Joe Mercer Appointed Manager Today 1965

[BringBackSwales]

An absolute gentleman

 

[KS55]

As vital to the history of the club as absolutely anybody else.
A question. I always presumed that Joe was a scouser (I just assumed it because of that accent). I see that he was actually from Ellesmere Port. Does that technically make him a scouser? I presume not.

There are some good people from Liverpool, by the way.

A lot of people from Ellesmere Port have scouse accents but try to cover them up. If you spot it, they go mad.
“The Wirral is in Cheshire.”

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

A lot of people from Ellesmere Port have scouse accents but try to cover them up. If you spot it, they go mad.
“The Wirral is in Cheshire.”

There's a comparable mistake I once made. My Lancashire geography isn't all that hot (not being from round here), and I once said to someone, quite casually, not on the wind-up, “Oh, well you're basically in south Blackpool, aren't you?” We were staying in Lytham St. Anne's, and I think she was from even from there. Oooooooh! If looks could kill.

 

[Gary James]

As vital to the history of the club as absolutely anybody else.
A question. I always presumed that Joe was a scouser (I just assumed it because of that accent). I see that he was actually from Ellesmere Port. Does that technically make him a scouser? I presume not.

There are some good people from Liverpool, by the way.

He spoke with a Cheshire accent in the days when Ellesmere Port wasn’t viewed as a part of Merseyside. Proudly from Cheshire and the Wirral. Tranmere his club. His wife Norah was from Liverpool, but Joe was not and didn’t regard himself as one.

 

[xgorton]

Ralph Brand his first signing.

 

[Kinkybyname]

who? thought we had no 'istory?

 

[city2]

Dad took me the previous season when George Poyser was manager, then genial Joe came and the magic started, forgot Ralph was his first signing great days to be a blue. Love you dad for making me a blue.

 

[KS55]

Ralph Brand his first signing.

Brand was not a success for us. Having scored better than a goal every other game for Rangers, he scored just twice for us. Iirc, he went most of his first season waiting to break his duck.
But Joe made some great signings for us: Bell, Lee, Summerbee not a bad trio. He reluctantly signed Skip at the insistence of big Mal, who had managed him at Bath. They faked his age so as not to risk the board turning him down as too old.
Great days.
Typical City sacked Joe, he was a casualty of the board split. A long time later, after Joe’s death, the club was reconciled to Joe’s missus.

 

[xgorton]

Brand was not a success for us. Having scored better than a goal every other game for Rangers, he scored just twice for us. Iirc, he went most of his first season waiting to break his duck.
But Joe made some great signings for us: Bell, Lee, Summerbee not a bad trio.

Yes he was poor,remember at Deepdale he got one in a 3-0 win long time ago.

 

[KS55]

Yes he was poor,remember at Deepdale he got one in a 3-0 win long time ago.

And there’s a few of us still around to remember that history that we don’t have.
I loved that team, it still had an air of amateur spirit around. A barman in a hotel in Rome told me a story about them checking in. They dragged an unconscious Summerbee across the reception and said: “This is our captain. He will check us all in.” Whereupon they retired to the bar.