Stan Bowles

Stan Bowles
Personnel
Surname	Stanley Bowles
birthday	December 24, 1948
place of birth	Manchester ,  England
size	178 cm
position	Midfield , storm
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1967-1970	Manchester City	17 0(2)
1970	→  Bury FC  (loan)	5 0(0)
1970-1971	Crewe Alexandra	51 (18)
1971-1972	Carlisle United	33 (12)
1972-1979	Queens Park Rangers	255 (70)
1979-1980	Nottingham Forest	19 0(2)
1980-1981	FC Orient	46 0(7)
1981-1984	Brentford FC	81 (16)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1974-1977	England	5 0(1)
1 Only league games are given.

Stanley "Stan" Bowles (born December 24, 1948 in Manchester ) is a former English football player . In the 1970s, the offensive player was due to his technical skills and distinctive entertainer qualities as a "genius" and decisive force behind the soaring of the Queens Park Rangers , which brought in a runner-up three years after the rise in 1973 . Regardless of this, his time in the English senior team was not a good star and so between 1973 and 1976 - when England missed two World Cup finals in a row - he only played five times for the "Three Lions".

Athletic career

Club career

First stations (1967–1972)

At a young age, there was little to suggest that the undoubtedly highly talented Bowles would one day be one of the best English football players of the 1970s when he was denied a sporting breakthrough at his home club Manchester City . With eccentric behavior and long stays in the nightlife of Manchester, he quickly turned the coaching duo Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison, who were then successful with the "Citizens", against them. In the late summer of 1970, their patience was finally used up, especially after Bowles and Allison had fistfights in a nightly locality. Following a short loan at the beginning of the 1970/71 season with third division FC Bury , the club let him move after only 17 league games within three years.

The next port of call was the town of Crewe, around 45 kilometers away, where he ran from now on for the fourth-class club Crewe Alexandra . Bowles realized that his professional career was at a fork in the road and so he seized his chance with the "Railwaymen" supervised by trainer Ernie Tagg . With his technical skills, he was almost effortlessly the best player in the lower house of English professional football; as a midfielder, he contributed an above-average 13 goals in 37 league games. He couldn't master the previous problems in Crewe either and the employer tried to prevent his gambling addiction by only transferring the salary to his wife. After a total of 51 league encounters, 18 goals and the realization that Bowles was under-challenged in the fourth division, he moved to second division Carlisle United in September 1972 for £ 12,000 , where he met with coach Ian MacFarlane a former Manchester City employee who had both knew exactly the special skills as well as the specifics outside the court of Bowles.

At Carlisle United, which shortly before had only just failed to move up to the House of Lords with fourth place, Bowles seamlessly continued the good performances, scored all goals shortly after his arrival in a 3-0 win against Norwich City , ended in the end the 1971/72 season with eleven league goals and was the club's best striker together with center forward Bobby Owen . The fact that he did not find lasting happiness in northwest England not far from the Scottish border was initially due to the fact that his confidante MacFarlane left the club after only one year. The difficulties off the field were never permanently overcome and so he turned his back on the club after six competitive games at the beginning of the 1972/73 season under MacFarlane's successor Alan Ashman . For 112,000 pounds he moved to London to the league rivals Queens Park Rangers , where he was primarily to replace Rodney Marsh , who had migrated to Manchester City - as Bowles was known at the time as the "enfant terrible".

Queens Park Rangers (1972-1979)

Immediately, "Stan the Man" was a key player at QPR and the 40 league goals he and Don Givens accumulated in the 1972/73 season (17 of which were in Bowles) were an important factor in winning the runner-up and promotion to the First Division . Particularly effective was the good teamwork in midfield with Gerry Francis , which was the basis for the subsequent storm in the upper table regions of the top English division. After an eighth place in the 1973/74 season to the Bowles no fewer than 19 league goals had contributed, and a result moderately weaker points only marginally in the 1974-75 season, attacked the "Super Hoops" in 1976 in the battle for the English league one . Although the club had to admit defeat to Liverpool FC by just one point in the title race , Bowles had reached the height of his performance and popularity and is remembered for the club's best performance of the season to date. In addition to the sporting skills, which he was often able to use in direct individual duels with an opponent, it was now his "rough edges" on and off the pitch that earned him sympathy. Significant for this is the scene during a game that was captured on press photos - and also adorns the cover of Stan Bowles, the Autobiography - which shows this "club legend, bookmaker's favorite and king of the racecourse" in anticipation of an opposing corner kick at his own goal post leafing through a horse racing newspaper calmly.

With the help of the runner-up, Bowles was able to present himself in the UEFA Cup for the first time on the European stage in the 1976/77 season and he did not miss this opportunity. Already in the early stages of the competition he scored the club against the Norwegian Brann Bergen with three goals each to the two 4-0 and 7-0 successes as well as in the second round with two hits for the comforting 3-3 first leg draw at Slovan Bratislava , which was the cornerstone for progress after the following 5-2 home win. The path ended after another win against 1. FC Köln in the quarter-finals, when a 3-0 in the first leg against AEK Athens was not enough, as the Greeks neutralized the result with the same result and in the end had better nerves in the penalty shoot-out . Regardless of this, Bowles won the UEFA Cup top scorer with eleven goals. In addition, Bowles moved into the semifinals in the English League Cup in 1977 with his team after victories against West Ham United and Arsenal FC , in which Aston Villa had then prevailed by means of a replay.

Despite the good cup results, after the runner-up in 1974 in everyday league life it quickly became apparent that QPR had passed its zenith and was now experiencing a sporting downward trend. After the crash in 1977, this led to the fourteenth place a year later, to fourth from bottom , for which Bowles was also responsible, with a restrained urge to attack and clearly only single-digit goalscoring. In the 1978/79 season , the club then suffered relegation fate, with Bowles only met once in 30 league games. Until December 1979 he remained loyal to his club in the second division before he joined the reigning European champions Nottingham Forest under coach Brian Clough for £ 250,000 .

Career finale (1979–1984)

The professional liaison between Bowles and the eccentric Clough soon turned out to be a full-blown misunderstanding, which was also due to the fact that Bowles should be used on the right side, which he had never liked in his active career. The bottom of the constant disputes between the two was the final in the European Cup , which Nottingham Forest had reached as defending champion for the second time in a row and in which Bowles did not want to participate. So they separated again in the summer of 1980 and Bowles returned to London to play for the second division FC Orient .

At his new club he scored seven goals in 46 league games, but stayed there for just over a year before he moved to West London in 1981 to join third division club Brentford . There he let his active professional career come to an end in just under three years, and with his talent he occasionally once again achieved highlights in the third division. At the age of 35, he ended his career in 1984. Three years later, his old club Queens Park Rangers organized a charity game against Brentford FC in his honor, which was also a duel with Rodney Marsh and was advertised as a fight between the two number 10s (central midfield strategists of a soccer team often wear this number). The game was also not insignificant as a fundraising campaign for Bowles himself, whom his vices pursued even after his active career had ended.

English national team

Bowles made his debut for England's senior team on April 3, 1974 in a friendly against Portugal . The circumstances of the game were quite ungrateful, as the "Three Lions" had not qualified for the 1974 World Cup in Germany and the former world champion coach Alf Ramsey was faced with a complicated phase of upheaval. Ramsey used nine players in the game, with a maximum of five international matches. The result was a bleak 0-0 and Ramsey was soon withdrawn from trust. Bowles was at his sporting peak at the time and a month later he scored his first goal in a 2-0 win over Wales .

The desired initial spark failed to materialize, especially after a permanent successor for Ramsey had been found in Don Revie . Revie was skeptical of the individualist Bowles - like extroverted players like Frank Worthington , Tony Currie and Alan Hudson - and instead let offensive players emerge who, in his eyes, stood for greater reliability and camaraderie. However, since this policy did not pay off and England later also failed to qualify for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina , this attitude was very controversial in the English media. After a large-scale press campaign, Bowles found his way back into the team in November 1976 for a decisive competitive game in Italy, but remained ineffective in the clear 2-0 defeat as the only striker and without significant support. In February 1977 Bowles completed his fifth and final international match for England. It ended at home in Wembley against vice world champions Netherlands with another 0-2 and Bowles was only noticed by the two different shoes he wore with reference to the two supplier companies.

literature

• Harrison, Paul: Carlisle United - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-640-8 , pp. 171-172 .
• Macey, Gordon: Queen's Park Rangers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-85983-714-6 , pp. 212-213 .

Web links

• (Unofficial) profile page for the Queens Park Rangers
• Profile page at Crewe Alexandra
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database
• Stan Bowles in the England team

Individual evidence

1. ↑ France Football of October 4, 2011, p. 50 (quotations) and 51 (illustration)
2. ^ "Stan Bowles: England 1974–1977" (Sporting Heroes)