The Great Tony Currie

[Isaw Joeshaw]

And Everton fans bricked all the coaches on the way back. Fucking freezing it was coming over the M62 on a coach with about 4 windows intact. Thanks TC

Yes, and loads of them hid behind trees and bushes in Stanley Park waiting to ambush Blades fans on their way back to their cars.

A bunch of them jumped out on us but when they saw we had my mates 70 year old dad with us, they kindly let us go unmolested.

Typical fun loving, well behaved scouters really (?)

 

[United Aren't Back.]

A Huddersfield town fan told me in 2001 that the admission fee would be worth it just to watch Tony Currie.
Said he's never seen a player as good in his life.

 

[originaltrueblade]

TC

Where do you start I could write a long detailed book but I'll keep it short

No internet in them days first question we all asked is TC playing

Opposition fans asked is CURRIE playing and when they were told yes you would receive comments like that's us fu***d then or we've had it then. I can sum up TC in three words

SIMPLY THE BEST

Oh and a nice person that I got to know despite what you sometimes hear.

One quick story that left me in stitches a fellow Blade from Somerset who recently had started watching United came to his second game in the nineties well we were in the car park and TC was parking a mini bus this lad said to me bloody hell thats Tony Currie I'll get his photograph and he rushed over (Knowing TC I told him that's not a good idea just ask for his autograph) as I say he rushed over to TC hardly letting TC get out of the mini bus and said "Tony let's have a photo!" TC looked up and replied "What do you think I am a fu****g model." It was classic I roared with laughter. As Tony walked away he saw me ( known each other for donkeys years ) put his hand up to me with a big grin on his face.

TC quality on and off the pitch best thing that ever happened to United

 

[grafikhaus]

Summer 1973. We had persuaded TC to sign a new contract with the promise to sign new players to build a team round him. A year later we sold his friend, Geoff Salmons!

Also worth a mention are the wonderful players in the same team as TC - Dearden, Reece, Badger, Hemsley etc. and the utterly underrated Geoff Salmons. I was at Currie's debut in 1968 v Spurs, the 'Quality Goal' game v West Ham (seen better, TBF) and the England v Poland game in 1973. Two memories stand out for me. We played a night match at home (can't remember who against) and there'd been rumours that TC was going to be out injured. The team emerged from the John Street tunnel and...no Currie! After a few minutes, he emerged! It had been a little bit of fun on TC's part. Back then, a missing Currie could knock thousands off the gate.

Another one was Sept 1, 1973. I'd not long started working and always had a few quid in my pocket ('Here's a couple of quid for my board, mum. I'm going to waste the rest on booze, birds and United!' ) I'd take myself off to a lot of away games (usually on my todd, none of my mates were interested) with a camera with 400mm lens and always - always - a red and white scarf regardless of the opposition (away to West Ham, Newcastle, Everton, Spurs etc.) I usually didn't bother trying to stand with my fellow Blades as mass away support for United didn't really happen back then. As I was on my own, I usually didn't get bothered by the home fans - sometimes I did.

Anyway, back to 1973 and I'd made the usual trek down to that double-vaulted 'ticket office' at Pond Street. 'Coach seat for Chelsea, please.' I think it was about £3. I got off the coach near Stamford Bridge with camera, scarf and a very fetching sheepskin coat. This HUGE Chelsea skinhead came up to me. 'You Sheffield, mayt?'. With my red & white scarf, I couldn't really deny it. He reached inside his (sheepskin) coat - they were all the rage, back then - and produced...a ticket for the game which he game to me! 'Ere ya go, san. And that Currie geezer is fackin' brilliant!' We won 2-1. Woody and a thirty yard screamer by TC.

 

[Silent Blade]

We played a night match at home (can't remember who against) and there'd been rumours that TC was going to be out injured. The team emerged from the John Street tunnel and...no Currie! After a few minutes, he emerged! It had been a little bit of fun on TC's part. Back then, a missing Currie could knock thousands off the gate.

That will be the League Cup replay against Arsenal in November 1971. The previous night TC had scalded his foot after he accidently spilled a pan of boiling water at home. It was reported in the Star the next day that TC was doubtful to play in the replay. Before the match John Harris gave TC a fitness test behind the Lane End goal. We weren't sure if he would be playing and there were cheers all around when TC emerged out of the John Street tunnel with the players. We won 2-0 (Woody and Reece scored)

 

[JJBlade]

Leeds united were no longer the force of old back then, he should never have gone there.
Can't remember if Any other club was interested in him at the time, but wrong choice for me.

1974 pushing for a European place
1976 Sold Currie
1979 Division Three
1981 Division Four

Within 5 years of selling Currie the levels that we had sunk to were quite unbelievable. The entire club had fallen apart.

It's hard to believe for those of us that were there at the time, but when we were playing Halifax and Torquay it was only such a short period of time previously when Currie was dazzling the entire country with his brilliance

The club sold something more than a player the day it sold Currie, it sold its soul, it sold a talisman and an identity, and it has never recovered.

It's like God himself gave him to us and we handed him over to the devil for their 30 pieces of silver, and a curse has followed us around ever since

 

[Harrisblade]

I was at the Poland game too

And me

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

Also worth a mention are the wonderful players in the same team as TC - Dearden, Reece, Badger, Hemsley etc. and the utterly underrated Geoff Salmons. I was at Currie's debut in 1968 v Spurs, the 'Quality Goal' game v West Ham (seen better, TBF) and the England v Poland game in 1973. Two memories stand out for me. We played a night match at home (can't remember who against) and there'd been rumours that TC was going to be out injured. The team emerged from the John Street tunnel and...no Currie! After a few minutes, he emerged! It had been a little bit of fun on TC's part. Back then, a missing Currie could knock thousands off the gate.

Another one was Sept 1, 1973. I'd not long started working and always had a few quid in my pocket ('Here's a couple of quid for my board, mum. I'm going to waste the rest on booze, birds and United!' ) I'd take myself off to a lot of away games (usually on my todd, none of my mates were interested) with a camera with 400mm lens and always - always - a red and white scarf regardless of the opposition (away to West Ham, Newcastle, Everton, Spurs etc.) I usually didn't bother trying to stand with my fellow Blades as mass away support for United didn't really happen back then. As I was on my own, I usually didn't get bothered by the home fans - sometimes I did.

Anyway, back to 1973 and I'd made the usual trek down to that double-vaulted 'ticket office' at Pond Street. 'Coach seat for Chelsea, please.' I think it was about £3. I got off the coach near Stamford Bridge with camera, scarf and a very fetching sheepskin coat. This HUGE Chelsea skinhead came up to me. 'You Sheffield, mayt?'. With my red & white scarf, I couldn't really deny it. He reached inside his (sheepskin) coat - they were all the rage, back then - and produced...a ticket for the game which he game to me! 'Ere ya go, san. And that Currie geezer is fackin' brilliant!' We won 2-1. Woody and a thirty yard screamer by TC.

That was only my third away game I'd gone to. We went on the train then by tube to Fulham Broadway. I remember changing trains at Earls Court and the train being full of skin heads wearing white jeans and bracers and looking very hard, I kept my gob firmly shut.
We decided it might be safer to sit than stand so we went in the main stand with The Shed to our right. A big bloke walked in in front of us with his mates and looked at his programme and said in a loud voice, if Currie is playing, keep your eye on him, he's a right facking player. As I'd not been to many away games I had no idea that anyone who wasn't a Blade really knew much about him but it made me feel very proud and then when he scored that fabulous goal to win the game the same bloke was telling all around him "I told you he was a good player".
I think the game might have been televised as I think I've seen the goal again since but might be imagining it. So if anyone can find it I'd love to see it again.

 

[Silent Blade]

That was only my third away game I'd gone to. We went on the train then by tube to Fulham Broadway. I remember changing trains at Earls Court and the train being full of skin heads wearing white jeans and bracers and looking very hard, I kept my gob firmly shut.
We decided it might be safer to sit than stand so we went in the main stand with The Shed to our right. A big bloke walked in in front of us with his mates and looked at his programme and said in a loud voice, if Currie is playing, keep your eye on him, he's a right facking player. As I'd not been to many away games I had no idea that anyone who wasn't a Blade really knew much about him but it made me feel very proud and then when he scored that fabulous goal to win the game the same bloke was telling all around him "I told you he was a good player".
I think the game might have been televised as I think I've seen the goal again since but might be imagining it. So if anyone can find it I'd love to see it again.

 

[I should coco]

Within 5 years of selling Currie the levels that we had sunk to were quite unbelievable. The entire club had fallen apart.

As brilliant a player as TC was, your post suggests it was his sale that caused the decline which is untrue. We were on the way down having an abysmal season under Furphy and were already relegated when he was sold (June 76).

Of course your listing of some of the lowlights can't really be challenged but it wasn't the sale of Currie that caused the decline. Rather, it was the decision not to add quality players to that team of the early 70s and instead to sell Salmons to pay for the deposit on the South stand.

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

Thanks Silent. All I can say is that my memory is telling me one thing and the evidence is telling it as it was. I would have put money on Currie scoring the winner but also at the other end, where Woody scored, and I also remember the match being played in bright sunshine but that could just be the rose tinted specks.
Also, I have no recollection of the new stand being under construction, I thought that was built a year or two later, shows how time plays tricks.
One other point though, whatever happened to those little blue disabled cars that used to park up in the ground? There was a whole row of them in the video.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Fucking hell with all this deadline day bollocks I have to keep going back to this thread to calm my nerves and settle my stomach.

 

[fuerstenberger]

There was no bigger TC fan than Alf Ramsey. He saw him as the replacement for Bobby Charlton in the England team. He trusted TC in the critical game v Poland in 1973 when England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup despite totally outplaying Poland on the night. I was there. Unfortunately for TC this game cost Ramsey his job and probably caused TC to miss out on many caps as the successor, Ron Devious, preferred Gerry Francis to TC.

When I started my badges here in Germany, back in the late eighties, I was in a classroom with about 12 German ex pros. The tutor, was talking about how English football had stalled after Ramsey. He said he felt it was due to England building their team around Francis and not Tony Currie, also later, not building around Hoddle. No one there had ever heard of Currie, except me of course. The tutor, an ex Dutch international, played in the Cruyff teams I think, said Currie was one of the best players he had ever seen. Added, had he been Dutch, they would have built their team around him. Says it all.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

When I started my badges here in Germany, back in the late eighties, I was in a classroom with about 12 German ex pros. The tutor, was talking about how English football had stalled after Ramsey. He said he felt it was due to England building their team around Francis and not Tony Currie, also later, not building around Hoddle. No one there had ever heard of Currie, except me of course. The tutor, an ex Dutch international, played in the Cruyff teams I think, said Currie was one of the best players he had ever seen. Added, had he been Dutch, they would have built their team around him. Says it all.

Günter Netzer, the German TC was a big fan as well I've heard.

 

[grafikhaus]

Fucking hell with all this deadline day bollocks I have to keep going back to this thread to calm my nerves and settle my stomach.

Of course your listing of some of the lowlights can't really be challenged but it wasn't the sale of ..... that caused the decline. Rather, it was the decision not to add quality players to that team of the ..... and instead to sell ......to pay for the Desso.

Fill in the blanks. Déjà vu? Hope this has helped, snootyfenooty.

 

[snootyfenooty]

Fill in the blanks. Déjà vu? Hope this has helped, snootyfenooty.

You can help me write the book!

 

[Silent Blade]

The tutor, an ex Dutch international, played in the Cruyff teams I think,.

What was his name?

 

[Hodgyman]

I remember seeing him in a most of those memorable times but my favourite recollection regarding him was a game where I was looking after a small boy (probably a younger cousin). It was a cold mid-week game and we were at the very front on John St and it was pelting it down with rain.
The ball went out of play just in front of us. TC came to pickthe ball up to take the throw in and my young companion said to the Messiah himself "please Tony, make it stop raining". Such was the belief that the god that wasTC could do anything.

 

[fuerstenberger]

What was his name?

Had to dig out my papers which led to argument with my wife. She hides everything. She calls it cleaning. I have e-mailed him to see if he minds me mentioning him here. Will let you know when he replies.

 

[Isaw Joeshaw]

Had to dig out my papers which led to argument with my wife. She hides everything. She calls it cleaning. I have e-mailed him to see if he minds me mentioning him here. Will let you know when he replies.

I've got one like that, even after 46 years of " Please don't move my fucking stuff ".

 

[Ravenshead Blade]

I was lucky enough to watch TC play many times for the Blades. One memory not mentioned above is the abandoned match at Highfield Road, Coventry in March 1972. The match was abandoned after an hour or so due to heavy snow with United 2-0 up. The amazing thing was that TC could demonstrate his many skills in the deep mud when hardly any other player could even stand up. Of course we lost the replayed match!

 

[Silent Blade]

I was lucky enough to watch TC play many times for the Blades. One memory not mentioned above is the abandoned match at Highfield Road, Coventry in March 1972. The match was abandoned after an hour or so due to heavy snow with United 2-0 up. The amazing thing was that TC could demonstrate his many skills in the deep mud when hardly any other player could even stand up. Of course we lost the replayed match!

TC scored twice in the 3-2 defeat (re-arranged match) and he had a "good goal" disallowed near the end of the match

 

[knowsnowt]

Tc is an utter cunt.

 

[Willie Carlin]

One of the best goals I saw TC score was against Liverpool. Team full of internationals Ray Clemence the England goalie in nets. 25/30 yards bullit hardly left the floor on its way into the far post. Brilliant!!!

 

[Silent Blade]

One of the best goals I saw TC score was against Liverpool. Team full of internationals Ray Clemence the England goalie in nets. 25/30 yards bullit hardly left the floor on its way into the far post. Brilliant!!!

 

[Silent Blade]

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

Summer 1973. We had persuaded TC to sign a new contract with the promise to sign new players to build a team round him. A year later we sold his friend, Geoff Salmons!

Fuckin' Stoke?.

If any of our current players went there I'd still think "Fuckin' Stoke?".

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

1974 pushing for a European place
1976 Sold Currie
1979 Division Three
1981 Division Four

Within 5 years of selling Currie the levels that we had sunk to were quite unbelievable. The entire club had fallen apart.

It's hard to believe for those of us that were there at the time, but when we were playing Halifax and Torquay it was only such a short period of time previously when Currie was dazzling the entire country with his brilliance

The club sold something more than a player the day it sold Currie, it sold its soul, it sold a talisman and an identity, and it has never recovered.

It's like God himself gave him to us and we handed him over to the devil for their 30 pieces of silver, and a curse has followed us around ever since

That's pissed me right off, so agree with it.

 

[JJ Sefton]

The TC years...

 

[JJ Sefton]

I'll be redoing the 1974/1975 one at some point with a fair bit of new footage.