EPL Talk » Johnny Haynes

Legends Of English Football: #11 Johnny Haynes

Paul Bestall — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:25:51 +0000

I think it’s apt to finish this series with perhaps the player who is often held up as the reason that allowed footballers to earn the wages that they do in this day and age. Yet, to simply think of Johnny Haynes’ only contribution to football was being the first player to earn £100 per week would do this wonderful player a major disservice.

Haynes was a fabulous player and possibly one of the greatest players ever to represent England. A real “one club man”, Haynes personified footballing skill, humility and loyalty like few others and is held in almost deity like reverence at Craven Cottage to this day. Haynes showed such loyalty to his club, perhaps beyond the call of duty.

Haynes was born in 1934 in Kentish Town, London, and signed for the Cottagers in 1950 on schoolboy terms. What seems to distinguish Haynes from his contemporaries of the time was the fact that Fulham were not a “big club” in the Football League rather a mid table Second Division side, yet such was the level of his abilities that the majority of his England caps were awarded whilst Fulham were a Second Division side, almost unthinkable these days.

He continually turned down the offers of bigger clubs, A.C. Milan and Tottenham both unsuccessfully tried to sign him, but for him playing football for the club he loved was more than enough. It was Haynes unique ability as a playmaker, a role that didn’t really exist until he created it that made him such a player that was coveted so much.

In tandem with Bobby Robson, Haynes’ ability to ping passes seemingly at will to any area of the pitch to unlock opponents that caused the Fulham faithful to dub him “The Maestro”. He would often place a towel in front of the clubhouse at Craven Cottage and fire passes from the centre circle, honing his passing skills every day.

There seemed to be nothing he couldn’t do with a football and his passing coupled with his goalscoring exploits made him an fearsome opponent. He dragged Fulham to promotion in the 1958-59 season, scoring 26 goals in just 34 appearances. Fulham had never played at the top level in English football before in their history, but the rest of the decade would see them constantly struggle to impose themselves in the division.

Yet regardless of his abilities as a player, he would often show his frustration at his team mates lack of abilities by giving out an earbashing, but given the captains armband at only 21, it was to be expected. He also often would revel in the creation of a goal more than actually scoring and had given penalties to team mates even when on a hatrick. Haynes set record after record for Fulham throughout his career, with appearances, goals scored, most goals in a game and most hatricks scored.

It was Haynes England career that caused him such disappointment, with the surprising defeat to USSR in the 1958 Quarter Finals followed by the exit to Brazil in the 1962 World Cup at the same stage. The Brazilians had worked out that to stop England, you simply had to stop Haynes and put a man marker on him. Haynes didn’t get a kick and England limped out to the eventually Champions. Yet he was instrumental in Englands 9-3 demolition of Scotland in 1961, setting up 5 goals and scoring 2.

Haynes never played for England again, but whilst Walter Winterbottom was replaced as England manager by Alf Ramsey, Haynes was involved in a motorbike crash which caused knee ligament damage, ruling him out for nearly a year. Once he returned toward the end of the 1962-63 season, he still turned out for Fulham as regularly as he used to, but he was just missing that yard of pace which had given him an edge. The media continually clamoured for his return to international duty, but Haynes confided in Bobby Charlton “Alf knows I don’t have it in me to play for England again and so do I”.

As the sixties went on Fulham perpetually flirted with relegation, finishing 20th in both the 1964-65 and 1965-66 season. The 1966-67 season saw Fulham rise to the dizzy heights of 18th but it was a false dawn. The following season, they finished rock bottom, 6 points from safety and then had the ignomy of a consecutive relegation to the Third Division by finishing bottom of the Second Division, this time 9 points from safety.They wouldn’t trouble the top division again until 2002.

Haynes however continued to stay and try and help the cause, but Fulham could only finish 4th and he retired from professional football at the end of that season. He surprisingly moved to South Africa and became player manager of Durban City actually winning the South African championship in 1971, thus gaining his only medal in his entire career. He stayed in South Africa until 1984, when he returned to live in Scotland until his death in 2005.

At the end of his career Haynes summed up the wage breaking story with panache. “When the chairman paid me £100 a week, he was as good as his word, but he never gave me a pay rise in the rest of my time at Fulham!”.

He passed away on his birthday, 17th October 2005, aged just 71. Fulham renamed the Stevenage Road Stand the Johnny Haynes Stand on November 27th 2005 and a statue of him was unveiled on the 18th October 2008 outside the ground.

Alan Mullery : “He was the only reason I went to Fulham as a young boy of 15 leaving school. He was my hero, the captain of England and Fulham”

Bobby Moore : “Once you get used to watching that perfection you realised the rest of the secret. John was always available, always hungry for the ball, always wanting to play. I loved watching the player. Later I learnt to love the man.”

Played 658 games for Fulham and scored 158 goals in all competitions
Won 56 caps and scored 18 goals for England
First footballer to get an agent
First footballer in England to receive £100 per week
Captained England 22 times
First player to play for England at Schoolboy, Youth, Under-23, B and Full team

Fulham Unveils Johnny Haynes Statue At Craven Cottage

The Gaffer — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:00:22 +0000

The greatest player in the history of Fulham Football Club was immortalized Saturday when a statue of legend Johnny Haynes was unveiled outside Craven Cottage in west London.

Haynes, who played a club-record 658 games and scored 158 goals for Fulham between 1952 and 1970, died in 2005. Pele once called Haynes the best passer of the ball he had ever seen.

The statue was erected thanks to funds raised by Fulham fans. Visit the Johnny Haynes Statue Action Group to learn more about the fundraising organization.

Required Reading Material For Followers Of Premier League

The Gaffer — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:00:28 +0000

Here are several interesting articles I came across during the past few days which may be of interest to many of you passionate fans:

“Soccer’s Billion-Dollar Players” — What Credit Crunch? The biggest soccer players and clubs are drowning in money, much of it borrowed (Time Magazine)
“Premier League Plan To Take English Football To The World” — Here at EPL Talk, we’ve been writing in support of the 39th Game concept ad nauseum, and now the idea is back with a different concept. Problem is will managers let their top teams play and risk the chance of injuries? (The Daily Telegraph)
“Premier League Plan Five Four-Team Global Tournaments In New Winter Break” — More details about Richard Scudamore’s plan to bring the Premier League to the world (The Daily Mirror)
“The Beautiful Gane: PFA’s Art Exhibition” — Now we know who bought the LS Lowry football masterpiece we featured a few months ago (Football Shirt Culture)
“20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” — Well-written article about the birth and history of the Football League (Two Hundred Percent)
“Fulham Plans Johnny Haynes Memorial Statue” — Johnny Haynes, the footballer that is synonymous with Fulham, is to be remembered with a memorial statue to stand outside Craven Cottage (Fulham FC)
“Kenyon Urges Chasing Pack To ‘Get Their Houses In Order’” — Peter Kenyon has advice for Everton, Spurs, Villa and the other teams trying to break into the Big Four. Must be easy to give advice when you work for a club that practically has an unlimited amount of money to spend (The Guardian)
“Most Of Premier League Web Visits Sourced Abroad” — This comes as little surprise to us readers, but it’s still fascinating to read: Most of the traffic to PremierLeague.com and the official club websites for the Big Four come from users outside the UK (euFootball Biz)

Bored By The EPL’s Big Four

Lonnie — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:20:15 +0000

I’m a free transfer in search of a new club!

As I follow the EPL this season, I will not be following Manchester United. I have decided to pick a club outside the Big Four as ‘my club’ for this season. It will be a tough change (I’ll probably still root for them when they are not playing against my newly adopted club) as I’ve been a United fan for about 10 years and have enjoyed that but I think its time to change.

I think Kevin Keegan (inappropriate to say as it might have been) was spot on when he said the Premier League is boring at the top and that it’s essentially a league within a league. However, I disagree with his assessment that its down to a simple matter of cash. I think that beyond simple cash outlay, clubs are struggling to compete beacause of an over-reliance on the transfer market and not enough investment in scouting and development systems. Middlesbrough comes to mind as a potential exception but even they splashed out 10 – 12 million on Alfonso Alves last season. They say the English talent pool is not as strong as it used to be but when clubs even in the Championship or League One are preferring to look abroad rather than develop talent, what chance does the English player have? A similar situation is threatening to occur in MLS with increased reliance on imported Latin and European players while North American players are cut loose.

Gone are the days of a club like Burnley (First Division Champs in 1960) who won the title in the final season before the maximum wage rule (then £20/week) was abolished. Contracts binding players to clubs for life were also scrapped. Both of those moves were great for the players but also started the trend of ever upward spiraling salaries. It in fact did not take long for salaries to escalate as the first £100-a-week player was Johnny Haynes who was bumped to that level by Fulham in 1961. Clubs of that era also contended with gate sharing and no Bosman rule transfers or TV income. The Bosman ruling caused salaries to take that next spiral upwards.

So how does a smaller club break into the Top 4? One way would be to focus on their league fixtures at the expense of any potential cup runs. Forget about the FA Cup and League Cup (depsite the potential for added ticket revenue) for a season and focus on winning your league fixtures. Rest your best XI for the league matches and blood your young academy/reserve players in the Cup games. The cash to be made from qualifying for the Champions League will more than make up any lost income that those domestic cup fixtures might have brought. And who knows, the kids might just shock a few people and win a round or two for you !

Anyhow, I’m sidetracking and need to get back to the focus of this post. I’m soliciting ideas for a new club to follow from you. If you’re a fan of a non-BigFour club, post a comment and tell me why you support the club that you do. What’s your connection with the club beyond wins and losses? How did you come to support your club and why have you stuck by them?