The Great Tony Currie
- Thread starter Isaw Joeshaw
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I should coco
A little harsh on a well meaning body of men
Some of those players went on to win many honours and become international greats, but whatever happened to John Robson, Norman Piper and Paul Edwards?
snootyfenooty
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John Robson did OK but hot sure about the other two. What is remarkable is how may of that team became accomplished players. You'd be lucky to get one or two out of U21 teams now who go on to do what they did. Maybe the answer is staring us in the face, scrap U21's and bring back U23's to blood young players.
themaninblack
Old lag
John Robson retired early with MS. I remember Edwards at Man Utd, dont know the other bloke.
grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
I was at Currie's debut when we beat Spurs 3-2 on Feb. 26th, 1968 (TC scored, natch). I was also at the Blades v Everton 3rd round FA Cup game on Jan. 3, 1970. Everton (in the top flight) had finished third the previous season and would finish champions in this (1969-70) season. We were in Division 2. We won 2-1 (Reece, Addison). Currie had switched from his iconic '10' shirt a couple of months earlier and now wore '8' (Geoff Salmons wore '10').
On September 5, 1973 we played Arsenal at home in a night match. The day after United had beaten the mighty Arsenal 5-0 the back page headline read: “THOSE FLASHING BLADES”.
This was the night when United were 4-0 up after 17 minutes, as Tony Currie, who scored twice, totally outshone World Cup winner Alan Ball. In his report, Peter Cooper (a Sheffield man) explained how United “destroyed” Arsenal and Currie “dismantled” Gunners defender Peter Storey. This was also the night when, towards the end, Currie sat on the ball in front of Alan Ball, in revenge for Ball doing the same when Arsenal won 5-0 at the Lane a couple of years earlier. Cooper called Currie’s act “unnecessary, technically ungentlemanly – and magnificent”. The story goes that in fact the vanquished Ball, accepting that his team had been “destroyed”, and that Currie, in Cooper’s words, was on the night “something approaching greatness”, encouraged TC to do it. The showman that he was, Currie would not have needed a second invitation.
Just over a month later (17th October 1973) I was down at Wembley for the infamous Poland game.
The only other time I saw TC in an England shirt was, again, at Wembley for a friendly against West Germany on 12th March, 1975. I'd had a T-shirt made with 'Currie for England - Revie Out!' People in the pub came up to me and said 'We agree with the first bit, but not the second.' If only they'd listened...
The 'quality goal' game apart, Currie was a fabulous footballer and his pitiful 17 England caps was a total injustice.
One final pic., England away in 1973. I think it was USSR, but could have been Italy:
On September 5, 1973 we played Arsenal at home in a night match. The day after United had beaten the mighty Arsenal 5-0 the back page headline read: “THOSE FLASHING BLADES”.
This was the night when United were 4-0 up after 17 minutes, as Tony Currie, who scored twice, totally outshone World Cup winner Alan Ball. In his report, Peter Cooper (a Sheffield man) explained how United “destroyed” Arsenal and Currie “dismantled” Gunners defender Peter Storey. This was also the night when, towards the end, Currie sat on the ball in front of Alan Ball, in revenge for Ball doing the same when Arsenal won 5-0 at the Lane a couple of years earlier. Cooper called Currie’s act “unnecessary, technically ungentlemanly – and magnificent”. The story goes that in fact the vanquished Ball, accepting that his team had been “destroyed”, and that Currie, in Cooper’s words, was on the night “something approaching greatness”, encouraged TC to do it. The showman that he was, Currie would not have needed a second invitation.
Just over a month later (17th October 1973) I was down at Wembley for the infamous Poland game.
The only other time I saw TC in an England shirt was, again, at Wembley for a friendly against West Germany on 12th March, 1975. I'd had a T-shirt made with 'Currie for England - Revie Out!' People in the pub came up to me and said 'We agree with the first bit, but not the second.' If only they'd listened...
The 'quality goal' game apart, Currie was a fabulous footballer and his pitiful 17 England caps was a total injustice.
One final pic., England away in 1973. I think it was USSR, but could have been Italy:
Silent Blade
Well-Known Member
John Robson retired after being diagnosed with MS, passed away 6 years ago. Piper had a long career at Portsmouth. Frank O'Farrell didn't rate Edwards and dropped him from the 1st team. He went to Oldham.
Hi - just as a heads up!There will be 50 limited, Signed by the man himself - (Currie not me) prints going into the clubshop later this month. They’re pretty special as not only are they awesome they’ve got gold foil all over them
bladesince64
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Blades fans often debate the ‘Uniteds best player ever’ question and Currie usually comes out top apart from the older generation who saw Hagan play (I didn’t)
I saw him in all of the memorable games mentioned in this thread and he was often unplayable and sometimes just simply majestic in his performances against top top sides vying for league titles etc.What often doesn’t get talked about though is that TC was undoubtedly one of THE best players in the world at that time. He and Woody and Len just overpowered teams that couldn’t live with us at times.
If we had had some serious investment at the time and built a bit of quality around those three we could have been an established top six side for a good few years and even up to the present day.
I feel very priveliged to have witnessed that team of the late sixties/early seventies and in particular the great Tony Currie.
I saw him in all of the memorable games mentioned in this thread and he was often unplayable and sometimes just simply majestic in his performances against top top sides vying for league titles etc.What often doesn’t get talked about though is that TC was undoubtedly one of THE best players in the world at that time. He and Woody and Len just overpowered teams that couldn’t live with us at times.
If we had had some serious investment at the time and built a bit of quality around those three we could have been an established top six side for a good few years and even up to the present day.
I feel very priveliged to have witnessed that team of the late sixties/early seventies and in particular the great Tony Currie.
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