Statues make their presence felt

Statues make their presence felt

It was a relief to see that earlier this month the statue of Blackpool footballing great, Stan Mortensen, had been restored to its rightful spot outside the club’s Bloomfield Road stadium. Mortensen scored a hat-trick in Blackpool’s remarkable FA Cup final win in 1953, somewhat ironically known as the “Matthews final”.

The statue had been removed by the under-fire club owners, the Oyston family, for what they called “safety reasons”. It appeared that the owners feared the statue would provide a focal point for a protest by fans against the running of the club which is suffering grim times. So they had the statue removed from its plinth and dumped in a groundsman’s shed.

Not surprisingly this did not go down too well — it was no way to treat a legend. Protesters included the grandniece of Mortensen, Nicola Heaney, who was furious. “I can’t understand why it was done — nobody had a bad word for Uncle Stan.”

The statue incident symbolises Blackpool’s current dire straits. After a disastrous 12 months in which they suffered a humiliating relegation, the club is in an absolute mess. But at least ‘Morty’s’ statue is back where it belongs.

There was one instance when football fans were very happy to see a statue removed from a ground. In November 2013, Fulham’s new owners ordered the dismantling of a Michael Jackson statue at Craven Cottage. It had been erected a couple of years earlier by former chairman Mohammed Al Fayed, a great fan of the late singer.

Unfortunately for Al Fayed, football culture is such that fans prefer to honour statues of footballers outside their stadiums rather than singers. Fulham fans were most unhappy with what they regarded as  an “inappropriate and ridiculous” image at the ground. There was a general feeling it looked like something that might have escaped from a second-rate theme park. Among the printable comments from Fulham fans were “hilariously bad”, “cheap and tacky” and simply, “oh dear!”

Fulham already had a statue at their ground of their best-ever footballer, Johnny Haynes, and his image is not tacky at all. Al Fayed has since donated the Jackson creation to the National Football Museum in Manchester.

One problem with statues, whether they be politicians, celebrities or footballers, is that they are an easy target for abuse. Nothing looks more forlorn than a statue with an arm or leg missing, or heaven forbid, a head gone. Then there is the inevitable graffiti, usually obscene, unfunny and invariably misspelled.

No one is spared, even great sporting heroes like Mortensen’s old Blackpool teammate, Stanley Matthews. One of the most popular statues is that of Matthews at his birth place  in Hanley. In fact there are three images of him on the same plinth, showing him dribbling and shooting.

Sadly, some years ago the ball was hacked off and stolen by vandals. Locals like to say it was the only time anyone took the ball off Matthews.

Football statues are a relatively new phenomenon in England. A recent survey reported that more than 90 percent of football statues have been erected since 1990. The first, in 1956, was of little-known Swindon forward Harold Fleming, who scored 203 goals in 332 games for the club from 1907-24.

There are many worthy football statues at English stadiums. Among those Nobby has been fortunate enough to see at first-hand are those of the great Dixie Dean outside Goodison Park and Bill Shankly, who transformed Liverpool’s fortunes, at Anfield.

One not to be missed at Old Trafford is that of “The United Trinity” with Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law. They called them “The Champagne Trio’”. Just imagine watching them  playing in the same forward line. Appropriately, facing them across Sir Matt Busby Way is Busby himself, while a more recent addition has been that of Alex Ferguson.

Another Old Trafford legend, Duncan Edwards, is honoured with a statue in his home town of Dudley, in the West Midlands.

In the Northeast, Jackie Milburn’s statue reflects his strong roots with the mining community which, combined with his footballing skills, made him a classic local hero  in Newcastle.

At Middlesbrough there is a sculpture of a young Brian Clough who, in his playing days had a remarkable goal-scoring record. In five seasons for ‘Boro in the old Division Two, his lowest tally in a season was 36 goals and he scored 197 goals in 213 games for the club.

Clough, in fact, has a hat-trick of statues, with two more at Derby and Nottingham Forest with whom he achieved amazing feats as manager.

Two other iconic statues stand proudly outside Molineux, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers. One depicts Billy Wright, the former England captain and the first player to earn 100 caps. The other is of Stan Cullis, who first represented Wolves as a player and became their manager in the club’s heyday from 1948-64. The imposing figure is nine feet tall and on the plinth reads his famous saying, “You only get one life and I gave mine to Wolves.”

Other noteworthy  statues include Tom Finney at Preston’s Deepdale, World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore  at both West Ham and Wembley, Gordon Banks at Stoke and Swansea’s Ivor Allchurch.

Chelsea are represented by Peter Osgood at Stamford Bridge, while at Portman Road are statues of two great Ipswich and England managers, Alf Ramsey and Bobby Robson.

Few football fans, whatever their club affiliation, would dispute the worthiness of  the aforementioned players and managers being immortalised in statues.

The sculptures are a simple but effective testimony honouring our footballing heroes.

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