Bobby Thomson (soccer player, 1943)

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Bobby Thomson
Personnel
Surname Robert Anthony Thomson
birthday December 5, 1943
place of birth SmethwickEngland
date of death August 19, 2009
Place of death DudleyEngland
position Full-back (left)
Juniors
Years station
1959-1961 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1961-1969 Wolverhampton Wanderers 278 (2)
1967 Los Angeles Wolves 12 (3)
1969-1972 Birmingham City 63 (0)
1971 →  FC Walsall  (loan) 9 (1)
1972-1976 Luton Town 110 (1)
1976 Hartford bicentennials 24 (0)
1976-1977 Port Vale 18 (0)
1977 Connecticut bicentennials 25 (0)
1977-1988 Worcester City 14 (1)
1978-1979 Memphis Rogues 51 (1)
1979-1980 Stafford Rangers 16 (0)
1980 Memphis Rogues 27 (0)
Brewood
Solihull Borough
Tipton Town
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1963-1967 England U-23 15 (0)
1963-1964 England 8 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1977 Connecticut bicentennials
1979-1980 Stafford Rangers (player-manager)
1 Only league games are given.

Robert Anthony "Bobby" Thomson (born December 5, 1943 in Smethwick , † August 19, 2009 in Dudley ) was an English football player . Equipped with good technique and high speed, the eight-time national player was active for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1960s , played almost 500 professional league games in England, mostly in the left full-back position, and was also involved in US football.

Athletic career

Wolverhampton Wanderers (1959-1968)

Thomson was initially on the move as a fast winger before he was supposed to fill the role of full-back on the occasion of a game for an English student selection. He quickly felt at home in the new position and since he was known as a talent at an early age, numerous renowned clubs expressed interest in him. The decision for the Wolverhampton Wanderers and the long-time successful coach Stan Cullis was not difficult for him in 1959, especially since the "Wolves" had just won the championship again . Thomson initially worked as an amateur for two years before signing his first professional contract in the summer of 1961.

He made his first-team debut on January 27, 1962 in a 2-1 defeat in the fourth round of the FA Cup against arch-rivals West Bromwich Albion . He then benefited in the league games from the fact that the team ran through a sporty valley and the left full-back position had just emerged as a weak point. So he came from February 1964 to fourteen games of the season and he helped to avoid relegation to the second division . "On the side" he completed the final of the FA Youth Cup with the youth team , which was lost 2-1 to Newcastle United . In his first full season in 1962/63 as part of the first team, Thomson made great strides and did not miss a single competitive game. In addition to his great technical skill and elegant style of play, he particularly impressed with his speed, with which he often put opposing defenders under pressure in offensive runs over the left side. Despite his young age, he developed into a pillar of the team and was not insignificantly responsible for the fact that the Wolves finished in a good fifth place in the league . With the consistently good performance, he also recommended himself for “national tasks” and so he played his way into the English U-23 team in 1963 and later that year in the senior national team.

The sporting upswing in Wolverhampton did not last long and so the Wolves fell again in the 1963/64 season in the lower table regions. Thomson's criticism was not spared, and coach Cullis, who was finally dismissed in September 1964 after 16 years of coaching, occasionally accused his left-back of not being too physical in a duel and instead relying too much on his technique. A year later, the previously unthinkable occurred and after the end of the 1964/65 season - six years after the last championship success - the Wolves had to make their way to the second division. Thomson, who mostly played on the right back, couldn't change that either.

When it came to the necessary rebuilding in Wolverhampton, the barely 21-year-old Thomson was one of the most influential players in the team now trained by Ronnie Allen , and after two years in the Second Division , he was promoted to the top English league as runner-up behind Coventry City in 1967 . Here Thomson initially continued to be a fixture before the club replaced coach Allen with Bill McGarry in November 1968 after further mixed team performance . McGarry, in turn, accepted an offer to buy Thomson in the amount of £ 40,000 in March 1968, which Stan Cullis, now employed by the second division club Birmingham City , had made.

The second half of his career (1968–1981)

Under his ex-coach, Thomson performed well in the 1969/70 season, before he continuously lost his place in the team after his departure in March 1970 and found himself with third division loan club FC Walsall and increasingly in the reserve team of the "Blues" found again. So, despite the rise from Birmingham City to the First Division, he then moved to the still only second-rate club Luton Town .

In coach Harry Haslam's team , 28-year-old Thomson found his way back to his old strength. Within two years he helped the "hatters" to move up to the first division and although it went back to the second division a year later, Thomson remained there decades later with a total of 110 league appearances in the four years between 1972 and 1976 and his elegant style of play still fondly remembered.

In the last years of his professional career he appeared in various lower-class English clubs and especially in the North American NASL . While he was active in England for clubs such as Port Vale and Worcester City and later as a player- coach for the Stafford Rangers , he played between 1976 and 1980 in the USA, first for the Hartford / Connecticut Bicentennials and later for the Memphis Rogues , sometimes as a coach working.

English national team

On November 20, 1963 Thomson played under coach Alf Ramsey against Northern Ireland on the occasion of a match in the British Home Championship, his first international match for England . The debut ended with an 8: 3 success and although the opponent was not one of the top-class players, the 19-year-old seemed to be ready for international tasks. In doing so, he benefited from the fact that he was able to work on both sides of the defense and was therefore the ideal substitute for the established Ray Wilson (left) and George Cohen (right). In this role he also completed three more international matches during an American tour in the summer of 1964, but only five days after his 21st birthday his career with the "Three Lions" came to an unexpected end. The eighth international match against the Netherlands (1-1) was also his last; he only competed in the U-23 selection and by 1967 had the then record number of 15 missions.

The main reason for the early out in the senior team was the fact that Thomson could not prove himself regularly at the highest level for two years after the relegation of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1964/65 season. Behind Wilson, who was quite undisputed as an English left-back, Gerry Byrne (from Liverpool FC) and Keith Newton (from Blackburn Rovers) successfully contested the role of potential successor - Byrne was finally replaced in 1966 as Wilson's replacement in the English squad nominated for the World Cup in their own country .

After the active career

After hanging up his football boots, he opened a sports shop in Sedgley . He stayed with football by getting involved in youth work in Oldbury and keeping fit in charity games with the "old men" from Wolverhampton until old age. Thomson , who last suffered from prostate cancer , died in a hospital in Dudley at the age of 65 .

literature

  • Matthews, Tony: Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-632-3 , pp. 156-157 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. "BOBBY THOMSON 1943-2009" ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Luton Town FC)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lutontown.co.uk
  2. "Wolves legend Thomson dies, 65" (Express & Star)