Gary James
Well-Known Member
I always think that every football club should do more for its heroes. Statues, mosaics, roads, gardens etc. named after them or depicting them but when it comes to the naming of stands or the stadium I am never convinced.
The issue is that once you've named a stand or stadium after someone you are sort of setting your history at that point. In football we always should want to achieve more than in the past and the mark of a great side is always ensuring that it's current heroes eclipse its past heroes.
Mike Summerbee always makes this point well. He always talks of the success of the team, not an individual, and points out that he wants the 'Bell-Lee-Summerbee' era to be eclipsed.
We can have many, many statues, gates, mosaics etc. but only four stands. Naming a stand therefore has to be the biggest statement you can make, but it does limit your history or suggests 'you've only had 1-4 stars'.
Looking at City's entire history it's clear there have been many, many contenders for the honour of having a stand named after them. No matter how great a player is, however, each generation will have its own view. Over time people do forget (and therefore naming a road, building a statue or mosaic helps them remember).
From detailed research I know that Billy Meredith was by far the biggest name in British football (possibly sport itself) when he was our star. he brought our first success.
In the 20s Tommy Johnson smashed goalscoring records and was so significant that when he was sold fans demonstrated and ended up boycotting the club (and our crowds did suffer by several thousands). He was a huge City star.
In the 30s Barkas (capt when we won the title) was described as the greatest City captain of all time. Yet 3 years earlier Sam Cowan became the first (and to date only) man to appear in 3 FA Cup finals and did as much as anybody to create a highly popular club.
Peter Doherty was described in the 1970s (even after Colin Bell and George Best had reached their peaks) as the greatest City player of all time and the greatest Irish player of all time. All fans who saw him rated him better than either Bell or Utd's Best.
Frank Swift was the greatest British goalkeeper of all time. Fans who saw both him and Bert at their peak claim Swift was better, but obviously that's a hard one to judge today.
In the fifties there were other very significant and brilliant players as other topics have covered (Revie etc.).
Then there's the great stars of the 60s and 70s, plus people like Kinkladze, Lake, Rosler, Dickov, Quinn and so on who for many fans will always be their biggest heroes.
Of course, then you have people like Joe Mercer, Malcolm Allison, Wilf Wild, Lawrence Furniss, the Connells and so on.
So... the point I'm trying to make is that naming stands sounds brilliant but I'd rather have a walkway of heroes, or have strong mosaics/statues of leading stars around the stadium instead because that doesn't limit your history or ambition.
A walkway of statues leading up to the stadium headed by Bert on one side, Swift on the other, with all the stars (as voted by fans to cover the generations) lined up - that'd show the history and heritage of a truly great club.
Incidentally, when Maine Road opened in 1923 fans urged the club to name the stadium after Lawrence Furniss. Fans petitioned the Club and truly felt Furniss deserved the honour. Today few probably know his name, but back then Furniss was rightly recognised as one of the key influences in the Club. He was a former player; the manager who guided the Club into the League; the man who signed Meredith; the person who paid off Ardwick's debts to allow City to rise from the ashes; the Chairman of the club who made the move to Maine Road; and ultimately the first Life President of the Blues (president when we won the League for the first time).
In the end Furniss rejected the idea of having the stadium named after him because, he argued, no man is bigger than Manchester City. He felt no one should ever be given that honour.
The issue is that once you've named a stand or stadium after someone you are sort of setting your history at that point. In football we always should want to achieve more than in the past and the mark of a great side is always ensuring that it's current heroes eclipse its past heroes.
Mike Summerbee always makes this point well. He always talks of the success of the team, not an individual, and points out that he wants the 'Bell-Lee-Summerbee' era to be eclipsed.
We can have many, many statues, gates, mosaics etc. but only four stands. Naming a stand therefore has to be the biggest statement you can make, but it does limit your history or suggests 'you've only had 1-4 stars'.
Looking at City's entire history it's clear there have been many, many contenders for the honour of having a stand named after them. No matter how great a player is, however, each generation will have its own view. Over time people do forget (and therefore naming a road, building a statue or mosaic helps them remember).
From detailed research I know that Billy Meredith was by far the biggest name in British football (possibly sport itself) when he was our star. he brought our first success.
In the 20s Tommy Johnson smashed goalscoring records and was so significant that when he was sold fans demonstrated and ended up boycotting the club (and our crowds did suffer by several thousands). He was a huge City star.
In the 30s Barkas (capt when we won the title) was described as the greatest City captain of all time. Yet 3 years earlier Sam Cowan became the first (and to date only) man to appear in 3 FA Cup finals and did as much as anybody to create a highly popular club.
Peter Doherty was described in the 1970s (even after Colin Bell and George Best had reached their peaks) as the greatest City player of all time and the greatest Irish player of all time. All fans who saw him rated him better than either Bell or Utd's Best.
Frank Swift was the greatest British goalkeeper of all time. Fans who saw both him and Bert at their peak claim Swift was better, but obviously that's a hard one to judge today.
In the fifties there were other very significant and brilliant players as other topics have covered (Revie etc.).
Then there's the great stars of the 60s and 70s, plus people like Kinkladze, Lake, Rosler, Dickov, Quinn and so on who for many fans will always be their biggest heroes.
Of course, then you have people like Joe Mercer, Malcolm Allison, Wilf Wild, Lawrence Furniss, the Connells and so on.
So... the point I'm trying to make is that naming stands sounds brilliant but I'd rather have a walkway of heroes, or have strong mosaics/statues of leading stars around the stadium instead because that doesn't limit your history or ambition.
A walkway of statues leading up to the stadium headed by Bert on one side, Swift on the other, with all the stars (as voted by fans to cover the generations) lined up - that'd show the history and heritage of a truly great club.
Incidentally, when Maine Road opened in 1923 fans urged the club to name the stadium after Lawrence Furniss. Fans petitioned the Club and truly felt Furniss deserved the honour. Today few probably know his name, but back then Furniss was rightly recognised as one of the key influences in the Club. He was a former player; the manager who guided the Club into the League; the man who signed Meredith; the person who paid off Ardwick's debts to allow City to rise from the ashes; the Chairman of the club who made the move to Maine Road; and ultimately the first Life President of the Blues (president when we won the League for the first time).
In the end Furniss rejected the idea of having the stadium named after him because, he argued, no man is bigger than Manchester City. He felt no one should ever be given that honour.