Stan Bowles , another of the great entertainers gone.

yes. a sad loss. When I was in London in the late 70'sI used to go to White City dogs frequently. He was there regularly with a pint, a **** and a sheaf of betting slips. Sometimes the night before a game! A genius. Frank Worthington : Tony Currie ; Duncan McKenzie : Charlie George. The present players will be respected but rarely loved as much as those and their like

cigarette

DP
Would you have liked to sit round a dinner table with that lot Stick George in and have big Mal in to manage them.
Ronnie.

'If Stan could only pass a betting shop like the way he passes a football'!!

A famous quote attributed to one of Stan's managers during his playing days.

RIP Stan...

Throw in Rodney Marsh as well

The Knight

I think it was Dave Sexton iirc

Sorry it was Ernie Tagg

theres a great old photo currently on twitter of STAN at holgate end at boro whilst ewaiting for a corner picks a programme up and is reading aboput himself in the programme alongside don givens i think it is
famous quote from CLOUGHIE
IF STANLEY COULD PASS A BETTING  SHOP LIKE HE PASSED A BALL HE,D HAVE NO PROBLEMS

he was at Forest at the end of his career,sadly his legs and talent were well on the wane by then

Just read that he was voted their teams greatest ever player by both QPR and Brentford fans, quite an achievement. RIP Stan one of the great entertainers, boozers and punters.

Did he head the ball a lot? Succumbed to Alzheimer's like a lot of ex-players, but perhaps his wild past life had an impact as well. RIP Stan.

Watched an interesting interview last night on Youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYNmHqMBrbs

And 10 of his best goals, if you're interested :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-rulag0-o

Ronnie, it would be a fair old time wouldn't it! I suppose distance lends enchantment to the view, and we were younger and more enthusiastic then, but footy seemed  more exciting then. I love watching The Big Match Revisited on ITV 4 on Saturday morning. They showed a rare victory by Everton v Liverpool yesterday. Souness ran 25 yards to have a fight with Mick Lyons! Great villains we had as well in those days. Hope all is well.

DP.
Sad to say lost the mother in law this morning  dementia  is an awful  thing  RIP.

DP
Was at Wembley  when Keegan and Bremner got sent off great days.

Stood by him at White City one night on the back straight. I had missed 5/4 a dog, he asked me what I wanted to back, he didn't seem to have a programme so I gave him my page of the sporting life that I had folded up in my back pocket. He layed me  6/4 and paid me out after the race. I actually had been to see him play at QPR when I first moved to London,one of the few players I would pay to watch.
RIP Stan

Donegal if I remember correctly souness got a shock when he got there.

Sorry to hear about your mother in law ronnie.

very sorry to hear that RR. My condolences. A dreadfully cruel business dementia.

Jimnast, he did. Mick was a very "uncomplicated" defender and the size of a house. Guardiola and he are at opposite ends of the sophisticated footy spectrum.

can remember him playing at carlisle utd    making me feel old

Yes they are Donegal

Sharp dresser, Stan. His dad had told him, "It's not a crime to be skint but it is a crime to look skint"

i was in the chicken run at ayresome park and saw souness fly in to little tommy craig of newcastle in a derby ,snapped his shin pad in two you could hear the crack in the ALBERT PARK HOTEL
no more than the little ginger koont deserved

Would be on 200k per week in today's prices. Sadly only managed KO time five minutes beforehand after leaving the bookies.

£200 0r £200,000 makes no odds if its going in bookies sarchel

Indeed poster. It's all relative.

Sadly only managed KO time five minutes beforehand after leaving the bookies.

Sadly

Stan done it his way Stew he didn't give a Flying mate

Indeed Casey. Probably the best non-trainer in English football!

Someone was telling me the other day on the football forum about how unfit players were in the 60s with their smoking and drinking but is taking crack cocaine and heroin etc so much more healthier for many of today's players?

Mmmmm there are drug tests now sparrow.

On matchdays maybe but what about the rest of the week?

Doesn't it stay in the system for at least five days?

I watched one of his old interviews on YT last night, told how he'd stay in the bookies 'til 2.45 on match days, and once left it until 2.55, which sent Dave Sexton into a rage.

When asked what his biggest bet had been, he answered £4K on a greyhound...It lost.

Asked whether he'd have been richer if he hadn't gambled, Stan answered...Yes, but would I be as happy?

Interesting GEORGE but sad at the same time.

stewy, the likes of Merton, Shilton & Adams, why did they gamble to excess?

And then they turn on gambling when it goes wrong for them, but while some people may run into trouble because they gambled because they wanted to win money to improve their lives or escape their dreary jobs, this wasn't the case for them, so it would suggest to me that there was something else going on mentally, imo. 

On that note GEOEGE, I'm glad I took my 'punishment' when I was young. I've shared this story many times. I met my mentor when I was young. It took a while but things changed around and I got a grasp of the game. 'Turn  a different corner...'



My fortunes changed and I'm still with BF 23 years later. That said, it's still tough.

They had money, status, adulation, admiration, respect, and no doubt no shortage of beautiful women wanting to make their acquaintance, and yet they get themselves into a situation where they recklessly blow vast amounts of money and destroy their lives.

So it seems to me their gambling is a symptom of something else going on, because they never needed to gamble in the first place, but the gambling is blamed as the primary problem.

I don't know, too much money and too much time on their hands?

Finish training on the morning and then an empty void to fill?

No doubt GEORGE. I saw it at Aberdeen with McLeish And Millar  but previous to that, Baxter and his 'pals' took it to a different level at Sunderland , drinking themselves unconscious with Bacardi and cokk on a Friday night before the game. They got off with it but Baxter had so much talent he could get by.


Wouldn't happen now.

Stan would be at the White city 3 nights a week ,Wembley on Occasions,  Game schedule allowing ..Snooker Clubs , Card Clubs , Drinking , A few women on the Firm , His mate went out with Miss world at one stage , Regrets he had a few .. As he said the Crowd he hung about with in Manchester as a teen  Were Either in Prison or Dead

Stan would be at the White city 3 nights a week ,Wembley on Occasions,  Game schedule allowing ..Snooker Clubs , Card Clubs , Drinking , A few women on the Firm , His mate went out with Miss world at one stage , Regrets he had a few .. As he said the Crowd he hung about with in Manchester as a teen  Were Either in Prison or Dead

His biggest Regret was his Mrs foooked him off out of it , Because he went off with some Young Model , not sure if she was Page 3 ,Was probably that and the Lifestyle
he lived that made her Divorce him , They did remain friends

Reminds me a little of Frank Worthington a great entertainer with a similar lifestyle.  Frank often used the same betting shop as myself back in the 80s and 90s.

I know of a footballer playing in the Championship now. He played for a Premiership 2nd team just over 18 months ago. He was on £165 per week then with lodgings paid by the clubs in S London. Then he went out on loan for a few months in Dorset. Now he's on loan to a midland club.

And, now he's on £10k per week. The bloke is just 21.

Chris Nicholl now.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/football-s-dementia-crisis-chris-nicholl-dies-on-same-weekend-as-stan-bowles/ar-BB1iShko?cvid=f7bffa6ed2a5417a8586c797cf8c241a&ocid=winp2fptaskbar&ei=8&sc=shoreline

From an article by Paul Hayward.

Francis called him “a happy-go-lucky type who lives from day to day” – a euphemism, given his struggle with what would now be diagnosed as a gambling addiction. A compulsion to bet was regarded back then more as a colourful character trait and a mine of good anecdotes than an illness needing treatment.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/25/stan-bowles-chaotic-lifestyle-could-not-disguise-his-brilliance-on-the-pitch