Peter Barnes: Tommy Booth's wit and wisdom taught me so much | OneFootball

Peter Barnes says the wit and wisdom of fellow Club legend Tommy Booth proved priceless in helping him quickly integrate into Manchester City’s first team.

Booth – who celebrates his 75th birthday today - became part of the very fabric of successive superb City sides across the late 1960s into the 1970s and beyond.

Indeed, along with fellow City icon Joe Corrigan, Booth also holds the rare distinction of having represented the Club across three decades, playing at Maine Road through until 1981.

Tommy also helped City accumulate a wealth of silverware across the course of his glittering Maine Road career.

His roll call of honour included the 1968/69 league title, our 1969 FA Cup triumph, twin European Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup successes in 1970 as well as another League Cup victory in 1976.

Barnes knows Tommy better than most – having started his City career alongside the central defender as a raw teenage winger back in 1974 with the pair both going on to play key roles in that famous 2-1 League Cup final success of 1976 over Newcastle.

The two are still close friends today, regularly representing the Club both on matchdays and beyond with great distinction.

And for former England winger Barnes, the reassuring presence of Booth, complete with his talent, knowledge and famed bone-dry sense of humour, made his introduction into City’s first team all the more comfortable as well for several other emerging talents.

“It was so good to have someone like Tommy alongside you, especially for the younger lads,” Peter recalls.

“We would come off the pitch at half time and Tommy would say: ‘Well done, you're doing alright. Don't worry.’

“He’d help to keep you calm and have a laugh and joke and that's what it was about with him.

“I think when you're a bit nervous before a game and you knew the guys were getting tense, Tommy would just crack a joke and we would all immediately start crying with laughter, which I think was so good for the changing room.

“It meant we all went out on the pitch feeling relaxed. That was Tommy to a tee, he was always laid back and he never showed any worries or nerves.

“Tommy just taught you things calmly. He was a Mancunian, obviously, and he was a joker in the changing room, always cracking gags.

“He’s just the same still today.

“I go around with him on match days today and he’ll say to people: ‘Oh, have you bought Peter's book? Don't worry, if you fall asleep after 10 minutes, I'll come and wake you up!'

“He’s just a dry comedian. If something happened, he’d just come back with a one liner and everybody would be falling around laughing, because that's the way he is.”

Belying that wicked sense of humour however was a hugely talented and cultured centre half who many astute observers describe as being years ahead of his time.

Indeed, towards the second half of his long and distinguished City career Tommy was redeployed as a midfielder to great effect by then manager Tony Book, filling the boots of no less a talent than Colin Bell after Nijinsky suffered a serious knee injury in late 1975.

And for Barnes one of the other telling aspects of Booth’s impact and talent was his uncanny ability to deliver on the very biggest of occasions.

“In big games Tommy always turned up,” Barnes points out.

“He was a Colossus and such a great guy to have in your team.

“He scored the winner against Everton in the 1969 FA Cup semi-final, was superb against Gornik Zabrze in the 1970 European Cup Winners’ Cup final and set up Dennis Tueart’s spectacular overhead winner in the 1976 League Cup final.

“In regard to that semi-final goal, Tommy always says that Colin Bell was behind him saying leave it and he said ‘I'm not leaving it to anybody. I'm going to crack it' and he put it in the back of the net!

WATCH: Classic Highlights: League Cup Final 1976 | Tueart 50

“In that '76 final, Mike Doyle headed across the box for me to score our opener and then Tommy set up Dennis’s winner. He leapt at the back stick and headed it on for Dennis to do his magic.

“In many ways he was so ahead of his time. He was a playmaker in the manner of Ruud Krol,  the great Dutch player of the 1970s.

“That’s why a lot of the lads called him Rudi.

“I once said, 'Where do you get your name Rudi?' And he said they had nicknamed him that because they thought he played a bit like Ruud Krol, that wonderful footballer for Holland at the back.

“Such was his talent there never needed to be too much coaching with Tommy.

“It was a case of just go and play your own game.

“And it was just simple for someone to coach him because he understood it all.

“Whether he was at the back with Mike Doyle or later Dave Watson, he was always a massive figure.

“The guys used to win the ball there, knock it down to Tommy and he would step forward, come into midfield and then always find the right pass to people because he had such good feet.

“It was a total pleasure to be alongside him in that City side.”