England's Greatest Defender

Alfie Potts Harmer

Description

Almost universally considered the greatest defender England has ever produced by those who saw him play, Neil Franklin was a football superstar in the 40s and 50s whose name has never taken its rightful place amongst other football legends of our time. Capped 27 times by England, setting a record for consecutive England appearances, Franklin sent shockwaves through the British game when he left Britain for Bogota in 1950, just months before England were set to make their World Cup debut in Brazil. Whilst the national team proceeded to be humiliated by the United States in South America, trying out ten inferior centre-halves over the next four years and suffering two devastating defeats at the hands of the Hungarians, football in England would never be the same again. This meticulously researched and fascinating book gives Neil Franklin the place in sporting history that he deserves.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: RedDoor Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781913227241
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

ENGLAND’S GREATEST DEFENDER
THE UNTOLD STORY OF NEIL FRANKLIN
ALFIE POTTS HARMER
 
Published by RedDoor
www .reddoorpublishing .com
© 2019 Alfie Potts Harmer
The right of Alfie Potts Harmer to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the author
Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The author apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book
All excerpts from Soccer at Home and Abroad by Neil Franklin reproduced with kind permission of Gary Franklin. Extract (p.35) taken from Potters at War by Simon Lowe, reproduced with kind permission of Desert Island Books. Extract (p.175) reproduced with permission of Daily Express/Express Syndication. Extract (p.124) taken from Bogota Bandit by Richard Adamson. Published by Mainstream Publishing. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited © 1996
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover design: Rawshock Design
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
In loving memory of Charles Owen Potts
 
PROLOGUE
Neil Who?
‘ The best defender I ever played with or against—yes, that good. ’
Sir Tom Finney
In preparation for the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico, reigning champions England flew out to South America two weeks before the tournament was scheduled to begin. Sir Alf Ramsey and his charges had made the early arrival to play two warm-up fixtures on the continent against Colombia and Ecuador in the hope of acclimatising to the high-altitude levels they would be met with in Guadalajara, the location of England’s opening three games.
England were not alone in making such preparations. The Soviet national team made an early arrival to face Ecuadorian club side Liga Deportiva Universitaria, Sweden had played twice in Mexico during February and March, Bulgaria had played a couple of games in Peru, and even the South Americans of Brazil headed to Guanajuato in Mexico for their intense pre-tournament training, where the altitude is almost identical to that of Mexico City.
After an arduous journey, which involved a delay due to a blocked runway at El Dorado International Airport, the England team arrived at the Tequendama Hotel at around 6 p.m. Opened in 1953, the Tequendama is so typical of Bogot á —a lavish display of wealth and opulence plonked in the centre of extreme poverty and desperation. There seem to be only two classes of people in the Colombian capital, the super-rich and the utterly impoverished. It is a contrast which is impossible to ignore, and the England team were no exception. Upon their arrival, the England party was informed that there was a telegram waiting for them from back home, sent by a 46-year-old licensee who ran a pub in Lancashire. It was a good-luck message, assuring the players that they would have no problems with the altitude and wishing them all the best in the upcoming finals.
The man who sent the telegram was writing from experience. He had played his first game in South America after just five days in the city of Bogot á , and encountered no problems on the pitch. He also ought to have had experience playing for his country in a World Cup in South America, England’s first in fact, but of his own volition in 1950 turned down the opportunity to do so as a sure-starter.
The man in question was Neil Franklin, quite probably England’s greatest ever defender. Not just in terms of his ability—which was indeed exceptional—but also in terms of his style of play and the impression he left upon those who witnessed his talents. Franklin was, in many respects, the complete centre-half. Throughout much of his career, he was regarded as an oddity within the English game. A ball-playing centre-half during an era of stoppers who preferred to take a safety-first approach to the beautiful game.
Although he only stood at around 5 foot 10 ½ inches, markedly short for a centre-half in both the mid–early twentieth century and in the modern game, he was equally as proficient in the air as he was with his feet. The great Stanley Matthews described Franklin as being ‘as dominant in the air as a Spitfire’, before noting that whilst others would leave the pitch covered in mud, there would only be splashes on Neil, and the only real sign he’d been in a game of football at all would be the circle of mud hammered to his forehead.
When talking to some of the surviving players who played and trained with Neil Franklin, those last comments would come up time and time again. Last-ditch slide tackles which would often result in a mud bath at the time were not a common theme of Franklin’s game, quite simply because they were rarely required. His ability to be in the ‘right place at the right time’, so to speak, was second to none; and as a consequence, he often made defending look effortlessly easy. These are comments we would later hear about the likes of Franco Baresi—but here was a boy from the Potteries earning the same plaudits half a century earlier.
The way Neil played the game was alien to some. Even whilst the national press printed page after page heaping praise upon him, he would still face criticism for his approach to the game from those around him, most notably from the uncompromising Glaswegian Bob McGrory, who managed Stoke City for some seventeen years. This criticism and the consequent feeling of being unappreciated at Stoke City was one of the key reasons for Franklin’s ultimate departure from the Victoria Ground.
Much was made of Neil Franklin’s departure from Stoke City for the Bogot á club of Independiente Santa Fe. When it happened, in May 1950, it sent shockwaves through the British game. Here was the nation’s finest defender, a bonafide star of the country’s national game, departing for the rogue (in a footballing sense at least) nation of Colombia. Neil was by no means the only British player to leave for Colombia: from England’s First Division alone, he was joined by Stoke City teammate George Mountford, Manchester United star Charlie Mitten, and Billy Higgins of Everton. Mitten was an FA Cup winner and Mountford a very capable club winger, but neither garnered the same kind of press attention as Franklin, and understandably so.
The story was that Neil had suddenly upped sticks and vanished without a trace. He was labelled a mercenary and many other damning descriptions. The group of players themselves were often described as the ‘Bogot á Bandits’, as outlaws of the English game who had deserted their club and country in favour of the ‘lawless’ land of Colombia. Of course, the story told and the truth is not always the same thing. Neil’s move to Colombia had not been sudden, or not in his head at least. It was a major decision and not one he took lightly.
It is a great shame that so few modern football fans have heard of Neil Franklin, and of those that have, the majority know about him solely because of the so-called ‘Bogot á affair’. This ought not to be the case, and I hope to go some way towards rectifying that in this book.
Having said that, his ill-fated move to Colombia was a crucial, albeit brief, event in Neil’s life. Tom Finney believed Neil was ‘never quite the same’ after the move, and certainly, his footballing career was irrevocably damaged by the whole episode. Yet, even upon his return, Neil’s life was one full of colour. Reflecting on his playing career when it was drawing to a close, Neil said, ‘It might be a subject for discussion as to whether my career has been successful or not, but whatever your conclusions on that score, you cannot deny that my career has been eventful.’ Having spent hours upon hours charting the career of Neil Franklin, his ups and downs, from honours to tragedies, talking to those who knew him and even played with him … I can concur, one thing you could never level at Neil Franklin was that his career was dull.
Had his career not been blighted by his misbegotten move to Colombia, it is almost universally acknowledged that it would have been Franklin, not Billy Wright, who would have become the first England player to reach 100 caps, a sentiment later expressed by Wright himself. When Neil played his last-ever game for England against Scotland at Hampden Park, he had won a total of 27 caps, all of which were consecutive appearances, a record at the time, also eventually surpassed by Wright. If one also accounts for wartime internationals, Franklin made 39 consecutive full international appearances without once being dropped.
Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Raich Carter, arguably the three finest English players of their era, all regarded Neil Franklin as the greatest defender they ever played with or against. There can be no higher praise of an English footballer in the 1940s and 50s.
The consensus may have been that Neil was shunned and disgraced following his return to England in 1950, and there is some truth to that, but he still managed to become the most expensive defender in world football when he joined Hull City in 1951. It speaks volumes that at the age of twenty-nine, following controversy and suspension, more than si