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Favourite 'wild' football star....

Krule

Carpe Diem
Jun 4, 2017
4,534
8,686
So who is your favourite 'wild' footballer ? the unconventional yet brilliant talent who always seemed to be in trouble with management/authorities and yet wowed the fans with his natural skills and abilities.
For me it will always be Stan Bowles, a uniquely gifted footballer who for his own personal reasons never quite slotted into the England team.
Gerry Francis who played with him at QPR once gave this quote :

Stan is always described as a maverick and he was — we’d drag him out of the betting shop just before a game — but he wouldn’t nutmeg a defender or beat a few people and then think he’d done his bit. He was a winner. Hated losing. The tackling was ferocious, but he’d take it, and when we lost the ball we’d have to get back into our shape. He didn’t like being dictated to but, within the structure of the team, Dave let him explore his talent and make things happen.
I’ve been in football for nearly 50 years and you realise that the psychology of management is about knowing what makes people tick and Stan wasn’t just flashy or happy with being outstanding for one game in ten. There were a lot of talented players around at that time and although Stan says he ‘f***ed England off’, I’m not sure he means that. Managers have to find a way of getting the best out of players.
We became firm friends. We didn’t always go out together — Stan was into gambling and cards — but we had some funny times. I remember him inviting me home for a pre-match meal cooked by Ann, his wife. There was a knock on the door. The bailiffs came in and carted off the television, the table, the three-piece suite.

Sadly now diagnosed for some years with Alzheimer's, Stan will always be the ultimate non-Spurs hero of my youth.....so who is yours ??
 
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Stopspot

Well-Known Member
Jun 16, 2017
247
489
As a Swede I have to say Zlatan. He's mellowed out a bit with age and now only carries himself like the big star he knows he is. But the guy used to get in trouble with management all the time early on in his career.

Read his book if you haven't. Real good read
 

leonspurs

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2006
1,550
912
Garrincha the Brazilian footballer prob my favourite. Mad dribbling skills, raging alcoholic and womaniser who apparently slept with 10000+ women. Reputed to have a 14 inch cock and lost his virginity to a goat apparently, that's a wild man of football.
 
Jan 28, 2011
5,646
78,675
Robin Friday has been voted Reading's best ever player. Cardiff fans loved him too. But, apart from the football and one goal described as better than Pele and Cruyff, why does he deserve a mention in this thread?

Well, highlights of a short career include the times he danced naked in nightclubs, stole stone angels from a cemetery, took a swan into a bar, rolled a joint on TV on his wedding day, shat in the team bath after one bad defeat, threw snooker balls around a room after another, joined a hippy commune, kissed a policeman to celebrate a goal, lied about contracting hepatitis, squeezed Bobby Moore's bollocks and, the story I've told before and my favourite Robin Friday anecdote for obvious reasons, crapped in Mark Lawrenson's kit bag after being sent off for kicking Lawro in the face.

He only played for five years, never wore shin pads and died of a heart attack at 38, having spent some time in prison for impersonating a police officer and confiscating other people's drugs.

Not sure I'd go for cult hero, but wild, unconventional and brilliant he certainly was.
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,639
45,679
Maradona. Crazy but what a player. The signing for Napoli changed that city's payche and they became winners.
 

Disconosebleed

Well-Known Member
Dec 22, 2005
2,553
2,569
Yeah Robin Friday sounds like an absolute class act, it's a real shame that there's so little footage of him. Probably most people already know this, but he was the inspiration for Super Furry Animals' album 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' - he's even on the front cover:

Themandontgiveafuck.jpg


I was a big fan of Edmundo growing up, his crimes included hiring a chimpanzee for his young son's birthday party then getting it pissed, and disappearing midway through a season at Fiorentina to go to the Rio Carnival. He was part of that fabulous era of the 90s, which for me is probably the golden age of brilliant football nutters. People say we're lucky to be living through an era with two players as good as Messi and Ronaldo at the same time, but in the early 90s you had Edmundo, Romario, Cantona, Stoichkov and Hagi, among many others, all combining incredible ability with a properly mental streak at the same time.
 

Disconosebleed

Well-Known Member
Dec 22, 2005
2,553
2,569
Also if you're willing to open the discussion out to include people related to football, it would be impossible to ignore Romanian club owner Gigi Becali. He's probably more one for the "favourite bigoted psychopath" thread but he's great for funny stories. I'm not going to relay them all here, suffice to say that my favourite moment of his is when he reacted to criticism from a fellow chairman by threatening to "shove that gypsy back up his mother".
 

Col_M

Pointing out the Obvious
Feb 28, 2012
22,639
45,679
Yeah Robin Friday sounds like an absolute class act, it's a real shame that there's so little footage of him. Probably most people already know this, but he was the inspiration for Super Furry Animals' album 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' - he's even on the front cover:

Themandontgiveafuck.jpg


I was a big fan of Edmundo growing up, his crimes included hiring a chimpanzee for his young son's birthday party then getting it pissed, and disappearing midway through a season at Fiorentina to go to the Rio Carnival. He was part of that fabulous era of the 90s, which for me is probably the golden age of brilliant football nutters. People say we're lucky to be living through an era with two players as good as Messi and Ronaldo at the same time, but in the early 90s you had Edmundo, Romario, Cantona, Stoichkov and Hagi, among many others, all combining incredible ability with a properly mental streak at the same time.

Good shout the Hagi.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,824
Ivan Bam Bam Zamorano... Larger than life both on and off the pitch, Madonna once declared him the sexiest man alive.

But the answer is Hristo Stoichkov. Complete fucking nutter and an indisputable legend.

Edit: also worth mentioning Charlton Athletics all time top scorer Derek Hales... the Valley faithful simply called him "Killer".
 

jamesinashby

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2017
465
985
So who is your favourite 'wild' footballer ? the unconventional yet brilliant talent who always seemed to be in trouble with management/authorities and yet wowed the fans with his natural skills and abilities.
For me it will always be Stan Bowles, a uniquely gifted footballer who for his own personal reasons never quite slotted into the England team.
Gerry Francis who played with him at QPR once gave this quote :

Stan is always described as a maverick and he was — we’d drag him out of the betting shop just before a game — but he wouldn’t nutmeg a defender or beat a few people and then think he’d done his bit. He was a winner. Hated losing. The tackling was ferocious, but he’d take it, and when we lost the ball we’d have to get back into our shape. He didn’t like being dictated to but, within the structure of the team, Dave let him explore his talent and make things happen.
I’ve been in football for nearly 50 years and you realise that the psychology of management is about knowing what makes people tick and Stan wasn’t just flashy or happy with being outstanding for one game in ten. There were a lot of talented players around at that time and although Stan says he ‘f***ed England off’, I’m not sure he means that. Managers have to find a way of getting the best out of players.
We became firm friends. We didn’t always go out together — Stan was into gambling and cards — but we had some funny times. I remember him inviting me home for a pre-match meal cooked by Ann, his wife. There was a knock on the door. The bailiffs came in and carted off the television, the table, the three-piece suite.

Sadly now diagnosed for some years with Alzheimer's, Stan will always be the ultimate non-Spurs hero of my youth.....so who is yours ??

There have been a few in my time. I think I would have to put Brian Clough at the top. When he was a player he could be a mouthy guy when he didn't like something. As a manager he continued being a Maverick which, imo, cost him the England job. Purely as footballers, both George Best and Eric Cantona had colourful careers. As an outsider I would offer Rodney Marsh - could be quite a card especially on the pitch.

COYS
 

EJWTartanSpur

SC Supporter
Jan 29, 2011
4,805
10,087
Garrincha who I personally believe is the greatest footballer of all time.

Edmundo is the best modern day example
 

leonspurs

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2006
1,550
912
Garrincha who I personally believe is the greatest footballer of all time.

Edmundo is the best modern day example
Watching some of the old Brazilian matches with the old heavy leather football, the control he had was unbelievable. That and the bend he could put on a ball when shooting made him a unique player of that period. Even Pele could not do what he could do with a football.
 

EJWTartanSpur

SC Supporter
Jan 29, 2011
4,805
10,087
Watching some of the old Brazilian matches with the old heavy leather football, the control he had was unbelievable. That and the bend he could put on a ball when shooting made him a unique player of that period. Even Pele could not do what he could do with a football.

Correct. Brazil were undefeated when the two played together. Plus, Garrincha went and won a World Cup almost on his own in 1962 when Pele was injured ending up as player of the tournament and top scorer. The greatest dribbler of all time, a prolific goalscorer, the inventor of the banana/swerve shot and all done whilst he was drinking over a bottle of Cachaca a day, physically impaired by his crooked legs and mentally impaired by his illiteracy and introverted life in the jungle.

For me, he is greater than Pele or Maradona.
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
Robin Friday has been voted Reading's best ever player. Cardiff fans loved him too. But, apart from the football and one goal described as better than Pele and Cruyff, why does he deserve a mention in this thread?

Well, highlights of a short career include the times he danced naked in nightclubs, stole stone angels from a cemetery, took a swan into a bar, rolled a joint on TV on his wedding day, shat in the team bath after one bad defeat, threw snooker balls around a room after another, joined a hippy commune, kissed a policeman to celebrate a goal, lied about contracting hepatitis, squeezed Bobby Moore's bollocks and, the story I've told before and my favourite Robin Friday anecdote for obvious reasons, crapped in Mark Lawrenson's kit bag after being sent off for kicking Lawro in the face.

He only played for five years, never wore shin pads and died of a heart attack at 38, having spent some time in prison for impersonating a police officer and confiscating other people's drugs.

Not sure I'd go for cult hero, but wild, unconventional and brilliant he certainly was.

Did you listen to the Robin Friday special that they did on Football weekly last summer?
 
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