Kazimierz Deyna

[Gingers Dad]

Nice of you to find a spot for Gordon Davies!

Goes without saying. He was carrying that team, if only Billy Mac had stayed

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

And don't forget his winner at Maine rd v Forest, the reignimg European champions at the time, we were a struggling patch work of a team, that result came out of the blue. I was buzzing for weeks after. Denya 1 Forest 0.still got the match report cutting from the Sunday people !

Think it was Forest's first defeat in 30 odd games.
The roar on the final whistle was brilliant.
Always recall singing the "We hate Nottingham Forest......" to Land Of Hope & Glory and before the next line of " We hate Liverpool too" was sung, the Forest fans would chant "and Nottingham boys will see you outside"

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

He is, and with good reason. But if you watch the speed of the game, the way players move, the tactics, the game as a whole pales in comparison to where things are now.

Football just moves forward. If Maradona had come round again 20 years later, he would have been much better than the original.

Maradona is a level above David Silva in best ever players I think.

 

[Gingers Dad]

It was 1982 World Cup in Spain that had a second group stage. I think we (England) drew both games 0-0 and went out

The first WC that England had qualified for since 1962

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Goes without saying. He was carrying that team, if only Billy Mac had stayed

I bet he wishes he had - he’d then have only managed one team to be relegated that season!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

You could tell from that display we were in big trouble for the start of the forthcoming season, and we were beaten easily at Southampton four days later before losing 4-0 at home to newly promoted Sunderland the following midweek. I remember the Legia match quite clearly because it was the first time I'd seen the City crowd turn on the team like that.

This was greatly at odds with the prevailing mood at the end of the previous season where we only lost one out of the last eight games. I remember the last game at home to a very good Ipswich team that we won (2-1) in some style and the players did a lap of honour after the game!

 

[petrusha]

This was greatly at odds with the prevailing mood at the end of the previous season where we only lost one out of the last eight games. I remember the last game at home to a very good Ipswich team that we won (2-1) in some style and the players did a lap of honour after the game!

Yes, it was quite a young side and, after looking as though we could get into a real relegation scrap, we ended up staying up with a fair bit to spare. We actually appeared to have a degree of promise. That made it quite a shock to see just how bad we were at the start of the following season.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Yes, it was quite a young side and, after looking as though we could get into a real relegation scrap, we ended up staying up with a fair bit to spare. We actually appeared to have a degree of promise. That made it quite a shock to see just how bad we were at the start of the following season.

Yes, things unraveled pretty quickly for Mal the following season - if only there was a TV crew knocking around the club at the time to document it…

 

[Alfie Budd]

It was 1982 World Cup in Spain that had a second group stage. I think we (England) drew both games 0-0 and went out

The 82 World Cup had a weird format that was quickly dropped after that tournament (the first to involve 24 rather than 16 teams) - a second stage consisting of four groups each containing three teams followed by semi finals involving the four group winners.
74 and 78 had a second group stage (two groups of four teams) with no knockout games at all before the final. The winners of the two second round groups met in the final with the two second placed teams playing for third and fourth place.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

My memory of watching him, albeit as a young kid, is that Deyna was clearly a high-class player but was past his best when he came to us. He struggled at first with the pace of the English game when we played him in the centre of midfield, and his best moments came when Mal switched him up front in 1979/80.

However, by then we'd sold nearly all the quality players we had, and, as the Stoke manager Alan Durban commented, the problem for City was that Deyna was simply on a different wavelength to the rest of the players. My old man said the same thing, comparing the situation to that of the young Denis Law in his first spell at Maine Road, when he was simply too good for nearly all of the rest of our team.

Also, there wasn't just an away friendly that was part of the deal with Legia Warsaw for Deyna. There was a home one, too, which was delayed from the original planned date and was eventually played as a pre-season match in August 1980. Anyone else remember it?

We were battered, really outclassed. At 5-0 down, the Kippax started cheering on Legia, doing the 'ole' thing as they knocked the ball around and booing if City got it back again. Kevin Reeves scored our consolation near the end against a backdrop of chants of, "We want six! We want six!" The exaggeratedly wild celebrations after Reeves's strike were intended as an absolute piss-take.

You could tell from that display we were in big trouble for the start of the forthcoming season, and we were beaten easily at Southampton four days later before losing 4-0 at home to newly promoted Sunderland the following midweek. I remember the Legia match quite clearly because it was the first time I'd seen the City crowd turn on the team like that.

Goodness, brings back some (bad) memories. Deyna was the wrong buy and of course bought at a time of real upheaval. What I will remember of him was his coolness and class in front of goal -eg the winner v Forest and a few great finishes at the back end of his first season. Plus check out his dribble before Henry scored v the rags in my first home Derby -2-0 to the blues