Despite enjoying a whole string of remarkable careers, you knew that nothing would ever quite replace the joy, the laughter, the sheer fun that he found at Craven Cottage.

Jimmy Hill died at the weekend at the age of 87. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for several years, his vivacious personality buried beneath the blanket of that cruel disease.

Those who knew him only in his later years saw a man who tended to live in the past, constantly returning to familiar themes: cheating players, timid referees, cynical coaches.

In fact, he was much, much better than that. When his massive contribution has been adequately assessed, Hill will be seen as one of the most significant figures in the modern history of British football.

It was during the Fulham years that Hill came to prominence as chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association. While his fellow executive Cliff Lloyd supplied the grafting and the groundwork, Hill became the public face of the movement which was to revolutionise the professional game.

Hill marshalled his forces, threatened strikes, outwitted the employers and won public support for his cause. After a bitterly protracted battle, freedom was achieved. The most prominent beneficiary was the great Haynes, who was paid £100 per week by Fulham amid dark mutterings that the game, and quite possibly the nation, was going to the dogs.It helped, of course, that the face in question was so distinctive; the elongated chin decorated with a vaguely piratical beard became a familiar feature on back pages and news bulletins as Hill sought to overthrow the iniquitous system of players being effectively slaves of their clubs, with a £20 maximum wage and no freedom of contract.

But Hill had dislodged the pebble and the resulting avalanche started to envelope the game. There was a certain logic to it all: if there was no maximum, then the sky was the limit. Yet when the likes of Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott, Raheem Sterling and various assorted Chelsea players started to pocket salaries of up to £10million, even Hill would concede that wage inflation had moved far beyond his imagination.

Having retired as a player at 33, Hill swiftly became manager of Coventry City. He was full of ideas for the Division Three club. Backed by a resourceful chairman, he renamed the club the 'Sky Blues' and began to transform the team, the ground, and the very image of an ailing institution. People became aware of Coventry, as he never missed the chance to steal a headline. In just a handful of seasons, he took them through Division Three, then on through the old Second Division, leaving when promotion to the top flight had been achieved. There were those who said that Hill was more sound than substance. Those days at Coventry told a different tale.

Typically, his next move was both brave and timely. He moved into television; first, and briefly, with the BBC, then, memorably, as Head of Sport at London Weekend Television. The lasting memory of four heady years at LWT was surely the coverage of the 1970 World Cup and the arrival of the pundits.

While the BBC covered Mexico 70 in the approved, professional manner, ITV offered flamboyant controversy from former players such as Malcolm Allison, Derek Dougan and Pat Crerand. They argued and asserted in the way that pro footballers had always done in the privacy of their dressing rooms, yet those arguments were a revelation to Seventies audiences. They proved an enormous attraction and surpassed the BBC in the ratings for the first time at a football event. The ITV executives bathed in the reflected glory and Hill took the share he deserved.

And yet, within two years, he was off to the BBC to present Match of the Day and become, effectively, the face of football. Saturday night after Saturday night, through 27 years and more than 600 appearances, he introduced, analysed and explained the state of the national game to a nation deprived of live coverage. With the possible exception of the incomparable David Coleman, no sporting media personality has remotely approached that level of importance.

He had, years earlier, renewed his links with Coventry, becoming first managing director and then chairman. It was while he was with Coventry that he put through an idea he had long espoused; persuading the rest of the League to adopt three points for a win.
Along with Hill's maximum wage abolition, it is the reform which has had the greatest, and most beneficial, impact on English football. He also made Coventry's Highfield Road the first all-seat stadium in the country. It was described as an idea whose time had come, but that time would have been long delayed without the input of J Hill.

At some stage, he had found the time to pass a refereeing course, on the grounds that the knowledge would come in useful. Sure enough, one afternoon at the old Highbury Stadium, the referee fell injured, a linesman took over and the appeal went out for a qualified replacement linesman. With an entirely bogus show of reluctance, Jim stepped into the breach, accepting the predictable abuse from the fans with jutting chin and evil grin. It was around this time that he hit on the idea of taking an unofficial 'Old England' team to Belfast. The Troubles had begun to ease a little and Jim thought a match between English and Irish veterans might hasten the process. I was invited to accompany the side for the purpose of a newspaper feature, and a group of us packed into a minibus from the airport to the city centre hotel.

There were British Army patrols at almost every road junction, tribal murals on every wall and an air of unease hanging over the old town. Jimmy Greaves sat up near the front, alongside a security guard who introduced himself as 'Bill'.

Jimmy chatted amiably about the situation in the province. 'So tell me, Bill,' he said. 'What's it all about? I mean, why's everyone got the 'ump?' Bill seemed reluctant to explain. We were entering a troubled area and Bill produced a large automatic weapon, with which he swept the landscape.

'Oh my Gawd!' moaned Jim. 'I know who got us into this. Why did I listen to that bleeding Jimmy Hill?'

Yet he knew that we loved him, no matter what. Because we all loved him. Those of us who were on the rota for his Sunday Supplement show on Sky would fall in at dawn to sit around a table in an unconvincing mock-up of his kitchen, and join him for chatter and chuckles. He could be crotchety and stubborn, yet he was endlessly endearing.

Sadly, we witnessed the change which crept over him, the unmistakable signs of the unspeakable illness. He hung on for as long as he could, but it became too much and the darkness descended.

Yet that is not the way we shall remember him. For, in his stunning prime, he was lively, witty, audacious and brave. Above all, he was an innovator, possibly the greatest innovator the sport has known. Jimmy Hill transformed the game he loved so well. And that is how he deserves to be remembered.

-- Daily Mail


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/football-soccer/news/article.cfm?c_id=86&objectid=11564247&ref=rss