Premier League 2023/24

[Scott7 5,241]

Bad day for Manchester. Palace defeat United at OT and Wolves have an excellent victory over City.

 

Two consecutive defeats for Guardiola. Sack the Board.

[Uilleam 5,497]

5 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

Bad day for Manchester. Palace defeat United at OT and Wolves have an excellent victory over City.

 

Two consecutive defeats for Guardiola. Sack the Board.

With Barcelona now under investigation for bribing referees, I wonder if  worrying about getting his collar felt is distracting his attention. (As well it might.)

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by Uilleam

[compo 6,221]

Some coupon busters today 

[compo 6,221]

Another win for Tottenham Hotspur 

[compo 6,221]

I see Francis Lee has passed away good little wholehearted player and I seem to remember his punch up with Norman Hunter 

[compo 6,221]

Looking like Chelsea are getting back to winning ways 

[Scott7 5,241]

1 hour ago, compo said:

I see Francis Lee has passed away good little wholehearted player and I seem to remember his punch up with Norman Hunter 

Lee’s City team one of the best ever.

[compo 6,221]

11 hours ago, Scott7 said:

Lee’s City team one of the best ever.

Always easy on the eye to watch 

[compo 6,221]

Still rumbling on about this var balls up at the Spurs match now some people are advocating the match should be replayed.

[Uilleam 5,497]

 

 

OBITUARY

Francis Lee obituary

Pugilistic England and Man City striker known for scoring the most penalties in a season and for making millions from lavatory paper

 

 

Tuesday October 03 2023, 12.01am, The Times

Manchester City Football Club

Obituaries

Lee in international action against Scotland in 1971. He scored ten goals and won 27 caps playing for England

ALLSPORT UK/GETTY IMAGES

 

Flaxen-haired, barrel-chested and with a thunderous right-footed shot, Francis Lee was among the most talented of forwards in the late 1960s and 1970s. He was also one of the most pugilistic and involved in what was surely the most extraordinary punch-up seen on a football field. As this was televised and shown on Match of the Day, it gained such a level of infamy that The Observer named it as the most spectacular dismissal to occur in any sport.

In November 1975 Lee, playing for Derby County against Leeds United, had a confrontation with Norman “bites yer legs” Hunter, one of the toughest defenders to have played the game. The two sides were among the best in the top division of English football at the time and relations seemingly had not improved since the antagonism that existed between their former managers, Don Revie and Brian Clough.

In the first half the referee awarded a penalty for a foul by Hunter on Lee and in the second half, with the incident far from forgotten, they traded punches off the ball. Both were sent off and, as they made their way to the dressing-rooms, started fighting again. Both sets of players intervened and a Derby official had to lead Lee off the pitch. Hunter felt he won penalties through “diving” but given that Leeds were renowned for their gamesmanship and there was then less protection given to skilful players by officials, he could hardly complain for long.

The BBC footage is still shown on television and appears regularly across social media, with the video receiving hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and TikTok. “A complete free for all,” John Motson exclaimed in his commentary. Lee required four stitches and received a four-week suspension from football.

“It’s a good job I didn’t get in the Leeds dressing room afterwards,” Lee said. “I might have just been coming out on parole now. It wasn’t play-acting, you know. He had tapped me on the shoulder, hit me and split my lip with a gold ring.”

Whether or not Lee “dived” in front of goal, he set a record for the most number of penalties scored in a season in England, 15 in 1971-72, when he scored 35 goals in all for Manchester City, an achievement that earned him the nickname “Lee Won Pen” from one of his managers, Malcolm Allison. This was as a consequence of his name appearing as “Lee 1 (pen)” in the list of goal scorers in the press the following day. Defenders such as Hunter never came to terms with this. Neither were they strangers to being admonished by referees, even in a time of more lenient refereeing than is the case today.

Such controversies tended to obscure Lee’s brilliance. He scored 148 goals in 330 appearances during an eight-year spell with City, helping the club to win the first division title in 1968, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. He made an immediate impression, hailed by his manager, Joe Mercer, as “the final piece in the jigsaw”, playing at Maine Road alongside the likes of Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Neil Young.

Lee scored the fourth goal as Manchester City secured the league title in 1968 with a 4-3 win over Newcastle United

LES PALMER/MIRRORPIX/GETTY IMAGES

Among his favourite moments were the decisive goal in the 4-3 victory over Newcastle United that brought about the title in his first season with City, a winning penalty in the Cup Winners’ Cup final victory over Gornik Zabrze in 1969-70 and what he felt was a “perfect” hat-trick against Manchester United in 1970.

Five years later he won a league champions medal again with Derby County, having been sold against his wishes for £110,000 and feeling that he was traded “like a piece of meat”, as he put it. For Dave Mackay, his new manager, it was a shrewd signing — indeed, not the only one he made. That he was still a forward to be reckoned with was illustrated by the 12 league goals he scored in his first season at the Baseball Ground. These included one against his old club: another moment in his career which is still viewed regularly. On this occasion the commentator was Motson’s colleague Barry Davies, who proclaimed: “Interesting (as Lee shot) “very interesting” (as he scored) followed by: “Look at his face! Just look at his face!” Few footballers exhibited more delight at scoring goals than Lee.

 

 

 

He won 27 caps for England, scoring ten goals, and played in the World Cup in Mexico in 1970 alongside great players such as Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore, retaining his place for a while in the aftermath of England being knocked out of the tournament by West Germany. A forward in his own image and of similar ability, stature and height, Kevin Keegan, was to succeed him.

In retirement from football Lee became a racehorse trainer and had a successful business career manufacturing lavatory and kitchen rolls from recycled paper, having founded an eponymous company when still a young footballer. The comedian Peter Kay was to become one of his employees. Lee followed a rigorous disciplined life each day, commencing with standing under a cold shower at 7 am and “letting all my irritations wash out of me” as he put it.

After winning several trophies with Manchester City as a player, Lee later returned to the club for a less happy spell as chairman

PA

His work ethic served him well, for he sold his company for £8.35 million in 1984 and returned to City in 1994 as chairman and majority shareholder, although his holding was to be exceeded by others. On taking control, he promised: “This will be the happiest club in the land. The players will be the best paid and we’ll drink plenty of champagne, celebrate and sing until we’re hoarse.” However, this proved to be an unhappy four-year period.

Manchester United, their great rivals, were on the rise and City did not possess anything like the financial muscle that they have today. They were far from “the noisy neighbours” that Sir Alex Ferguson was to concern himself with at Old Trafford in that they went through a series of managers, starting with Alan Ball, Lee’s former England team-mate, who led them only to relegation, and continuing with Steve Coppell, once of United, who lasted for 33 days before being unable to handle “the pressure”. Lee was not amused. “There is pressure in managing anything, but that sort of pressure doesn’t come along in three or four weeks.”

In the 1996-97 season City had various managers and in 1998, with City seemingly about to be relegated again, this time to the third level of English football, Lee himself stood down. He sold his shareholding to a former prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, in 2007. He continued to support the club and was able to enjoy their success under Pep Guardiola.

Francis Henry Lee, who became universally known as “Franny”, was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire, the son of a manager of a cotton mill, and was educated at Horwich Technical School. A keen cricketer as well as footballer, he started his career with Bolton Wanderers, breaking into their side as a 16-year-old in 1959. He scored 106 goals in 210 games over eight seasons before signing for City for a then club-record £60,000 fee, having submitted transfer requests after refusing to play for the club’s third team following demotion from the reserves.

He even threatened to retire from football at the age of 23, to which Bill Ridding, his manager, said: “What can you do? You are only a labourer who will finish in the gutter.” In fact Lee was to finish as a famous footballer and a multimillionaire who liked to spend Christmas in Barbados and who ate foie gras and drank Burgundy. He frequented the best restaurants, once chewing through the flowers in a vase in San Francisco as a way of complaining about the service. In addition to his own company, he diversified into industrial property.

Lee is survived by his wife, Gill, and his children, Charlotte, Jonny and Nik. The aggressive instincts he displayed on the pitch never entirely left him. In 2005 he was arrested following an argument with a police officer. A row had broken out after his wife was also arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. Lee was taken into custody but on this occasion settled for quietude rather than take on all comers. He did not require any stitches.

Francis Lee CBE, footballer, was born on April 29, 1944. He died of cancer on October 2, 2023, aged 79