David Watson (football player, 1946)

Dave Watson
Personnel
Surname	David Vernon Watson
birthday	October 5, 1946
place of birth	Stapleford ,  England
position	Central defense
Juniors
Years	station
	Stapleford Old Boys
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1967	Notts County	25 0(1)
1968-1970	Rotherham United	121 (19)
1970-1975	Sunderland AFC	177 (27)
1975-1979	Manchester City	146 0(4)
1979	Werder Bremen	2 0(0)
1979-1981	Southampton FC	73 0(7)
1982-1983	Stoke City	59 0(5)
1983	Vancouver Whitecaps	26 0(3)
1983-1984	Derby County	34 0(1)
1984	Fort Lauderdale Sun
1984-1985	Notts County	25 0(1)
1985-1986	Kettering Town	10 0(3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1974-1982	England	65 0(4)
1 Only league games are given.

David "Dave" Vernon Watson (born October 5, 1946 in Stapleford , Nottinghamshire , England ) is a former English football player . The central defender and 65-time England international won the FA Cup in 1973 with his club at the time, AFC Sunderland .

Athletic career

Career start at Notts County, Rotherham United and Sunderland AFC

David Watson, whose older brother Peter was also a professional footballer, began his career in 1966 as a striker with his hometown club Notts County . In 1968 he moved to Rotherham United , before moving to Sunderland AFC in 1970 in the far north east of England . The then active coach Bob Stokoe trained the center forward to a defender .

Although the "Black Cats" stayed in the second-rate Second Division in the first half of the 1970s , the team with Watson made it to the FA Cup final in 1973, where they were the reigning cup winners and international at Wembley Stadium experienced players spiked club Leeds United faced and ultimately surprisingly won 1-0.

With his good performance in the second division, Watson drew attention to himself at the highest level and came just under a year later to his first appearance for England in a friendly against Portugal in Lisbon . He was one - for a now 27-year-old relatively old - of a total of six debutants (including Trevor Brooking ), whereby this encounter should be the last game under the world champion coach Alf Ramsey . Later in 1974 Watson completed his second international match when he came on for Norman Hunter in the 2-0 defeat by Scotland at Hampden Park . It was not until his seventh commitment to England, he completed a competitive match in the national team and beat in a qualification match for the UEFA EURO 1976 , the selection of Czechoslovakia at Wembley with 3: 0 (England still missed ultimately participation in the European Championship finals and the Czechoslovak selection even won the title in the end).

Moved to Manchester City

From then on, Watson developed more and more into a regular player in the English national team and came into play in all international matches in 1975. In club football he continued to play in second class until the summer of 1975, because despite winning the cup, Sunderland AFC did not advance to the top English division up to this point. The then 14-time international finally moved to Manchester City for a transfer fee of £ 275,000 . The international season ended for him with a defeat in the second leg against Czechoslovakia and a draw in Portugal.

In his new club Watson fit in well, finished eighth in the First Division in 1976 at the end of the season and moved into the final of the League Cup , in which Manchester City defeated Newcastle United 2-1. Due to a back injury suffered in the fall of 1975 - but not operated on - Watson underwent a laminectomy in May 1976 and therefore did not play any further international matches in 1976 (including three qualifying games for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina). Although he was still used sporadically at Manchester City, he was not available in his club in numerous games as a result of the injury. Overall, however, despite the absence of Watson, his team was able to provide the fourth-best defense in the 1975/76 season - based on the goals conceded. In the international matches, coach Don Revie experimented with Phil Thompson from Liverpool FC and with the still very young talent Brian Greenhoff from Manchester United while Watson was absent . Watson was also unable to take part in a special tournament for the 200th anniversary of American Independence Day in the United States and thus missed the chance to compete against players like Pelé and Bobby Moore - both active in the NASL at the time.

When Thompson injured himself at the beginning of 1977 and thus missed the complete final phase in which Liverpool FC won their first European Cup , the recovered - now 30-year-old - returned to England's first team. In the entire international match year 1977 he did not miss a single minute on the field and defeated it twice in the qualifying games Luxembourg and Italy , which had previously been beaten. However, England missed participation in a World Cup finals for the second time in a row by finishing second behind Italy. Watson, on the other hand, remained steady regulars under coach Ron Greenwood until 1980 and completed all international matches during this period.

“Adventure Germany” and return to England

In the 1977/78 season Watson took over the position of team captain in his club after the veteran Mike Doyle let his career come to an end. Manchester City finished the season in fourth place and Watson only missed a single game. In the national team, he further strengthened his status as a regular central defender and was part of the team that once again qualified for a major tournament after a decade in Copenhagen with a 4: 3 against Denmark .

For the 1979/80 season, Watson surprisingly moved to Germany to Werder Bremen , where he was supposed to hold the position of Libero . Werder's management hoped that the experienced Watson would provide stability for staying up in the league and a gradual transfer of this key position to Hans-Jürgen Offermanns within three to four years . In his second championship game at TSV 1860 Munich , however , Watson was sent off with a red card at 1: 4 in the 35th minute and received an eight-week ban from the DFB in addition to an internal club fine of DM 10,000 . Watson was very upset about this long break and then refused - according to his own statements due to an injury - to travel to the away game at FC Schalke 04 , which took place on October 6th of that year. Only a short time later he returned to England, where he was to play for Southampton FC in the future .

In the run-up to the European Championship in Italy , Watson played his 50th international match against Argentina . In the tournament itself he completed all three preliminary round matches, but retired early with his team after a draw, a defeat and a win against Belgium , Italy and Spain .

In Southampton, Watson formed a team filled with big names with his England team- mates Kevin Keegan , Mick Channon and Alan Ball . Although it was generally assumed that the now 33-year-old Watson was in the autumn of his career, he still played a key role in his new club and in the national team and played in a total of six of eight qualifying games for the World Cup 1982 in Spain . Only in the last two competitive games Greenwood nominated Russell Osman for the first and - in place of Watson - Alvin Martin for the second central defender position. England secured their first World Cup participation in twelve years with a 1-0 win against Hungary and in the subsequent preparatory games Watson only played twice in the six months (in February 1982 in a 4-0 win against Northern Ireland and in June of the same year - two weeks before the first World Cup group game - in the 1-1 draw against Iceland in Reykjavík ). By now Watson had left Southampton to join Stoke City . This made him the first England international to be under contract with five different clubs during his international career (this record was later set by Peter Shilton and David Platt ).

The last career stations

To the disappointment of Watson, he was not named by Greenwood in the 22-man squad for the World Cup. Instead, Thompson and the young Terry Butcher from Ipswich Town occupied the two center-back positions in the team and the also inexperienced Steve Foster from Brighton & Hove Albion was nominated as a substitute . When Greenwood was eliminated from the coaching position after the tournament in the second round, the successor Bobby Robson built a new team in which the 36-year-old Watson should no longer play a role. He ended his career in the English national team after 65 internationals and four goals, which at that time meant seventh place in the record list of most internationals. In addition to his original high as an England international - based on his five different professional club stations - he is the record holder for an England national player who has never played in a World Cup finals. At 36 he is still one of the oldest outfield players to ever play for England.

Watson ended his active club career at Derby County and also briefly returned to his first club, Notts County. Before his final resignation he also played in the North American professional league NASL for the Vancouver Whitecaps (26 games / 3 goals) and Fort Lauderdale Sun and in English non-league football for Kettering Town .

In February 2020, it was announced that Watson was neurologically ill, most likely from chronic traumatic encephalopathy .

successes

• FA Cup Winner: 1973
• English league cup winner: 1976

Web links

• National team profile on englandfootballonline.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ barryhugmansfootballers.com: Profile Dave Watson , accessed July 1, 2020
2. ↑ bbc.com: Dave Watson: Ex-England skipper may have the same disease as Jeff Astle had (February 14, 2020) , accessed April 29, 2020