Hard men of football

[Harvster]

Pull your shorts up a bit you scruffy bleeder. Nice Rodri tuck-in however

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I would place money on Fernandinho being able to have at least two of these, and without a word being said or a posture being made.

 

[Bluearmy]

Stuart Pearce deffo falls into that category.. Harry Redknapp’s book reveals a few stories about how tough he was...

Still dont know why he never attacked Basile Boli after that headbutt

 

[Tom Ford]

Funniest.. was the Youtube tackle Souness did on the Steaua Bucharest player playing for Rangers.. most horrific tackle then points to a tiny ladder in his sock as some sort of justification..

 

[Vienna_70]

In those days full backs used to do a hard early tackle to let their usually mard arsed winger what they would get during the next 90 minutes.
Buzzer always used to let his full back know in the first few minutes what he was in for the rest of the afternoon.
Bolton used to have a very well spoken full back called Roy Hartle.
Roy was on Radio 4 for some reason and he explained how he and the other full back would agree to give an early kicking to their wingers and then kick them to the opposite side of the pitch for some more kicking. Sounded really funny coming from this posh sounding elderly gentleman.
Andy Morrison was another whose gentle voice didn’t go with the rest of him.

Despite all his years away from the South-West, Andy still has a very strong Plymouth accent.

 

[Vienna_70]

ALL of them, from Sprake forwards, were dirty, snidey bastards, who wouldn't hesitate to foul the opposition if it benefitted them. The irony was that they were a bloody good side when they wanted to play, but seemed happy to be cast as "dirty Leeds" and revel in the notoriety.

It was pointed out to me, when I lived in Stoke, that Johnny Giles was one of the worst, as he used to rake his studs down opponents' Achilles.

I’d always remembered him as one of the "cleaner" members of that dirty Leeds outfit.

In mitigation, I was only 7/8 at the time.

 

[Vienna_70]

Advantage rule.lol.

I hate Bremner more than any non-rag player.

I absolutely detested him during his time at dirty Leeds. He was a horrible, nasty, snidey bastard.

 

[Marlo]

Souey was Liverpool’s greatest player in my book not Dalglish and for me the toughest of modern generation.. shout outs also have to go out to Dave Mackay and Mick Harford of Luton.. believe it or not quite a lot of hard man of the time including Roy Keane used to say toughest opponent they played against was Ronnie Whelan.

I used to watch Whelan play for Ireland a bit, I believe the phrase assassin is what comes to mind. Would do tackles that look innocuous but would leave the player in agony, so much so it became a joke in the crowd.

Another one who had an edge and was well able to look after himself was Paul McGrath, classy defender alright but not a soft touch. I remember a forward think it was Hungary trying to do McGrath, did not end well.

 

[Sky Blue Thinking]

Billy Whitehurst who played for a number of clubs, most notably Hull in the 80s had the rep of a handy lad.

 

[BillCarlisle]

In those days full backs used to do a hard early tackle to let their usually mard arsed winger what they would get during the next 90 minutes.
Buzzer always used to let his full back know in the first few minutes what he was in for the rest of the afternoon.
Bolton used to have a very well spoken full back called Roy Hartle.
Roy was on Radio 4 for some reason and he explained how he and the other full back would agree to give an early kicking to their wingers and then kick them to the opposite side of the pitch for some more kicking. Sounded really funny coming from this posh sounding elderly gentleman.
Andy Morrison was another whose gentle voice didn’t go with the rest of him.

The "other" full back at Bolton in those days was Tommy Banks. I never saw them play but my Dad always said they were both a pair of cloggers. Banks was apparently even harder than Hartle.