IslandExile

Great player. Happy days. 🐑

Nothing wrong with him. #COYR

Great player. Happy days. 🐑

I can still recall Frannie’s joy as he scored for us against City and signalled to their fans who had been chanting‘City Reject!’.
It shut them up quite nicely that did!
Great player! Massive personality!
Legend at both clubs.
 
PS………Copyright!!😉

Keep posting, it will save us buying it! 😂
Seriously, I loved Franny Lee, he was my mum's favourite player (from watching tv football, I hasten to add.)
I was so excited when my new boyfriend took me to the BBG for the first time, and there he was! 
Mum had recently died at the time, I was so sad I never got to tell her I'd seen her hero. (Co-incidentally, she died 50 years ago today.) 
I'll definitely buy the book. 

You make a valid point.
Keep them up,

Yes, they seem to have limited new starters to Cumming (the GK), Vaulks and Placheta so far, despite signing about 12 players. It looks like its Rodriguez that he needs to dislodge because they'd never drop Branagan.

Great player. Happy days. 🐑

A lot of teams do not put new arrivals into the team immediately - considered harsh on the incumbents. They wait until an injury or obvious loss of form, then it's up to the new arrival to make the most of their chance and cement their place.

So long as his songs aren't played. Even a new £5 million striker isn't with going through that.

It was still a work in progress before his death, so the title was possibly decided by the author or publisher.
 
'There was always talk about Leeds, their boss Don Revie, and their dubious tactics both on and off the pitch. Years later, Wales international defender Rod Thomas became my big pal at Derby – and his best mate, while on international duty, was the Leeds United keeper Gary Sprake. Rod told me that Sprake had said to him, ‘There’s not one thing our manager wouldn’t do to win a game … lie, rogue, cheat or bribe.’ Whatever the truth, or the impact it had on that season, it left the 1971/72 campaign with the most thrilling conclusion to any top-flight season.'
- - - - -
'We could have won the European Cup in that second season I spent with Derby. First, we saw off Slovan Bratislava and then we were paired with European aristocrats Real Madrid. We won the first leg at the Baseball Ground 4-1, but I missed the return because I’d been sent off in the Hunter incident against Leeds. The second leg finished 4-1 to Real and we went out 5-1, after extra time. That was tough to take.
'And that sending-off affair actually led to a rule change by UEFA. It was considered unfair to automatically ban a player from a European game after a domestic match when the player had yet to be proved to be guilty or not guilty. Mind you, there wasn’t much chance of me being ‘not guilty’ – the footage was there for everyone to see!
'So, there was no final season Wembley farewell in the FA Cup, no European Cup win, but how could I complain? What a great time I’d enjoyed as a footballer! I’d only signed for Derby County for a year but agreed to stay on for that extra season. Now Dave Mackay asked me to carry on again, but my mind was made up. I did say to Dave that, if I changed my mind, I’d not play for anyone but Derby. That, however, wasn’t going to happen.'
 

The long-awaited autobiography of Franny Lee is out soon, Triumphs, Treachery and Toilet Rolls with an insight into his time at Derby. There's a lot about his businesses too, like being the first to produce printed kitchen towels and his part-ownership of Hazlewoods which used to be on Parcel Terrace that he ended up selling his shares for around £14 million.
- - - - -
I made my Derby County debut on 17 August against Everton, and Roger Davies, Derby’s tall striker, was playing centre-forward. He started dribbling about and rolling the ball under his foot. I said to him, ‘Roger, if you’re going to dribble it, and lose it, do it in their f****** penalty area and not down here in our half.’ I liked to put a marker down.
We drew 0-0 at Goodison and Dave said to me on the Monday, ‘What d’you think?’ I said that I knew why they didn’t win away from home. I told him they weren’t playing the ball into feet when someone was marked. I also told him that if they played me at centre-forward, marked or unmarked, I’d get the ball and set it up from there – without losing possession. So, Dave changed it there and then. I was moved to centre-forward and played there all season, much as I’d done at City, and I had a really good season for them, scoring 16 goals, 12 of them in the league.
Cue delight at Maine Road and they revelled in it for all of 90 seconds. And then I had my say! I reacted first to a ball played forward by David Nish and I cut in from the left wing, beat two or three blue shirts and then let fly from more than 20 yards. It screamed beyond Joe Corrigan and inside his left-hand post, just under the bar. Fantastic!
BBC’s Match of the Day Barry Davies’s commentary still gets a run-out on YouTube today. As I turned, 30 yards out, to run towards the area, Barry said: ‘Interesting …’ and then, as the ball left my right boot, ‘… very interesting!’ Barry paused and picked up the mic again as I wheeled away beaming with a huge grin: ‘Oh! Look at his face, just look at his face!’ The City fans were looking and, bless them, I know that they joined in my celebrations. It was a cracking goal, one of my career highlights, and my smile just betrayed my love for the game at that very moment.
City were beaten and, after the game, the press pack wanted to talk to the prodigal son, back to haunt his old employers. Of course they did. I was chatting to the press boys when Tony Book’s new assistant manager, Ian MacFarlane, showed his face. I couldn’t resist asking a question to which I already knew the answer: ‘Will it be all right if I come in tomorrow for some treatment on my knee, Ian?’ Ian, who could curdle milk if he wanted to, was nice as pie: ‘Certainly, Franny. I’ll fix that for you.’
No fixing required, actually. Part of the terms of my move to Derby was an understanding that I could go into City for treatment. I was also able to train there for part of the week. This was all thrashed out when I was telling both Tony Book and Dave Mackay that I didn’t want to travel to the East Midlands because of my business commitments in the Lancashire area. That was a clause that would have an interesting postscript.
- - - - 
Hunter and I were sent off after a scrap that had been brewing ever since the incident that led to our first-half penalty. Hunter didn’t like the fact that I’d won the penalty – and that he’d given it away – leading to Charlie despatching the spot kick. I’d picked the ball up ten yards inside the Leeds half and I ran directly at Hunter, feinting left then taking him on the outside. I ran into the area, he caught my left leg, and he had a hand in the small of my back. I went down and referee Derek Nippard called it immediately: penalty!
Leeds liked to referee their own games. I remember Sunderland’s Bob Stokoe warning the FA Cup Final ref not to let Leeds ‘referee’ the 1973 final. So, they didn’t like decisions going against them. After Charlie George put the penalty away, the Leeds players were full of moans. And on and on it went, before and after the interval. Then I picked the ball up and ran at their defence again, and I managed to get a snapshot away. As it was cleared, Hunter clattered into me, and all hell broke out. He’d tapped me on the shoulder, hit me with a haymaker right hand and split my lip with a gold ring.
This was not play-acting! I wasn’t having that, so I had a right go back. All the lads then stepped in and the referee sent us off. Hunter was still chipping away as the ref spoke to him and, as we walked to the tunnel, it broke out again when we still had 20 yards to reach the touchline. This time, I got in first and went for him with a couple of right hooks and two straight lefts. He went flying. Gordon Guthrie, our physio, came on and pulled me away, and Dave Mackay was in there, too. Dave had deputed centre-half Roy McFarland – who was injured and watching from the stand – to be my minder as I was led away. Roy had his work cut out as I got my lip stitched under the stand.
It’s a good job I didn’t get in their dressing room afterwards, as I might have just been coming out on parole now! I’m not proud of the episode but the red mist had descended. ‘Let me get at that b****** Hunter!’ I apparently shouted at big Roy, as the medic tried to stitch my wound. I was fuming.
Did I dive? Not that day. There was a lot of controversy throughout my career about diving to win penalties. I won’t say that I always stayed on my feet unless I was absolutely knocked down. There was, though, some shocking treatment handed out by defenders in that era.
I did score a lot of penalties – 15 in all – in my goal-laden 1971/72 season. That’s because they’d changed the law to give forwards more protection and we [City] were flat out for the title – putting sides under immense pressure, and defenders reacted. But I was fouled only five times out of the 13 league penalties we got.
 
It's a terrific read, out in September. 
 

Yeah, we're more used to players that don't score while they are playing 🐏

I do recall their fans chanting "let him die" when Shaun Barker got his career ending injury against them, but I don't recall any "thoughts and prayers" type messages on social media afterwards. It would be nice to think that most supporters would recognise that an injury where the screens go up and/or the player is stretchered off is unlikely to be "faked" or anything but quite serious for the player.

Yeah, we're more used to players that don't score while they are playing 🐏

John Middleton swapped for Archie Gemmill. 
We paid enormously for that.

For me, Boro game froze for around 5 seconds every one or two minutes. Massively frustrating. 
Chesterfield, on the other hand, was a smooth experience. Sharp picture. No problem.

Perhaps you're right, looking at his profile. I was basing it on him playing up front in their pre-season friendlies - or the bits I saw on my kid's iPad. Apologies.

Any idea what I should have for tea @SECornerRAM

Brendan Wiredu Would probably make a refreshing change 😂😂😂😂🐏🐏

Good to see him getting some plaudits.
After so many seasons championing him on here against a sizeable minority of people who seriously under-rated him, feels good to know he will be fully appreciated at his new club.
Not looking forward to playing against him in two weeks' time. I hope he has a quiet one out of a bit of respect for the club that nurtured him, and that whatever happens,  the fans show him that respect back.
Was a major part of our promotion. 

This is what I said in his transfer thread. Stand by it 100%
 
Early prediction. Fans favourite after 10 games. Never, ever underestimate work rate. You can look at stats all day and they paint a picture, but until you see someone running all game with their kit soaked in sweat, working hard for the team, for the manager, for the fans, you can only form part of it.
Sure his record is average, sure he isn't gonna bang in 25 goals and set the league on fire, but someone putting themselves about with the fans on their side raises the work rate and commitment of others around them. In they run through brick walls and the fans love them for it, others follow their example.
Our fans will bloody love him.

And worked his socks off today as well. Covered so much ground tracking back to help the defence that he had absolutely nothing left when Warne stuck him up front for the last few minutes.
And how cool was his finish for our goal? Saw loads of those situations ending with a tame shot at the keeper or blazed over last season, but he kept his head and finished superbly. 

Most of our new boys have their own thread, about a time he got one as well. 2 goals in 2 last games, he now has about another 45 games left to reach last season's three goals. I'd expect his pace to be a huge asset for us and hopefully, he gets to double digits with goals this season.
My Ipswich supporting friend just sent me this one. Apologies for the Facebook link, but I couldn't find anything better. I can assure you, that the content is worth watching. Actually, with this clip and a lot of goals, I can only see the iconic status of this fine young gentleman.  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1233589010953019