Blades cult heroes

[SwissBlade]

My finest hour. You can tell I had style even as a young un

Calver FC U12s awards evening, derwent water arms, Calver

 

[Bert]

Hagan played for United in the time of the maximum wage. It follows that there was no financial incentive for him to leave United as no-one else could pay him anymore than United did. Loads of very good players stayed with "small town" clubs in those days (Matthews, Finney, Lofthouse, Haynes, Mannion etc etc).

In Currie's day, you could make a lot more money by moving to a "bigger" club, as I am sure he did. Give the man credit for the fact that he stayed with United all the time we were in Division 1, when he could have earned more by moving.

Officially there was a maximum wage but even average footballers were given cash backhanders and often set up with very well paid summer jobs etc. Along with other benefits.
Gate receipts, paid in cash, funded everything. It was the same in Rugby Union before they went professional, Bert's mate used to get £40 cash every time he turned out for a top Union team in the days when they were strictly amateur.

 

[Darren]

Officially there was a maximum wage but even average footballers were given cash backhanders and often set up with very well paid summer jobs etc. Along with other benefits.
Gate receipts, paid in cash, funded everything. It was the same in Rugby Union before they went professional, Bert's mate used to get £40 cash every time he turned out for a top Union team in the days when they were strictly amateur.

Fair point. But was there that much differece in terms of backhanders with what United would give you compared to say, those titans of the fifties, Wolves or Man Utd?

 

[SRBlade]

I assume others have read the United autobiography, which describes how Bob Booker once went to some young Blade's house for tea simply because he had written and asked him to?

Which then led to countless letters afterwards requesting Booker's appearance at their dinner table

 

[Silent Blade]

Officially there was a maximum wage but even average footballers were given cash backhanders and often set up with very well paid summer jobs etc. Along with other benefits.
Gate receipts, paid in cash, funded everything. It was the same in Rugby Union before they went professional, Bert's mate used to get £40 cash every time he turned out for a top Union team in the days when they were strictly amateur.

Tommy Lawton went to 3rd division Notts County from 1st division Chelsea in 1947 when he was still playing for England. One of the Notts County directors gave Lawton a job at his company and paid him a very good wage. Only Lawton needed to do was to arrive at his works office to "clock in" and then go anywhere he liked to do for the day before coming back to the works office at the end of "his shift" to "clock out". He stayed at the club for about 4 seasons probably earning more money than any 1st division player!

 

[Mad Mick]

Mick Jones for me and also TC. They were my heroes as a kid and growing up.
Mick gave my mum and dad an autograph wishing me well when I was very ill in the 60's.
I managed to lose it.

 

[gavtheblade]

Borbokis for me.
Gormless lips,god like feet.
A legend.

 

[MunXy]

No one mentioned a very unsung hero, maybe not at BDTBL, but should have played more for England, the silver fox his self, Alan Woodward.

 

[shorehamview]

Peschisolido, anyone?

 

[Gavlar]

for me aside from the obvious deano, currie etc, I like paddy Kenny and monty

 

[Rooks]

View attachment 6172
My finest hour. You can tell I had style even as a young un

Calver FC U12s awards evening, derwent water arms, Calver

Swiss, did Andy Daykin and myself attend that night ?

 

[Rooks]

I assume others have read the United autobiography, which describes how Bob Booker once went to some young Blade's house for tea simply because he had written and asked him to?

Which then led to countless letters afterwards requesting Booker's appearance at their dinner table

Bob opened a Summer Fayre at Gleadless and the young Blade asked Bob if he'd like to have his tea at his house.

Bob asked him to write in to the Club to inform him when they were have Pie, Chips & Peas for tea and he would attend if possible, he did write in and Bob kept to his promise.

When we turned up at the house the street was packed with young Blades and he was inundated with requests to go for his tea at them all.

The funniest thing was that the Dad of the little un sat at the table with a shirt and tie on with his hair parted and combed impeccably, we later found out that the Dad normally had his tea on a tray watching the telly in his string vest.

 

[SwissBlade]

Swiss, did Andy Daykin and myself attend that night ?

You did indeed, I think it was all arranged through yourselves. You have a great memory

I think you then also arranged for the tour of the ground etc for us at a later date.

 

[Sirius]

Fair point. But was there that much differece in terms of backhanders with what United would give you compared to say, those titans of the fifties, Wolves or Man Utd?

Yes Darren, I believe there was. The late Ted Catlin (yes I know) treated me like a second son. One very famous fellow professional went on to manage a rival team. It was not unknown for him to set up parents of good young players, babes almost, in a lucrative business, Green grocers for example. or fund the odd house here and there. I just can't see United having done that.
That reminds me our Neil went straight into the Green Grocery business when he retired. If you think he now riles the refs, I can assure you that he upset the applecart around Netheredge years ago.

 

[Swanseablade]

Booker, Bradders, Deano for me - shows the most influential period for me!
Having said that, I really liked Glenn Cockerill from an earlier era. He used to get around the pitch well (a la Monty) - but the end product was a tad better!
I personally thought Stuart McCall did well for us (could do with him now) & Mark Patterson was massively under rated IMO.
We've had some decent keepers as well:
Tracey, Kelly and poor Mel Rees (who would have played a bigger part if it wasn't for illness).
Kelly is probably the stand out keeper tbh.

 

[Ferenc Blade]

Never got the Booker love in...average player.

Deano, Hodges, Whitehouse, Edwards, Morris for me.

 

[Darren]

Never got the Booker love in...average player.

Deano, Hodges, Whitehouse, Edwards, Morris for me.

Booker was indeed an average player, but he epitomised the spirit of the Bassett team of the late 80's and early 90's. He had spent his whole career with Brentford in the 3rd Division and was about to give up the game and start a window cleaning round when Bassett signed him. He was then an integral part of the rise from the 3rd to to the top division in successive season and played some good games in the Top Tier and scored that making us safe goal at QPR in April 1991. Added to that is that, by all accounts, Booker was a thoroughly nice bloke and acutely conscious of the privilege it was to play in that United team. As such, he played to the limit of his limited abilities at all times.

Who could not love a story like that?

 

[Highbury_Blade]

Never got the Booker love in...average player.

That's the whole point about cult heroes. They're rarely great players.

 

[diplomat]

Booker was indeed an average player, but he epitomised the spirit of the Bassett team of the late 80's and early 90's. He had spent his whole career with Brentford in the 3rd Division and was about to give up the game and start a window cleaning round when Bassett signed him. He was then an integral part of the rise from the 3rd to to the top division in successive season and played some good games in the Top Tier and scored that making us safe goal at QPR in April 1991. Added to that is that, by all accounts, Booker was a thoroughly nice bloke and acutely conscious of the privilege it was to play in that United team. As such, he played to the limit of his limited abilities at all times.

Who could not love a story like that?

And all with a dodgy knee.... I think another positive for Sir Bob was that he was largely derided when he first started playing for us, the latest scapegoat if you will. To then have your own oft sung song and be affectionately remembered by (I think it's fair to say) the majority is going some.

There is a T-shirt site called cult zeros. I had a Deano one.

 

[super_pig]

Are you kidding ? for all his class he was never a cult hero, he soon buggered off to Leeds a cult hero would have stayed at the lane like Hagan did when the pigs wanted him. The cult hero of that team was Trevor Hockey who was only there to win the ball then pass to Currie.

yeah but TH never had at least three kop chants about him either