Eden Hazard Retires

[chara]

Just a quick anectdote...visited the old Harlington training ground just before end of a morning session...Speedie was first away with golf clubs over his shoulder...Spackman stayed out with 2/3 others going over some moves.

Tough sob ...ex miner or something?....Mason (example only) where were you at that age ?

[Dwmh]

2 hours ago, boratsbrother said:

Took us to top of the table at Easter, so he was doing a great job at one point.

If I recall correctly, he was having problems behind the scenes with some of our top players, decided to drop them for a game against QPR which we went onto to get battered 6-0.  From that point on the team fell  apart, as did Hollins career as a manager.🙁

That was his first season of 3 though.  The next 4 games DWDW with one of the wins at Old Trafford.  It only really turned sour later on but we still finished 6th.
The question is why he got 2 more years.

 

This is the team 2 years later that got relegated.  (Thanks to the @jasonb link to the www.bounder.friardale.co.uk site).
Although Spackman and Speedie left during the summer it is still a strong team.

Unlucky to go down (4th bottom team was in a play off and we had 42 points from 40 games,  as did two others and one had 43, but G avg meant we went into the playoffs.)
But the collapse started in October, long before Hollins was sacked in March.
Not a mistake RA or the CreamCakes would make.

[Backbiter]

3 hours ago, boratsbrother said:

Took us to top of the table at Easter, so he was doing a great job at one point.

If I recall correctly, he was having problems behind the scenes with some of our top players, decided to drop them for a game against QPR which we went onto to get battered 6-0.  From that point on the team fell  apart, as did Hollins career as a manager.🙁

It wasn't just Hollins, it was coach Ernie Whalley the players couldn't stand. He had some bonkers methods, including playing practice matches without a ball, and he basically ripped up the way of playing that had been successful under John Neal.

Added to that were the tensions within the squad. There were big bust-ups between Speedie and Dixon (and, quite possibly, between Speedie and nearly everyone else in the squad). Things fell apart very quickly after two and two-thirds seasons from the watershed summer of 1983 and the catastrophic Easter of 1986. We still had a pretty good team and should never have got ourselves relegated in '88.

[east lower]

One memorable moment for me in the photo below, got it from the news reports and it came up again on the clubs Instagram.

My lad, me and Eden - A. Madrid game and their centre-half had just knocked one in for us. 

[Ham]

22 minutes ago, east lower said:

One memorable moment for me in the photo below, got it from the news reports and it came up again on the clubs Instagram.

My lad, me and Eden - A. Madrid game and their centre-half had just knocked one in for us. 

Love that. Priceless indeed.

My claim to fame was featuring in the celebration after Poyet scored THAT goal against Sunderland in the 4-0 in 1999. 

 

[east lower]

34 minutes ago, Ham said:

Love that. Priceless indeed.

My claim to fame was featuring in the celebration after Poyet scored THAT goal against Sunderland in the 4-0 in 1999. 

 

And that was some goal!

What makes the photo strangely interesting is that my surname is Price. 

[kev61]

14 hours ago, jasonb said:

Can't see either were dropped after Forest, we lost in the League Cup then beat Utd away and both played.

https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Results/1986.htm#3291

Just confirmed that my memory is shot.My 'memory' was that Franz Carr ran Darren Wood ragged(who wasn't even playing!)and I 'remember' Gary Birtles scoring a diving header.

Obviously I was wrong in a couple things that I would have swore on.

A care home beckons at this rate😥

Edited October 21, 2023 by kev61

[kev61]

13 hours ago, boratsbrother said:

Took us to top of the table at Easter, so he was doing a great job at one point.

If I recall correctly, he was having problems behind the scenes with some of our top players, decided to drop them for a game against QPR which we went onto to get battered 6-0.  From that point on the team fell  apart, as did Hollins career as a manager.🙁

Another manager that if he lost his temper with players would like being savaged by a dead sheep.

'Too nice' a manager at that time.

[kev61]

10 hours ago, Dwmh said:

That was his first season of 3 though.  The next 4 games DWDW with one of the wins at Old Trafford.  It only really turned sour later on but we still finished 6th.
The question is why he got 2 more years.

 

This is the team 2 years later that got relegated.  (Thanks to the @jasonb link to the www.bounder.friardale.co.uk site).
Although Spackman and Speedie left during the summer it is still a strong team.

Unlucky to go down (4th bottom team was in a play off and we had 42 points from 40 games,  as did two others and one had 43, but G avg meant we went into the playoffs.)
But the collapse started in October, long before Hollins was sacked in March.
Not a mistake RA or the CreamCakes would make.

The one person that stands out for me was Clive Wilson.He got dogs abuse from the shed end because he was black.I walked out of a game because of the abuse he took.

Thank god we are light years ahead of that era.

[Michael Tucker]

51 minutes ago, kev61 said:

Thank god we are light years ahead of that era.

Amen to that mate.

[blueandproud]

On 20/10/2023 at 17:46, Backbiter said:

It wasn't just Hollins, it was coach Ernie Whalley the players couldn't stand. He had some bonkers methods, including playing practice matches without a ball, and he basically ripped up the way of playing that had been successful under John Neal.

Added to that were the tensions within the squad. There were big bust-ups between Speedie and Dixon (and, quite possibly, between Speedie and nearly everyone else in the squad). Things fell apart very quickly after two and two-thirds seasons from the watershed summer of 1983 and the catastrophic Easter of 1986. We still had a pretty good team and should never have got ourselves relegated in '88.

Agreed.  In 1975 and '79 we were useless and deserved to go down, but the 1987-88 team was good,  Speedie and Spackman buggered off but it was Ernie Whalley who was the real villain of the piece, despised by pretty much all of the players.  Bobby Campbell then took over,, restored the spirit and we have beem in the top flight ever since.  Sure, we had ou ups and downs but fond memories of the '80's and 90's remain.

[jasonb]

I wouldn't say it was plain sailing once Campbell took over, he was followed by Porterfield and we slipped into the danger zone with Dave Webb just bailing us out.

It was Hoddle that lifted us again.

One thing on Porterfield  we were playing  up north somewhere and the club had announced in the week they were selling Jason  Cundy. People were not happy thinking the club were selling our young players with potential.  We must have been held in by the police as on coming out we could see the club coach about 30 of us and started bombarding Porterfield with demands about Cundy. He could have just walked in and closed the door he didn't, he turned and said something like, 'Guys we have to sell Cundy it does not make sense but will do in a couple of years time.'

I can only think the medical team were better then and had picked up something, Cundy played 18 times for Spurs before going out on several loans.

 

 

[blueandproud]

6 hours ago, jasonb said:

I wouldn't say it was plain sailing once Campbell took over, he was followed by Porterfield and we slipped into the danger zone with Dave Webb just bailing us out.

It was Hoddle that lifted us again.

One thing on Porterfield  we were playing  up north somewhere and the club had announced in the week they were selling Jason  Cundy. People were not happy thinking the club were selling our young players with potential.  We must have been held in by the police as on coming out we could see the club coach about 30 of us and started bombarding Porterfield with demands about Cundy. He could have just walked in and closed the door he didn't, he turned and said something like, 'Guys we have to sell Cundy it does not make sense but will do in a couple of years time.'

I can only think the medical team were better then and had picked up something, Cundy played 18 times for Spurs before going out on several loans.

 

 

IMHO we could have won the league in 89-90, had it not been for our over reliance on Dixon and Wilson for goals, not to mention Graham Roberts' defensive **** ups.  Campbell's final season was poor, despite making great signings in Andy Townsend and Dennis Wise.  Tow mediocre seasons under Porterfield ensued, but unlike most people I never really feared we would get relegated in 92-93, Webby kept us up but the football was murder to watch.  I feared relegation far more in 93-94, when we were 21st in the league and couldn't win a game to save our lives.  We got to the FA Cup final and got beaten 4-0, but as you said, happier times followed.

[jasonb]

On 25/10/2023 at 18:09, blueandproud said:

IMHO we could have won the league in 89-90, had it not been for our over reliance on Dixon and Wilson for goals, not to mention Graham Roberts' defensive **** ups.  Campbell's final season was poor, despite making great signings in Andy Townsend and Dennis Wise.  Tow mediocre seasons under Porterfield ensued, but unlike most people I never really feared we would get relegated in 92-93, Webby kept us up but the football was murder to watch.  I feared relegation far more in 93-94, when we were 21st in the league and couldn't win a game to save our lives.  We got to the FA Cup final and got beaten 4-0, but as you said, happier times followed.

Just looking back on that season and see it was worse than I remembered.

No Dixon or Wilson yet Cascarino, Spencer and Stein.

Also Hoddle started as player manager yet by Nov / Dec was not playing and that was around when the losing patch began.

[blueandproud]

On 27/10/2023 at 14:00, jasonb said:

Just looking back on that season and see it was worse than I remembered.

No Dixon or Wilson yet Cascarino, Spencer and Stein.

Also Hoddle started as player manager yet by Nov / Dec was not playing and that was around when the losing patch began.

Spencer and Stein I thought were decent strikers at the time, but Cascarino was an absolute donkey, and that's an insult to a donkey.  We also sold Cliver Allen and Mick Harford who were miles better, but insisted on keeping that gangling, sparrow footed, ineffective shower.