Stanley Bowles, Bobby Moore, Malcolm Allison and Trevor Francis

The thing in common which links the above is that they were from the "Golden Age" of English football.
I am currently reading Stanley Bowles autobiography (published by Orion books) and I recommend it as a good read. Stan was the artful dodger of English football who could twist and turn, often sending a defender the wrong way, before scoring a cracker, usually form outside the box.
 He recalls Kenny Burns and Trevor Francis from his Nottingham Forest days with them. He had a high regard for Kenny, described by Clough as the uglies player that he ever signed, but thought that TF was over-rated, with his ability crafted round his turn of pace over twenty yards. In fact there is no doubt in my mind that Francis' best days were at Blues where he could do almost anything except perhaps head the ball. He suffered a broken leg whilst at Blues and in my opinion was never the same player again. But in those early years I was priveleged to see a genius at work and I have never seen a more exciting player.
 In a recent documentary about Bobby Moore he recalled that the greatest piece of coaching advice that he was ever given was from Allison who told him, "Always know what you are going to do with the ball before you receive it". If you watch his sublime pass to Geoff Hurst for the fourth goal in the 1966 World Cup victory over West Germany you will see what he meant.
 Bowles has a low opinion of Clough who rarely talked to him and treated him with contempt as he did most players. Bowles was man enough to take him on and inevitably he was soon on his way. How football misses characters like Bowles and Allison.
 As for Trevor Francis and Kenny Burns along with Bob Latchford they were sold and the backbone of the greatest team that I have watched in my fifty years as a Blues supporter was broken and we have never recovered. Latchford, who was Birmingham born, never forgave Blues for selling him.