Post by Roller on Jun 27, 2020 4:54:56 GMT
Theo Foley has passed away. While more renowned for his work at other clubs, he was a important component of QPRs' back room staff in the late 70s and early 80s. RIP Theo
Obituary: Theo Foley, the proud Dubliner who dared to dream big
www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/obituary-theo-foley-the-proud-dubliner-who-dared-to-dream-big-39319693.html
As a boy, Theo Foley would not have to delve into the deepest recesses of imagination to summon up dreamy visions of a footballing life.
For the last thing he saw as he pulled the curtains each night was a patch of green grass with goal-posts at either end.
To him, it might have just been Wembley itself even though, beyond his back room window, through the tree-tops and over the coiling, churning Camac, Richmond Park was hardly even a distant relation of the famous Twin Towers.
But for the young boy on the Inchicore Road, the home of St Patrick’s Athletic might have easily contained all a young boy could ever aspire to achieve in life.
He would go on to attain so much more than he might ever have dreamed of in a wonderfully rich and accomplished career after sailing way from Dublin to seek his fortune all of 66 years ago.
And yet he never forgot the ordinary beginnings which preceded such an extraordinary life.
On his annual return visits home during the summer, he would meet up with Bill Hennessy in the Oblates’ Church, a few hundred yards up the hill on Tyrconnell Road, to thank the man who spotted enough in the fledgling baller to recommend him for a trial at Burnley.
He would never make it at the then powerhouse but even then he would espy the mostly home-grown success of a well-managed side who became champions of England.
They were in many ways a harbinger of the side he would help George Graham construct almost a half-century later to achieve a similar feat.
Exeter City, in the old Division Three South, gave him his break in the pro game as a 17-year-old, making his debut in 1955 against Norwich City.
When he married Sheila, a morning wedding was followed by an afternoon win against Crystal Palace; the honeymoon in the Lake District also included two league games. Changed times.
His times changed, too.
By 1961, he had moved to Northampton Town whom he helped to lift from the Third Division to the First Division.
Having been called up twice without making the match-day squad, he would win all his nine Republic of Ireland caps (1964-67) while with the Cobblers.
But there was always a lingering sense that he could have achieved more; he made 220 appearances for Town but when they finally made the top-flight, injury often scuppered the skipper’s chance to shine.
They had never before – and have never since – appeared at the highest level of the English game.
He featured for Ireland in the World Cup play-off against Spain in 1965 but a long-standing knee injury would limit the international appearances of this fast full-back, so fearsome in the tackle.
As Joe Haverty rather cruelly told Sean Ryan later, “Theo couldn’t do anything but he could volley a good winger and he kicked Suarez out of the game.”
The FAI took a bung so the match was played in Paris, rather than London.
Many, including John Giles, felt that Shay Brennan, returning from injury, was shoe-horned into right-back when he should have been restored to midfield, where Foley continued to deputise.
Nonetheless, so effective was his man-marking of the legendary Luis Suarez that he aptly ended up getting his shirt, too.
His performance was masterful; the ultimate irony was that, when he was briefly injured and hesitantly returning to the fray, Spain seized their opportunity to score the 80th minute goal.
And with that the 1966 World Cup passed Ireland by; symbolically, it seemed to sum up Foley’s playing career. So close, yet so far.
Irish supporters recall his commitment; one contacted this writer on social media to recall a frenetic warm-up in Dalymount when Foley chased a ball and clattered over the railing into the terrace beneath the main stand.
“He just picked himself up and clambered back into the fray.”
In 1970, he began a management career which, like his playing one, seemed to fulfil far less than expected of so many others, except for himself.
Which is not to say he lacked ambition; rather he was the author of much humility.
It was while at Charlton that he gave Eamon Dunphy, who made his Irish debut in that fateful World Cup play-off,the chance to resurrect his dwindling career.
Foley had finished playing with Charlton but during his spell in the dug-out, they slipped from the second to the third division.
Patience was thin, even then.
Days after receiving a rose bowl from the supporters and a fortnight before they were awarded£4,000 for being one of the highest scoring clubs, he was sacked.
His canny eye for talent would linger after his departure thanks to Valley heroes such as Derek Hales, Colin Powell and Mike Flanagan, who between them would earn his erstwhile, penny-pinching employers over £1m in transfer fees.
Thereafter, he flitted between coaching and broadcasting; at QPR, he teamed up with the irrepressible Terry Venables, then forging what would be a formidable career in management.
Then, a propitious link up with George Graham at Millwall in 1986, heaving that club from the floor and eradicating dead wood, including Sam Allardyce.
Three years later, they would make memorable history on a famous night – “it’s up for grabs now!” – as Arsenal denied Liverpool the 1989 league title.
The partnership would soon sunder and Foley then coached at Northampton, again, as well as stints with Fulham, Southend – under Ronnie Whelan – before his last gig at Spurs, a reserve team coach, reunited with Graham once more.
Fate almost reunited him with Ireland, and home, too; George Burley was believed to have been interested in acquiring him as an assistant had he taken the Irish job after Mick McCarthy’s 2002 departure.
It would have been a fitting coda to a career so inextricably linked with so many pivotal moments in Irish and English football history, and yet one spent, albeit willingly, amongst its shadows.
Those who worked with him, however, as the tributes still pouring forth amply testify, appreciated the special gifts of a proud Dubliner who dared to dream big.
From Keogh Square to Anfield and beyond, Theo Foley’s deeds may not have reverberated as profoundly as they should have throughout the game.
But his name always did.
Obituary: Theo Foley, the proud Dubliner who dared to dream big
www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/obituary-theo-foley-the-proud-dubliner-who-dared-to-dream-big-39319693.html
As a boy, Theo Foley would not have to delve into the deepest recesses of imagination to summon up dreamy visions of a footballing life.
For the last thing he saw as he pulled the curtains each night was a patch of green grass with goal-posts at either end.
To him, it might have just been Wembley itself even though, beyond his back room window, through the tree-tops and over the coiling, churning Camac, Richmond Park was hardly even a distant relation of the famous Twin Towers.
But for the young boy on the Inchicore Road, the home of St Patrick’s Athletic might have easily contained all a young boy could ever aspire to achieve in life.
He would go on to attain so much more than he might ever have dreamed of in a wonderfully rich and accomplished career after sailing way from Dublin to seek his fortune all of 66 years ago.
And yet he never forgot the ordinary beginnings which preceded such an extraordinary life.
On his annual return visits home during the summer, he would meet up with Bill Hennessy in the Oblates’ Church, a few hundred yards up the hill on Tyrconnell Road, to thank the man who spotted enough in the fledgling baller to recommend him for a trial at Burnley.
He would never make it at the then powerhouse but even then he would espy the mostly home-grown success of a well-managed side who became champions of England.
They were in many ways a harbinger of the side he would help George Graham construct almost a half-century later to achieve a similar feat.
Exeter City, in the old Division Three South, gave him his break in the pro game as a 17-year-old, making his debut in 1955 against Norwich City.
When he married Sheila, a morning wedding was followed by an afternoon win against Crystal Palace; the honeymoon in the Lake District also included two league games. Changed times.
His times changed, too.
By 1961, he had moved to Northampton Town whom he helped to lift from the Third Division to the First Division.
Having been called up twice without making the match-day squad, he would win all his nine Republic of Ireland caps (1964-67) while with the Cobblers.
But there was always a lingering sense that he could have achieved more; he made 220 appearances for Town but when they finally made the top-flight, injury often scuppered the skipper’s chance to shine.
They had never before – and have never since – appeared at the highest level of the English game.
He featured for Ireland in the World Cup play-off against Spain in 1965 but a long-standing knee injury would limit the international appearances of this fast full-back, so fearsome in the tackle.
As Joe Haverty rather cruelly told Sean Ryan later, “Theo couldn’t do anything but he could volley a good winger and he kicked Suarez out of the game.”
The FAI took a bung so the match was played in Paris, rather than London.
Many, including John Giles, felt that Shay Brennan, returning from injury, was shoe-horned into right-back when he should have been restored to midfield, where Foley continued to deputise.
Nonetheless, so effective was his man-marking of the legendary Luis Suarez that he aptly ended up getting his shirt, too.
His performance was masterful; the ultimate irony was that, when he was briefly injured and hesitantly returning to the fray, Spain seized their opportunity to score the 80th minute goal.
And with that the 1966 World Cup passed Ireland by; symbolically, it seemed to sum up Foley’s playing career. So close, yet so far.
Irish supporters recall his commitment; one contacted this writer on social media to recall a frenetic warm-up in Dalymount when Foley chased a ball and clattered over the railing into the terrace beneath the main stand.
“He just picked himself up and clambered back into the fray.”
In 1970, he began a management career which, like his playing one, seemed to fulfil far less than expected of so many others, except for himself.
Which is not to say he lacked ambition; rather he was the author of much humility.
It was while at Charlton that he gave Eamon Dunphy, who made his Irish debut in that fateful World Cup play-off,the chance to resurrect his dwindling career.
Foley had finished playing with Charlton but during his spell in the dug-out, they slipped from the second to the third division.
Patience was thin, even then.
Days after receiving a rose bowl from the supporters and a fortnight before they were awarded£4,000 for being one of the highest scoring clubs, he was sacked.
His canny eye for talent would linger after his departure thanks to Valley heroes such as Derek Hales, Colin Powell and Mike Flanagan, who between them would earn his erstwhile, penny-pinching employers over £1m in transfer fees.
Thereafter, he flitted between coaching and broadcasting; at QPR, he teamed up with the irrepressible Terry Venables, then forging what would be a formidable career in management.
Then, a propitious link up with George Graham at Millwall in 1986, heaving that club from the floor and eradicating dead wood, including Sam Allardyce.
Three years later, they would make memorable history on a famous night – “it’s up for grabs now!” – as Arsenal denied Liverpool the 1989 league title.
The partnership would soon sunder and Foley then coached at Northampton, again, as well as stints with Fulham, Southend – under Ronnie Whelan – before his last gig at Spurs, a reserve team coach, reunited with Graham once more.
Fate almost reunited him with Ireland, and home, too; George Burley was believed to have been interested in acquiring him as an assistant had he taken the Irish job after Mick McCarthy’s 2002 departure.
It would have been a fitting coda to a career so inextricably linked with so many pivotal moments in Irish and English football history, and yet one spent, albeit willingly, amongst its shadows.
Those who worked with him, however, as the tributes still pouring forth amply testify, appreciated the special gifts of a proud Dubliner who dared to dream big.
From Keogh Square to Anfield and beyond, Theo Foley’s deeds may not have reverberated as profoundly as they should have throughout the game.
But his name always did.