50 years ago today - Tony Book signed for City

A surprise purchase...Tony Who? but what a legend he became. He spent a significant part of his life sitting on his team mates' shoulders displaying a trophy of some sort,
 
Book's playing days are slightly before my time, though I have fond memories of him as my first City manager. And he was one of the better ones in the last 40 years, too. You can make a decent case that only Colin Bell's tragic injury kept greatness from his side that won the League Cup and was Division One runners up.

Not sure that people always fully appreciate quite what a remarkable achievement his playing career was, as well. He didn't play professionally until he was past 30 and made the top flight at 32. It's almost incredible that he could then skipper his team to a full house of domestic trophies plus a European one and share the Footballer of the Year prize with a true great of the game like Dave Mackay. There can be very few similar cases, surely.

Quick question for those who did see him play. I've always assumed he'd have been capped by England but for his age. Is that a fair comment?
 
petrusha said:
Book's playing days are slightly before my time, though I have fond memories of him as my first City manager. And he was one of the better ones in the last 40 years, too. You can make a decent case that only Colin Bell's tragic injury kept greatness from his side that won the League Cup and was Division One runners up.

Not sure that people always fully appreciate quite what a remarkable achievement his playing career was, as well. He didn't play professionally until he was past 30 and made the top flight at 32. It's almost incredible that he could then skipper his team to a full house of domestic trophies plus a European one and share the Footballer of the Year prize with a true great of the game like Dave Mackay. There can be very few similar cases, surely.

Quick question for those who did see him play. I've always assumed he'd have been capped by England but for his age. Is that a fair comment?
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Probably, but even in those days, he wore the wrong coloured shirt. If Colin Bell couldn't get a game for England, what chance did he have?
 
I've told this story once before on here, but it deserves repeating.

Was a guest in the Chairman's Lounge last season for the Newcastle game, when Sergio went goal apeshit, and it's fair to say a fair amount of booze was drank on our part before the game. One of the blokes in our party, a big blue it should be said, who's MD of a brewery in Nottingham, whose name, crucially, is Colin, as his dad named him after a certain former City player, started talking to Skip at half time, when he was doing the rounds. In his defence Colin was hammered. Our Colin spent a fair while talking to Skip telling him that he was his hero growing up and that he was, in fact, named after him. The look on Skip's face when Colin passed him his business card was utterly fuckung priceless. As was the one on Colin's when we pointed out his slight technical error.

The piss taking that followed was pretty relentless.

Anyway, happy anniversary, Skip. Mr Manchester City :-)
 
Over 30 wasn't he when Mal brought him here? He was a real bomb-on full back of the type which later became common.

As a manager he was good too. That fatal day when Swales moved him upstairs and brought back Big Mal led to 30 years of disaster
 
crazyg said:
Probably, but even in those days, he wore the wrong coloured shirt. If Colin Bell couldn't get a game for England, what chance did he have?
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Cheers. You may be right, though IIRC most of his rivals for that spot (initially George Cohen, then the likes of Newton and Reaney) weren't from 'media darling' clubs such as United, Liverpool and the more glamorous London sides.
 
petrusha said:
Cheers. You may be right, though IIRC most of his rivals for that spot (initially George Cohen, then the likes of Newton and Reaney) weren't from 'media darling' clubs such as United, Liverpool and the more glamorous London sides.
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I think it's fairly pie-in-the-sky to suggest Tony Book should get in the England side ahead of Reaney, Madeley or Keith Newton.
 


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Ric said:
Not a bad bit of business for £17k!
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Fair old whack that for a man of his age. You can bet a few eyebrows would have been raised at the time 17 grand for a 31 year. This place would have been in melt down.

How wrong they were 5 years of fantastic service and that was just as a player.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Didn't Malcolm lie and tell Joe he was 27 or 28?
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IIRC he altered his birth certificate to make it look as if he was 2 years younger. What a signing he was, not just as an excellent defensive RB but as a leader.

On the England point he was unlucky not to be selected for the odd cap, after Cohen's last international in 1967, Keith Newton was initially the preferred successor but there were also appearances by the likes of Cyril Knowles (Spurs) and Tommy Wright (Everton), neither of whom were better than Skip in my admittedly biased opinion.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Didn't Malcolm lie and tell Joe he was 27 or 28?
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IIRC, it was to the Plymouth board when Big Mal wanted to sign Skip from Bath City.

He had to point out to Sir Joe that Joe's career had gone on until he was almost 40.

Happy Anniversary, Skip. It's been a pleasure to have had you as part of my life for almost as long as I can remember.
 
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