Malcolm Allison's Funeral

[Macmoish]

RIP

Photos from the Funeral: Eerie to see all these aging Players who I remember as young men - news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9132751.stm


BBC Hundreds of Manchester City fans honour Malcolm Allison Malcolm Allison helped Manchester City to several trophies Hundreds of Manchester City fans paid their respects to Malcolm Allison when the former manager's funeral cortege passed by the club's home stadium.

Mr Allison, known as Big Mal, died on 14 October, aged 83.

His cortege passed the City of Manchester Stadium on its way to a service at the Southern Cemetery.

Around 300 people had gathered to pay their respects and a round of applause from the assembled crowd greeted the arrival of the cars.

A sky-blue Manchester City scarf was draped over Allison's coffin and next to it was an ice bucket containing a bottle of Moet et Chandon champagne.

Stephen O'Neill, 51, from Gatley, near Stockport, said: "Big Mal was a Manchester City legend.

"He was an innovative coach who brought us great success.

"Some of the coaching techniques you see in football today, Malcolm Allison was doing all those years ago."

'Sorely missed'

City season ticket holder Shirley Hull, 74, from Macclesfield, said: "He was a big man on the pitch and off.

"As well as bringing us success he is also part of the reason Manchester City is such a close-knit, family club."

Continue reading the main story

In pictures: Malcolm Allison funeral
Mr Allison had a long career as a player, coach and manager but was best known for helping City win a host of silverware in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Working alongside manager Joe Mercer, he helped City win the league title in 1968, the FA Cup in 1969, and the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970.

Allison went on to manage Crystal Palace on two separate occasions and returned to City in 1979 for a brief but unsuccessful spell.

He also managed Bath, Plymouth Argyle, Galatasaray, Sporting Lisbon, Toronto City, Middlesbrough and Bristol Rovers.

As a player, Allison made more than 250 appearances for West Ham United, before losing a lung to tuberculosis in 1958.

In a statement issued after his death, Manchester City paid tribute to him.

It said: "Flamboyant, brilliant and larger than life, Malcolm will be sorely missed by everyone at the club and beyond

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11635214

[Macmoish]

Independent

City family give Big Mal a champagne send-off

Final anthem of 'Fly Me To The Moon' captures Allison zest for life

By James Lawton, Chief Sports Writer

Thursday, 28 October 2010

PA

The hearse carrying Malcolm Allison's coffin passes the City of Manchester Stadium

Dawn, the eldest of Malcolm Allison's three daughters of six children from three marriages, said that the lesson of her father's life was that you should never waste a minute of it – and never feel it was getting the better of you.

Certainly, the style of the great football coach's departure on a warm, autumn afternoon in Manchester kept at bay any excess of grief. He would have thoroughly approved of his daughter's eulogy – and the fact that they placed a bottle of Moët & Chandon in an ice bucket beside the mahogany coffin.

Francis Lee, one of his most brilliant and pugnacious Manchester City players, also added to the mood of celebration of a most extrovert and sometimes reckless journey of 83 years when a police siren sounded in the distance. "They're too late," he murmured.

A picture of the young Allison, reminiscent of the time he could pass himself off in a not so darkened bar as Paul Newman, stared down on the service at the Crematorium Chapel at Southern Cemetery, where his great rival Sir Matt Busby used sometimes to sit and puff his pipe at the graveside of his late wife.

There was a gathering of family and friends and old players back at the City of Manchester Stadium but it was at the modest chapel where you had the best sense of how this extraordinary football character from the south, who for two years was a professional gambler and was once asked to be a character witness by the Kray Twins, had captured so much of the heart – and the imagination – of his adopted city.

Several mourners sang along with the final anthem to Allison's career, which brought City an unprecedented haul of four trophies: the League title, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup-Winners' Cup in a brilliant rush between 1968 and 1970. It was a recording of Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon".

The chapel was filled with the players Allison so emboldened; the football they produced still lingers thrillingly in the mind.

There was the great triumvirate, Lee, Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell, who cost Allison and his manager Joe Mercer a mere £45,000 from Bury – a deal that exhilarated "Big Mal" so deeply he declared that he got a better runner than the Derby winner Nijinsky for mere "pennies".

There was the skipper Tony Book, the West Country bricklayer whom Allison brought to Maine Road when he was close to 30 and who led Allison's side so well and with such force that he was voted a joint Footballer of the Year with the iconic Scottish powerhouse Dave Mackay.

There was the giant goalkeeper Joe Corrigan, so raw when he came into Allison's care that the late City chief scout Harry Godwin said that if the brawny lad could be made into a first-class goalkeeper, it would be one of the greatest coaching achievements he would ever see. He saw it all right, and Corrigan was so convincing he would have played more than nine times for England if a certain Gordon Banks and then Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence hadn't been around at the time.

Alan Oakes was in the chapel. When Allison arrived at Maine Road the player used to sweat before games out of sheer anxiety. Allison calmed him – and turned him into a cornerstone of the team.

Wyn "The Leap" Davies came later, and stayed briefly, but long enough to feel the impact of the greatest coach he would ever know. He was among the mourners and he said, "Mal's genius was so simple. He knew how to make you play."

He also taught his players how to live, not always prudently, but with a wonderful relish for the business. Yesterday, as always, the moon hardly seemed an overambitious destination.

www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/city-family-give-big-mal-a-champagne-sendoff-2118269.html

[terryloftus]

Great post mac , cheers

I wanted to say off my own back that Rodney is extremely upset, and tried everything to get there. In the end, he made sure he was represented and his respects paid. I think Malcolm was the only Manager ever listened to... ha!
Malcolm also did a priceless amount for a young man, who didn't have great natural talent, but Malcolm encouraged him, spent a hell of a lot of time with him and built his confidence among other things....... his name was Bobby Moore!!!!
A lot of the diet & training methods, that are today thought as groundbreaking when used by coaches like Wenger... Malcolm was doing 40 years ago!

He was also a maverick in his own right, and a lot of people don't realize how extremely Malcolm influenced the game of football (IMO, more than Clough etc)
Characters in sport in general are now very rare, and 'BIG MAL' was larger than life.
Remember the story of Mal getting the sack from Palace for putting a page 3 girl in the bath with the players??!!!
That was the start of Terry Venables coaching career, as Mal persuaded the board to give Tel the job.

I had an e-mail from Rodney, saying how low he was about Mal's passing.
Rod misses him, as will EVERYONE who knows their football!!!

Try and behave up there Malcolm.. ;D
From Rodney and EVERYONE!!!!

Also, can you believe it's almost 5 years since we lost another Genius... George Best!!!



P.S. Thanks Mac, for starting this post of respect mate.

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[Zamoraaaah]

Nice photo Tel.

[cpr]

Smashing photo, old Lynchy got in everywhere!

Shame Rod couldn't make it, did look for him on the coverage.

Allison was certainly a forward thinking coach and proper character, good looking bloke as well. His son looks very much like him, if slightly chubbier.

[terryloftus]

Puts things in perspective mate.
Strange thing is, when Besty died (down the road from me at Cromwell Hospital)
I cried my eyes out and watching his funeral. Now, I have no great love for MAN UTD, but I think Besty was bigger than football!

His almost super natural genius transcended any Club.... he was just poetry!
And I think I was mourning the end of the era of characters, when players played for the buzz of entertaining a crowd with genius & character. Exit the mavericks- enter the mercenary's!!!
And I honestly think Besty was the greatest player ever!!!
Pele? was he more important or talented than Garrincha?
Pele won 3 World Cup Winners medals. But Garrincha was the genius of the first & second of Pele's World Cup's, the second, Pele only played in the first round, then Garincha carried the team to glory, on his own! Pele was given a winners medal, despite NOT playing!!!! ( How often is that little fact left out???)
& lets be honest, the Brazil team of 1970, would of won that with or without Pele (Who's 2 most iconic moments.... were both misses!)
I think we saw the REAL Pele in 1966, when Garrincha was past it & Pele got kicked & threw a fit about never playing again!
EVERYONE was kicked, none more so than Eusabio & Greaves. Pele also threw tantrums against our own Rodney Marsh, when he was completely humiliated and stuck his finger in Rod's bad ear, causing more damage. Anyone who has those Rowdies V Cosmos games will know what i'm talking about, even the American commentator commented " The British lion- Rodney Marsh has completely eclipsed the great Pele.... BIG TIME!"

And before anyone say's it, Pele was NOT 'Over the hill' at that point!
But, I have always maintained that Rodney Marsh was never given the credit for the Genius he was in England, he was appreciated in the U.S., but never here!
No doubt Pele was a great player, but can you honestly say he had more individual talent, than the great and still sadly missed George Best???
What would Besty (Or Rod, for that matter) be worth today???
There are no hatchet men anymore, and no tackling from behind.... imagine George in that scenario!!!

I just wish I had of been at that Fulham V Hereford game in '76, when Best & Marsh were in the same team!...... Don't you??

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