Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust are holding their AGM on Thursday at Cardiff City Stadium and, as usual, Rob Phillips and Jason Perry will be in attendance to give their thoughts on the current state of play at the club and answer questions from the audience.
Both men deserve great credit and appreciation for making themselves available year in, year out for the event and, as the person who has sent out Trust e-mails to the membership for the last fifteen years, I would guess that for a dozen of them, I’ve sent out messages in the late spring/early summer informing members that Rob and Jason will be at the AGM on a purely voluntary basis to answer members’ questions.
I don’t write the e-mails, I just distribute them and, invariably they describe Jason Perry as a Cardiff City legend. Now, no offence to Jason who was a great servant of the club and, as I can vouch through having attended quite a few of the AGMs myself, he’s a top bloke, but I don’t view him as a club legend.
That said, who am I to say who is a club legend when I can’t define what one is! Therefore, I’m happy enough to be told that I’m wrong about Jason.
It’s a subject I have thought about very occasionally down the years and I’m no nearer defining what makes a player a club legend now than I was forty years ago.
However, a combination of me sending out my annual e-mails about the legendary Jason Perry going to the AGM and a messageboard discussion about club legends prompted me to pick a City legends eleven this morning and I suppose my selections are a clue towards what I feel makes someone such a person even if I can’t define what it is in words.
Here’s my team then in 4-4-2 formation – I’m fairly confident I could pick a greatest ever City side which would beat it pretty comfortably, but that’s not the object of the exercise here.
Tom Farquharson
Phil Dwyer, Don Murray, Sol Bamba, Alf Sherwood
Peter King, Fred Keenor, Peter Whittingham, Craig Bellamy,
Earnie, Hughie Ferguson
Given I only picked the team an hour or so ago, it hasn’t attracted much comment yet, but there has been a suggestion for Stan Richards to replace Bellamy and, while I wouldn’t argue about Richards getting into the team, I think I’d leave Earnie out to accommodate him
The selection I took longest about was Peter King because it was almost the equivalent of a toss of a coin selection between him and Ian Gibson and I would need veery little persuasion to change it.
I think it’s fairly obvious that there is only one candidate for a place in the team in the current squad in view of Aaron Ramsey’s departure and that’s Joe Ralls – I’ll have him as one of three subs along with Ian Gibson and the versatile Derek Sullivan. Picking a manager is a tough one, but I’ll go for Eddie May – second thoughts, I’ll make it Bartley Wilson..
The thing about “best ever” selections is there can never be a right or wrong answer to them and that applies even more when you’re choosing something as hard to define as club legends, but I don’t think that’s too bad a stab at a difficult task and I invite readers to give me their thoughts on what makes a legend and their team selections under the category.
G’day, Paul,
Maybe other members of the MAYA community can whip up some enthusiasm for this, but not me.
In truth, apart from the formation (4-4-2), I can see nothing that I find agreeable.
Why does it underwhelm me so?
Don’t really know.
But my hunch is that the word ‘legend’ has been so devalued that in truth City would be raking the field with about 8 players…!!
As for your team… there is one glaring omission. Indeed you have submitted the player I reckon deserving of the honour of being the first name on that teamsheet: yes maybe even before Fred Keenor. I refer to the great Billy Hardy.
As for some of your selections… can someone really be a club legend if they have played for the club less than 100 times like Craig Bellamy (let alone have on his record – laughably wrongly in my opinion – the fact he bullied young apprentices)…
So if 100 appearances was a benchmark, the great Ivor Allchurch just about qualifies to take his place. Peerless.
As for candidates for the bench: three players I saw playing at Ynys Park in the late 1950s all strike me as possibly pushing the likes of Ernie Curtis and Joe Ralls off it. I refer to Billy Baker, Ken Hollyman and Stan Montgomery… the late Stan incidentally – the last time I checked – still holds the Glamorgan record for a fifth wicket stand…
Who would manage the Legends team, incidentally…? I reckon they might need the Divine help of St Ninian…
TTFN,
Dai.
Thanks Dai, Billy Hardy’s name came up in the messageboard discussion about my team and he’s definitely someone who merits serious consideration – fact is, I forgot about him! The thing is it’s hard enough to define what a legend should be (I agree it’s bandied around much too freely in all walks of life these days), it’s a ll very subjective and I posted on a messageboard that I think there’s every chance that no two teams selected by City fans would be identical.
For myself, it was off field considerations which made me select Craig Bellamy and Sol Bamba – Bellamy because it was a tremendous gesture to come here for his first spell with us at a time when he was close to the peak of his powers and Bamba because he just seemed such a terrific human being.
If I was going to g to include another player from. the fifties/sixties, it would probably have been Colin Baker who was a one club man who worked on the admin side at City for a few years after retiring. i worked at Cardiff Law Courts with Colin in the 70s and resolved that I’d only talk football with him when he brought the subject up – despite this,, he still became my best friend at the Law Courts because he was such a nice bloke and was a fascinating listen on those occasions when he did talk football.
My late dad was born in 1901, and his pals supported Porth Welfare FC and then the City.
And as a small kid in the 1950s I recall being told by several of them that THE HEARTBEAT of that City team that went twice to Wembley in two years, was not Fred… but was in fact BILLY… they still raved over him 30 years later.
As for Colin Baker: a very competent right half who lost his first team place to the quite outstanding Steve Gammon… whose top flight career was so cruelly ended by that awful tackle from Denis Law.
But Colin was no more a legend than Ron Stitfall was. Both were loyal servants for many years… but that in itself does not a legend make.
Btw… kudos to you for having the honesty and basic humility to admit to the act of ‘forgetting’.
That is why Paul you never became a politician of any stripe. You cannot dissemble.
God bless you for your integrity.
DW
Here we go-
David Marshall.
Joe Dwyer, Don Murray, Brian Harris, Alf Sherwood;
Billy Hardy (thanks Dai);
Graham Kavanagh, Ivor Allchurch, Peter Whittingham.
Brian Clark, John Toshack.
Thanks both, Dai, getting serious for a sec, one of the reasons the world is in the mess it’s in is that people in the public eye have almost forgotten what it’s like to say “I’m sorry. I got it wrong there”. This man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn
was a mentor to the young Donald Trump and instilled in him a refusal to ever admit he was wrong, but, tempting as it is, ypu cannot blame all of the modern world’s ills on the American buffoon because the refusal to acknowledge mistakes is rife all over the world among those who “rule’ and try to influence us.
On the other hand, you show me someone who is able to admit to the error of their ways and I’ll instinctively warm towards them – as long as it does not become too much of a habit!
How can I try to make out I never get things wrong when there’s this fifteen year old record of my thoughts on my football club in which I constantly get it wrong!
As for Clive’s team, it’s as wrong and as right as the team I picked – how can it be anything but that in this subject where there is mo right and no wrong? What I would say about it though is that I think it would probably beat my team if they ever got to play each other!
I quite like the look of Clive’s team but I think I would prefer Ron Stitfall to Joe Dwyer and would wish to accommodate Peter King somehow, but not sure who to leave out.
I note that Sky are not able to accept that the City are in League 1, and nor can I, as on their Sports News programme last night they announced the appointment of our new Manager as being at Championship Club, Cardiff City. I wish.
Thanks Brian. I might agree with you about Ron Stitfall on pure playing ability but Joe Dwyer deserves legend status.
p.s. Paul – I’m never wrong about anything.
I always think our promotion and relegation takes place when all of the clubs who’ll be competing in our division in the new season have been confirmed Brian, so I’m pretty sure that it was Whit Monday when that happened after AFC Wimbledon had won their Play Off Final. Maybe Sky are sayiong it’s the day when the fixtures are announced so I think we’ve got about a week to fool potential new signings into thinking they’ll be joining a Championship club!
Pretty sure I saw Ron Stitfall play for us, but he made no impression on me whatsoever – he can’t be in your team though because Clive’s always right!