This was the greatest club team ever | OneFootball

The greatest club football team ever?

No question: the Celtic side who won the European Cup in 1967.

Because they were all born within shouting (or shooting) distance of Celtic Park. – including Newcastle’s 1955 FA Cup winning goalie Ronnie Simpson.

Sorry, but the rest are just mercenaries.

That doesn’t stop us loving them, of course, and even our home grown boys go off when the money is right (for them or for the club). But, even so…

The first Newcastle game I saw was at home against Portsmouth in 1962.

It was a warm Spring day and my pals and I were wearing thin tops and shorts. Halfway through the game the heavens opened with the worst hailstorm I can remember and we were soaked to the bone.

We went behind, but little Barry Thomas (£30,000 from Scunthorpe) equalised with a header at the Leazes End.

My best friend at home was short and called Barry, so he idolised Barry Thomas. I was dark, tall, and cool (so I thought) and Dave Hilley (£30,00 from Third Lanark, I think) was my hero. I’m not sure he played that day.

My best friend at school idolised Len White (£12,500 from Rotherham).

Every other Monday he would have stories of Len White (pictured above) did this and Len White did that.

We organised an away trip (a big deal in those days, especially when you’re only 14) to watch United against Huddersfield, at the old Leeds Road ground. Len White tore the opposition apart – 3–0. Unfortunately, he was playing for Huddersfield by then: we’d swapped him for some clown whose name I don’t want to remember.

What is the point of all this rambling, you may well ask.

Well, it’s because I still remember best, and loved the most, the Geordie boys who wore the black and white, even if they were not the best players.

Yes, there were so many others I loved to watch – who remembers Jim Iley’s first long throw in or Tony Green’s grace on the ball, or a hundred other purchased players, but for me it is the Geordie boys I remember the most.

But that, of course, includes all the true Geordies by adoption, and we have a fair few of them at the club right now.