Ray Wilkins RIP

[1973Blade]

For me, in the 80s he was too negative playing it sideways, hence his 'crab' nickname. Then towards the end of his career he became more adventurous and showed what a talented player he was. I saw him play for QPR at Everton in 1994, they won 3-0 and Wilkins was so good that even Evertonians gave him a standing ovation.

 

[georgebernardshaw]

He was worshipped by the fans at A.C.Milan, and the Italian press are all over it today

Rightly so.

 

[Large Mendonca]

Unfortunately my only (live) memory of RW was him overseeing a pre-match training session at the Lane, when he was on the coaching staff at Millwall in 2005. The Millwall goalkeeper was continually launching practice goalkicks right into the middle of our training session to disrupt it. Soft lads like Montgomery obligingly passed them the balls back, for them to repeatedly carry on the same antic. I gave Mr Wilkins a piece of my mind (i was sat quite low down in the JSS that season), and that i was onto him. Of course it made absolutuley no difference, and we lost 1-0.

Other than that, he seemed a decent bloke

A sad loss for football.

 

[ucandomagic]

R.I.P. to Ray and God bless his family. A lovely guy and a classy footballer.

Absolutely no age. It does make me wonder about excerise and if it’s the be all and end all to longevity when so many athletes have heart problems so soon after retiring from their sport. You’d think keeping really fit into your 30’s or 40’s would store up some sort of long term cardio protection, but in many cases it seems once the regular fitness regimes stop they’re as vulnerable as the rest of us.

Hard exercise increases your heart size, which is dangerous if you suddenly stop - a lot more dangerous than if you have been like us lazy bastards your whole life. Cyclists were the worst, as their hearts gets huge. The average age for a pro cyclist to die was 55 - that was even before drugs! Boardman was the first to take it seriously, and he had a whole planned scheme of training up through his career and then training down when his career ended.

 

[GrayBlade]

Hard exercise increases your heart size, which is dangerous if you suddenly stop - a lot more dangerous than if you have been like us lazy bastards your whole life. Cyclists were the worst, as their hearts gets huge. The average age for a pro cyclist to die was 55 - that was even before drugs! Boardman was the first to take it seriously, and he had a whole planned scheme of training up through his career and then training down when his career ended.

Cheers for that bud. I genuinely hadn’t heard that.

 

[Fanny magnet]

I've been listening to talksport all afternoon and I've never heard such warm glowing genuine tributes to a man from people genuinely touched that someone of his standing would go out of his way to be nice to them or make them feel at ease or help them
Don't mind admitting I found it incredibly moving he sounds like such a great fella

Rip ray

 

[Speedracer]

Terrible news, technically a very gifted footballer who was probably underrated at the time, and more importantly a genuine really nice guy, thoughts are with his family, he will be missed by many.

 

[Sheffsteel]

I've been listening to talksport all afternoon and I've never heard such warm glowing genuine tributes to a man from people genuinely touched that someone of his standing would go out of his way to be nice to them or make them feel at ease or help them
Don't mind admitting I found it incredibly moving he sounds like such a great fella

Rip ray

I heard some of the tributes on Talksport too.

The most moving was by the QPR manager Ian Hollloway, anyone would have thought Ray Wilkins was his dad.

 

[bornablade]

First time I came across the name Ray 'Butch' Wilkins was in the mid 1970's. On holiday in Caister met some Chelsea fans who were raving about this young teenager called Butch Wilkins and had just been made captain.

They weren't wrong. Turned out to be a first class player and a really decent guy.

When Adkins joined us I was hoping that some of Ray's influence may have rubbed off on his brother Dean.

RIP Ray Wilkins.

 

[HOT CURRIE 10]

True gentleman , proper footballer and great respect to to guy,
A sad day for football.

 

[SUFC Handsworth]

As a teenager growing up in the 80s he was one of the big names in English football, really sad to hear the news today and heard some glowing tributes on Talksport this afternoon. By all accounts a true gent. Remember reading the 'Steaming In' hooligan book about the 70s and 80s, at a time when just about all England players would have nothing to do with England fans at away games, the only one who did talk to them was Ray Wilkins, top bloke.

Through the 80s I was never that big a fan and always thought the England team should have been built around Hoddle, however saw him play for QPR against us in the early 90s at Loftus Road and he was brilliant, totally dictated the pace of the game. For Blades fans I guess comparisons would be a player similar to Coutts, McCall or Gordan Cowans (another player I wasn't a fan of until he signed for us!). The only time I'd have seen him at the Lane I guess would have been the 76/77 season, a 1-0 win Friday night before Christmas.

As many have said his style of play would have been totally suited to the modern game.

RIP Ray Wilkins, a true football man and top bloke.

 

[John Street West Terrace]

Very very sad news ,a genuine nice decent bloke & gentleman in a world of self obsessed & greedy b footballers

RIP Butch

 

[Highbury_Blade]