This blogger's beloved (and now, thankfully, sold) Newcastle United's winger Jacob Murphy has hailed Kieran Trippier as 'one of the best full-backs in the world' after a thumping victory over Crystal Palace at St James' Park. Murphy and Trippier combined for the opener after four minutes and threatened throughout as Newcastle climbed to fifth in the Premier League. Goals from Anthony Gordon, Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson rounded off an emphatic afternoon for The Magpies. 'He's an unbelievable right-back, probably one of the best in the world,' Murphy said. 'It was a great start. The key word for us was "tempo"; we started quick and that got us up and running. It put us in good stead for the rest of the game.' Old Roy Hodgson's visitors were never in the game and couldn't match Newcastle's intensity and high pressing, but will hope this embarrassingly public pants-down hiding is but a minor blip in what has been a decent start to the season. Newcastle, who had their own minor blip losing three games in succession during August and having sneering tossers talking about last season being an 'over-achievement' went in front when Trippier found Murphy with a sumptuous first-time pass and the winger lifted the ball over Sam Johnstone, who was caught in no-man's land. Initially called offside by the linesman, VAR judged that Trippier's run in the build-up was impeccably timed, sending the St James' Park crowd totally mad off-it ape shit crazy. it was quite a sight. Newcastle's hold on the first half was released only sporadically by attacks from the visitors and the hosts were out of sight by the break despite having squandered a number of chances. Trippier and Murphy were causing havoc down the right and their link-up led to a pinpoint cross for Gordon to finish at the back post in the final minute of normal time. Gordon had already hit the crossbar moments earlier when it seemed easier to score. Longstaff then added the third, pouncing on a Marc Guehi slip to slot past the helpless Johnstone. Palace started the second half with a few signs of life; a more organised counter-press helping them break through the Newcastle lines. Odsonne Edouard was denied by a Jamaal Lascelles block, but Newcastle broke from the resulting corner, with Ward stepping in to cut out Murphy's Gordon-bound cross. That ruthlessness on the break was evident again when just seconds after Palace had tested Nick Pope, Wilson finished off yet another lightning move involving Murphy and Trippier. The defeat at Brighton & Hove Albinos at the beginning of September feels like a long time ago for Th' Toon. That was Newcastle's last of three successive losses (admittedly, against the then top three in the league, something those who suggested Newcastle were a club in 'crisis' conveniently forgot about); they have since returned to their best, going eight games unbeaten in all competitions, scoring twenty two goals and conceding just three. This run includes knocking Sheikh Yer Man City out of the Carabao Cup and giving Paris St Germain a footballing lesson in the Champions League, not forgetting that record-breaking eight-nil victory and relegation-haunted Sheffield United. They could have scored more on Saturday, particularly when Gordon hit the bar in a similar position from which he eventually profited. Bruno Guimaraes was typically effervescent, while calls for Sean Longstaff to receive a long-overdue England recognition may echo beyond Tyneside after another goal and Wilson proved a point to Gareth Southgate too. With Jamaal Lascelles winning his physical duel with Jean-Philippe Mateta, Fabian Schär was frequently free to advance from defence and remind everyone what an accomplished footballer he is. If Sven Botman’s absence with a knee injury remains concerning, it has been mitigated by an apparently reinvented Lascelles returning to the heart of Newcastle's backline. In the second-half, and with Wednesday's Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund in mind, United were able to introduce quality from the bench, Alexsander Isak, Miguel Almirón, Sandro Tonali, Tino Livramento and Elliot Anderson all being introduced. Isak and Almirón almost combined for a fifth goal, only for the Paraguayan to be denied by the Palace keeper. At the end of an afternoon that suggested Newcastle should cope just fine without their marquee summer signing, Howe and his assistant, Jason Tindall, flanked a tearful Tonali as they led the team on a well-received lap of appreciation. It may well be the last time we see how for a long time.
Sandro Tonali's toughest challenges lie ahead as he faces investigations into alleged betting offences, Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe says. Tonali came off the bench to a superb reception as The Magpies thrashed Crystal Palace at St James' Park. The Italian midfielder, is facing a potentially lengthy ban, but Howe is grateful for the support he received from the fans. 'I think the hardest part is ahead regardless of what happens,' he said. 'Immediately, you get a lot of attention and people are talking about the situation. He's had the love of the supporters today, but that's difficult to maintain over a long period of time. Who knows what's ahead? I just think it's great for him to know he's got the support, not just of the senior management at the football club and the manager, but also the support of the supporters and they're the most important people.' The Magpies moved up to fifth in the Premier League with a fifth successive home win. Murphy said the players have rallied around Tonali and also praised the fans for the 'great love' they showed him. 'It shows what a family club we are,' he said. 'We've been supporting him all through the week and the fans showed great love for him today.' Gordon added that it has been a hard time for Tonali, but that his team-mates can only support him. 'The fans today when Sandro came on and even before that were incredible,' he said. 'They always support their players. We can only support him, we understand it is a very difficult time for him and his family.'
Sir Bobby Charlton, who has died aged eighty six, was one of the greatest footballers England has ever produced. He was certainly the most successful, the only English player to win all of football's major honours – the FA Cup, the Football League and European Cup with Manchester United and the World Cup with England, accumulating a then record number of international caps and goals. As captain of United in 1968, when they were the first English team to win the European Cup and a key player in the 1966 World Cup-winning team, he was the embodiment of a golden age of English football. But he was also involved in one of the game's darkest moments, the 1958 Munich air disaster, in which eight of his team-mates, three United staff and a further twelve passengers were killed. Charlton was renowned for his raking passes and explosive long-range shots, with either foot and was blessed with speed, athleticism and perfect balance. Some commentators say he was a scorer of great goals rather than a great goalscorer; the statistics undermine that claim although a show-reel of some of his greatest strikes supports it. For England, he scored forty nine in one hundred and six appearances (matched by Gary Lineker and recently passed by Harry Kane). And, he was United’s highest all-time scorer, with two hundred and forty nine in seven hundred and fifty eight games, until 2017, when that record was beaten by Wayne Rooney. But it was his modesty and gentlemanly demeanour, as much as his outstanding ability, that won him admiration far beyond Manchester and England. At the height of his fame in the mid to late 1960s, when London and the counterculture were in full swing, one of the world's most famous Englishmen was an old-fashioned sporting hero with a comb-over and a shy smile. Across the world, the first or sometimes only two words of English many people could speak were 'Bobby Charlton.'
He was born in the Northumberland mining village of Ashington, the second of four sons of Robert Charlton, a miner and his wife, Elizabeth, known as Cissie, who came from the famous Milburn football family. Four of her brothers - Jack Milburn (Leeds United and Bradford City), George Milburn (Leeds United and Chesterfield), Jim Milburn (Leeds United and Bradford Park Avenue) and Stan Milburn (Chesterfield, Leicester City and Rochdale) - were professional footballers and her cousin was the Newcastle United and England legend Jackie Milburn. Bobby's elder brother, Jack, also became a footballer and, although not as gifted as his younger brother, he enjoyed a distinguished career as a centre-half for Leeds United and later as a successful manager. Jack and Bobby were England team-mates between 1965 and 1970. Most Ashington boys went down the pit on leaving school (as Jack did, briefly, before joining Leeds), but from a young age it was apparent that Bobby would become a footballer and a good one at that. He passed the eleven-plus but attending the local grammar was unthinkable because it was a rugby-playing school. However, he was such a prodigy that his headteacher - with encouragement from Cissie - arranged a place at another nearby school, the football-playing Bedlington grammar. In his last year at school, he played four times for England schoolboys, scoring five goals and football scouts from across Britain were soon knocking at the family's door. Newcastle sent along Jackie Milburn to have a quiet word with Cissie and he received offers from eighteen clubs in all, but was charmed by Manchester United's chief scout, Joe Armstrong and signed for them in 1953. Apart from a brief swansong with Preston North End and then Waterford, in Ireland, Manchester was to be his only club and an inspired choice. Not only were United a club on the rise, but their inspirational manager, Matt Busby, was prepared to give youth its head, assembling a precociously talented young team that played with swagger and flair, capturing the nation's imagination and earning them the nickname The Busby Babes. They swept all before them to win the First Division in 1955-56, and retained the title the following season, in which Charlton scored twice on his debut, against Charlton Athletic, in October 1956. As champions, United were the first English side to enter the European Cup and reached the semi-finals in 1957 before losing to eventual winners Real Madrid. A year later they beat Red Star Belgrade in the Quarter-Finals, with Charlton, now an established first-teamer, scoring three goals over the two legs. On the flight back from Belgrade the following day, the team’s plane stopped to refuel in Munich. In freezing conditions, it crashed and burst into flames while attempting to take off from the snowy runway.
Charlton was catapulted forty yards from the plane, still strapped into his seat and clear of the burning wreck. His team-mate Harry Gregg who, heroically ran in and out of the burning plane, pulling passengers to safety reportedly saw Charlton and fellow survivor Dennis Viollet lying in the snow and assumed they were dead. Charlton woke minutes later, suffering only from shock and some minor cuts. He later described his escape as a miracle, but it would haunt him for the rest of his life. The grief of witnessing friends perish - most notably his close friend Duncan Edwards - left its mark, turning an already shy young man into an introspective one. Many close to him, including Busby and his brother, said that Bobby changed for ever after Munich. 'He never got over Munich,' said Busby. 'He felt responsible. Those were his kids that died that day.' Characteristically, Jack was more blunt. In his 1996 autobiography, he wrote: 'I saw a big change in our kid from that day on. He stopped smiling, a trait which continues to this day.' The book lifted the lid on the brothers' strained relationship - they barely spoke for many years, partly due to the cooling of relations between Norma, Bobby's wife, whom he married in 1961 and his wider family, in particular Cissie, to whom he chose not to visit in the final four years of her life. Fortunately Bobby and Jack were reconciled before Jack's death in 2020.
Despite all the success and veneration that would come Charlton's way, he always carried a slight air of melancholy. He was not withdrawn, however, on the football field, where he exuded the freedom, desire and commanding presence characteristic of great athletes. Just twenty three days after Munich, Charlton was out of hospital and back playing for United, and for the remainder of that traumatic season and indeed the next decade, he was the foundation stone on which Manchester United were rebuilt. Showing remarkable spirit, United reached the FA Cup final within three months of the disaster, with a patched-up team of youth players, stop-gap signings and four players who had survived the crash (Charlton, Viollet, Gregg and Bill Foulkes). There was a tide of public sympathy behind them, but they lost the game to Bolton Wanderers. In April, shortly before the Cup final, Charlton made his England debut, scoring in a four-nil win against Scotland at Hampden Park. He scored twice more in his second game, against Portugal at Wembley and this earned him a place in the squad for the World Cup in Sweden that summer. It was the first of his four World Cup squads (another record for an Englishman), though he did not get any pitch time in Sweden. By the 1962 World Cup in Chile, he was a first-choice player and scored against Argentina as England reached the quarter-finals before losing to the eventual champions, Brazil. As hosts of the 1966 World Cup, England made a disappointing start, with a goalless draw against Uruguay. It was in the second game, against Mexico, that Charlton lit up England's hopes with a magnificent goal, running from his own half with the ball before unleashing a trademark thunderbolt shot. '"We want goals." Against Mexico they got one, a beauty from Bobby Charlton,' according to Goal! the FIFA film of the tournament. In the Semi-Final against Portugal, Charlton had the international game of his life, scoring both goals in the two-one win that put England into the final. He had a relatively quiet game in the final victory against West Germany, given the task by Alf Ramsey of marking the brilliant young Franz Beckenbauer, who had, in turn, been told to mark Charlton, so that they largely cancelled each other out. But the battle between the two best players on the pitch was pivotal to the game's outcome, as Beckenbauer acknowledged years later: 'England beat us in 1966 because Bobby Charlton was just a bit better than me.' Ramsey declared that Charlton was 'very much the linchpin of the 1966 team' and he was voted player of the tournament. He ended the season not only as a world champion but as Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year, too.
There was to be one last World Cup near-hurrah, in Mexico in 1970. He was thirty two by then and, although he was still perhaps England's best player, in the Quarter-Final, against West Germany, with England winning two-one, Ramsey controversially substituted Charlton to conserve his energy for what seemed like a certain Semi-Final. But the Germans came back to win in extra time. It was Charlton's record one hundred and sixth cap - the game in which he passed Billy Wright's tally and a record that stood until passed by Bobby Moore four years later - and his last, an unsatisfactory end to a glittering international career. His halcyon days with England coincided with Manchester United's post-Munich renaissance. By the mid-1960s Busby had built his second great team, Charlton now at the heart of it, playing as an attacking midfielder. The line-up included George Best and the Denis Law, who together with Charlton formed a dazzling forward line that reignited the legend of The Busby Babes. They were brilliant individuals (in the space of five years, all three were named European Player of the Year) and together helped United win the FA Cup in 1963 and the league title in 1964-65 and 1966-67. Ten years after the Munich disaster, United finally realised Busby's dream of playing in a European Cup final, against the Portuguese club Benfica. United won four-one at Wembley, with Charlton scoring twice and lifting the cup as captain. For him and Foulkes, the only two crash survivors in the team, and for Busby, it was an overwhelming evening. After the match, while the rest of the team celebrated, Charlton was so exhausted that he could not get off his hotel bed to go downstairs and join the party. Busby retired as manager a year later and United went into rapid decline, though Charlton played on until 1973. With his playing career over, he felt uncertain about what to do next and simply waited for the phone to ring. It was three weeks before it did and he accepted the first offer that came his way, to become player-manager of Second Division Preston North End. The club were relegated in his first season in charge and he resigned the next. It was a chastening experience after so many illustrious years as a player, and he never returned to full-time management.
He had more success in the media, working as a BBC football pundit and in 1978 he also set up the innovative Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools, which provided top-level coaching to young players. In 1984 he returned to Manchester United as a director. He developed a close bond with the then United manager Alex Ferguson and his diplomacy and peerless standing in the game made him the perfect ambassador for the club as it developed into a global sporting brand in the 1990s. Such qualities were not lost on other sporting bodies and Charlton, who was knighted in 1994, was an automatic choice for the teams bidding to win the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and the 2002 Commonwealth Games for Manchester, the 2006 and 2018 World Cups for England and London's successful pitch for the 2012 Olympic Games. He is survived by Norma and their daughters, Suzanne, a former BBC weather presenter and Andrea.
This blogger is of an age where he saw Bobby play on a handful of occasions in the early 1970s (beginning with Manchester United's five-one defeat to this blogger's beloved Magpies at St James Park in 1970. This blogger was also one of twenty eight thousand people lucky enough to see a unique sight, Bobby Charlton playing in Newcastle United's famous number nine shirt, worn so proudly by his cousin Jackie Milburn. On Friday 10 May 1974, a testimonial match was held at St James' Park for United's Tony Green whose career had been cut short by a knee injury. With Malcolm Macdonald away with the England squad, Bobby was ask to play up front for the club he had supported as a boy. The then Preston player-manager, at thirty six, still looked good enough to play at the highest level as he gave the Middlesbrough defence (including, in the first half, their manager, his brother Jack) the run-around, setting up all three of John Tudor's goals as United won five-three. It was, for one night only, a wonderful example of what might have been had Wor Jackie managed to persuade cousin Cissie to use her influence and get young Bobby to sign doon at th' Toon!
News of the death of Sir Bobby Charlton was, of course, phenomenally sad seeing the passing of, not only a twenty four carat sporting icon but, also, seemingly, a very nice, gentle and sincere man as well as great player (this blogger recalls at the 1996 Charity Shield Bobby being visibly moved as, before the game, he was walking around the Wembley pitch towards the Manchester United dressing room and he got a terrific reception from the Newcastle supporters as he passed). But to end on a - hopefully amusing - note, this blogger is reminded of a time some years ago on a football Interweb newsgroup when someone posed the question of the significant differences in temperaments between Bobby and Jackie. How, this person wondered, did Bob react when Big Jack had made one of his trademark controversial statements. 'He is not his brother's keeper,' someone replied, leading others to observe that no, indeed, Bobby was a centre-forward. And then, later in his career, a box-to-box goalscoring midfielder. This blogger's own contribution to the thread was to add what ultimately became the final word on the subject; that, in modern parlance, Bobby was 'not his brother's just-behind-the-front-two.'
Whilst the world was learning of the death of Manchester United icon Bobby Charlton, across Manchester, City fans were, at that very moment, hold a minute's applaud to an icon of their own. Francis Lee, who died on 2 October aged seventy nine, was a prolific striker who won the First Division title with Manchester City in 1968 and then did the same with Derby County in 1975. Up front, in various positions for England, he was also a highly effective operator, including at the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico, where he appeared - alongside Bobby Charlton - in celebrated matches against Brazil and West Germany. Short and stocky, golden-haired, self-confident and tenacious, Lee also won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup during a glorious period with City, for whom he was the leading goal scorer across five seasons, partly thanks to his great ability at both winning and taking penalties. For England he scored ten goals in twenty seven appearances between 1968 and 1972. Once he left football Lee became a successful businessman and, in 1994, used his money to take control of City as its chairman during a time when the team was foundering. Although his arrival was warmly welcomed by the fans, he failed to deliver any significant improvement and stepped down after four years, although he kept his substantial shareholding for more than a decade and continued to be well-loved at the club, where he is still regarded as one of its best ever players.
Born in Westhoughton, near Bolton, Lee went to Westhoughton secondary modern school and Horwich Technical College. With the encouragement of his father, a manager in a cotton mill, he left it to sign for the nearest First Division football club, Bolton Wanderers, where he played upfront with Nat Lofthouse and scored on his debut in 1960. He was Bolton's top scorer in 1962-63 and 1963-64, and then again, after the club were relegated to the Second Division, in 1965-66 and 1966-67, by which time he was agitating for a transfer. To do so quite openly was a controversial course of action in those more subservient days, but Lee's wish was granted in the summer of 1967, when he moved for a club record sixty grand to City, having scored one hundred and six goals in two hundred and ten appearances. At Maine Road the City manager, Joe Mercer, who had built a formidable team featuring Tony Book, Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell, described Lee as his 'final piece of the puzzle' - an assessment that could hardly be denied as his new signing went on to register sixteen league goals in thirty one appearances as City won the title in his first season there, sealing it with a thrilling four-three away win against Newcastle in which he scored. It was only City's second top-flight win, their first having come way back in 1937. The following year Lee figured prominently in City's run to the 1969 FA Cup final against Leicester City, which they won and in 1970 the Guardian described him as 'indefatigable and nigh irresistible' in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup versus the Polish side Górnik Zabrze, which ended in a two-one victory thanks to a decisive Lee penalty. The same scoreline against West Bromwich Albion also delivered a League Cup winners' medal that year, before he moved on to Mexico in the summer for the World Cup finals.
England, the reigning world champions, were considered to be an even better team than the 1966 winners, thanks partly to the addition of Lee. He played up front with Charlton and Geoff Hurst in the opening win against Romania and again in the same combination against Brazil in a brilliant match that was narrowly lost. After being rested for the final group game against Czechoslovakia he returned for the dramatic Quarter-Final against West Germany, which England contrived to lose in extra time after having had the tie in the bag after fifty minutes. Usually phlegmatic in defeat, Lee took that result harder than any other in his career. 'Normally for me, after a game, by the time I got back in the dressing room it was all forgotten,' he said. 'There would be lads around me moping and I'd say to them: "shut up, you had your chance, it's gone, move on." Nothing hung around me long. But by Christ that has.' Having made his England debut under Alf Ramsey against Bulgaria in 1968, Lee had quickly become a mainstay of the team, but within two years of the 1970 finals he had fallen out of favour and in 1972 he played his last international at the age of twenty eight. By that time City, no longer with Mercer, were beginning a long slide into mediocrity and, in 1974, Lee was sold against his wishes for one hundred and ten thousand knicker to Derby County, having scored one hundred and forty eight goals in three hundred and thirty appearances. He was initially displeased with the move, but Derby had finished third in the First Division the previous year and under the manager Dave Mackay they won the title in 1974-75 as Lee, Kevin Hector and Roger Davies proved to be a formidable frontline combination. The following year, as Derby finished fourth, Lee's most talked-about contribution was a ferocious televised brawl with Norman Hunter in a match against Leeds, sparked by the not-uncommon contention that Lee had won a penalty with a dive. A subsequent off-the-ball confrontation ended with Hunter - Lee's room-mate when they both in the England squad - punching him, hard, in the mush and the two players being sent off - after which Lee, presumably reasoning that he had nothing much to lose, re-engaged with his opponent and knocked him to the ground in retaliation. Condemned in official quarters, the fight nonetheless went down among us ordinary fans as one of the most exciting boxing bouts in English footballing history. You can keep yer Muhammad Ali walking onto Henry Cooper's 'ammer, men of 'a certain age' still get misty-eyed and wince as they recall Big Norman's right-hook which sent Franny sprawling to the Baseball Ground turf with a fat lip.
Lee ended his career at Derby in 1976, having made more than sixty league appearances for the club and went on almost immediately to success in business with a toilet roll manufacturing company that won major contracts supplying supermarkets around the country. He sold up for more than eight million notes in 1984, after which he became a racehorse trainer at Little Stanneylands stud farm in Cheshire, saddling one hundred and fifty winners on the flat and thirty two over the jumps over a thirteen-year period up to 1997. He then concentrated on making money through property deals. His chairmanship of City had begun with a flurry of optimism in 1994 when he bought three million smackers worth of shares from the previous owner, Peter Swales, pledging to restore the club to former glories. However, his appointment of his former England team-mate Alan Ball as manager in 1995 failed to work out and with the team teetering on the brink of the third tier in 1998 he stepped aside to be succeeded by David Bernstein, selling his shares nine years later to the controversial former prime minster of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra. Despite his lack of success as an owner of the club, Lee's disarming honesty, self-deprecating sense of humour and patent love for Manchester City ensured that he remained a popular figure there and was able to share happily in its recent triumphs under a different regime. He is survived by his wife, Gill and their children, Charlotte, Jonny and Nik.
