Man City legend Colin Bell dies

I loved Colin Bell as well, he reminds me of the present Man City player De Bruyne, a non-stop runner and worker with loads of class, invaluable to City, both of them.

Either that or I'm ignorant. Either way, God bless to a much-respected part of the beautiful game

I think it is special that an Everton site should have this on. Well done Michael and Lyndon.

Someone once said of Martin Peters, he was 10 years ahead of his time. You could have said the same for Colin Bell, they both played with their brain as well as their feet. Players that will always live in the memory of fans, neutral fans as well as the supporters of the clubs they played for.

Alan Hudson
Tony Currie
Charlie Cook
Charlie George
Peter Marinello
Peter Barnes
George Armstrong
Frank Worthington
Rodney Marsh
Stan Bowles
Trevor Brooking
Dudley Tyler
Peter Taylor

Never worked up a sweat between them but made me happy some Sunday afternoons on the Big Match.

At 74, these days, he wasn't old. Sad. RIP.

George Armstrong, Arsenal winger, might surprise some fans but he was absolutely adored by Arsenal fans, came from the North-East and was part of the Arsenal double-winning team, played well over 500 games for the Gunners.

I've got to confess I can't recall Dudley Tyler, Andy, put me out of my ignorance so I can picture him!!

Here in Belfast we got our ITV football from London Weekend so I saw a lot of the London players.

I hear the sound of distant bums
And do they smell
like Colin Bell, and Francis Lee and Summerby
And Tony Book and the rest are fuck

An innocent song from that time.

Colin Bell was a supreme athlete and a wonderful player. His cousin Elaine lived next door but one to us. She had an Iguana... a rare sight on the Wirral in the '60s. Very pretty too... (Elaine).

He escaped the offside trap (what passed for one in those days) and had a one on one with Gordon West and scored. Really annoyed me (of course) and I think it put city up 3-1. I think we lost 3-2 on the night.

"And do they smell, like fucking hell".
I'd forgotten that one.

As a uni student living away in Longsight (Richmond Grove) at the time, Maine Road was a regular stomping ground for me in the late '60s. That was a fine Man City team and Bell's talent just made you drool. My lad was born in Ancoats Salvation Army Hospital and (so?) became a City fan, though we'd long moved away from there. He was "re-educated" some time after.

Great memories of that side, and Bell, and "that" flower lady.

One of the best players of his generation without doubt. Thinking back I feel so lucky to have seen so many great players at that time in what was a golden era for football.

I just came across this from the Manchester Evening News, 2013:

"TRIBUTES have poured in following the death of Manchester City super fan Helen "the bell" Turner. Helen, 85, was a regular at Maine Road for more than 30 years, ringing her bell and cheering on the Blues through good and bad times.

A flower-seller, with a stall outside Manchester Royal Infirmary, Helen was a keen charity fund-raiser..."

An institution around Maine Road, to rival our own Toffee Lady.

I know many City fans who were old enough to see Colin play still rate him amongst the best players ever to pull on a Man City shirt, and I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.

Sorry I couldn't recall him, so I looked him up. He played for Hereford when they were a non-league team and he played in that very famous cup tie when they knocked Newcastle out of the FA Cup. The highlights of that game are played nearly every year when the big surprises of FA Cup games are recalled, so you picked a winner, Andy.

I remember going to a 3- 3 Derby game against Man Utd... some of the players on display that day.

I liked going to Man City... if you had the brass neck, you could go into the junior half-price gate even sporting beards and long hair. Halcyon days indeed...

Yes, my wife got in half-price that way without any makeover!

Years ahead of himself playing-wise.

Maine Road was such a hotch-potch of a ground... ugly as sin to be frank but a real ground, right in the heart of Moss Side.

I remember Man City looking certainties for the league in 1972, great side, then Allison signed Rodney Marsh and it all went mammaries-up.

Maine Road was a proper traditional stadium, but as I got older and visited regularly following Everton, I realised what a scary place it could be - Colin Bell was a very fine footballer in a very good Manchester City team.

City V United

My favourite Man City player, Young was on the bench. Would have loved him this end of the East Lancashire Road.

One question though: What happened to the last 50 years? 🤔

Neil Young, a lovely player, shortly to record After The Goldrush!

I liked him too, in both his careers.

I don't think he ever got an England call up, from memory, when there was a wealth of talented inside forwards. That was truly a Golden Generation, not like the underachieving dilettantes, writing their catchpenny memoirs strutting round for England in the recent past.

God knows Joey Barton is a bit of a problem in many ways, but he called it right then. "I played in the Euros, we lost, I played crap, here's my book."

I also like After the Goldrush and Harvest!

Colin Bell would have slotted into the modern game, no bother. As many have already said, very similar to De Bruyne.

I’m reading he’s just sold off 50% of all his song book to Hipgnosis(?). Probably for a sum in 9 figures, following on From His Bobness doing the same for a fair old wedge.

I can see how a pair of leg cymbals can diminish the cool of a harp playing muso.

Do yourself a nasty if not vigilant. Think Don Partridge !

Everton had a scratch team out, but a ginger haired lad
named Billy Brindle.(what happened to him)

(RIP COLIN BELL)

When I was a kid growing up in Crosby, we had an auntie Ginny Colman who was not really our auntie it was the days when all the old dears sat out in the street at night to talk and what have you.

Anyway Auntie Gin's lad was Tony Colman who played for Man City and one night I remember in particular he turned up to see his mam with Colin Bell with him and they both ended up playing football in the street with us kids.

Great days and both nice fellas. Where have all the good guys gone? Stay safe, everyone. RIP, Colin.

Don (48)I worked with a good lad in Manweb Marsh Lane Bootle, he used to knock around with Tony Colman, told me a few good tales about him, a bit of a character, I never met him but remember when City played in a cup final at Wembley he, and a couple more City players had a bit of gentle banter with Princess Anne, or Princess Margaret before the game, she took it well, I think!!

I know it's a cliché but people were different back then. Footballers, by-and-large were normal blokes. It might be wistful thinking but everything was better back then, or so it seemed.

I take, perhaps unreasonably, great pleasure in seeing Irish lads do well at our club. Martin really was a contender. If you know, Christy, I'd like to know how things turned out for him.

The Everton and Man City teams of the late '60s were both sublime and an era when footballers didn't drive a Lamborghini.

Although Tony Book was a non-league player he was well known to Malcolm Allison the Man City assistant manager to Joe Mercer and it was Malcolm who instigated the signing of Tony Book, a very good right-back, who made a brilliant block on the line from Alan Ball in the 1969 semi-final v Man City at Villa Park not long before City scored the winner in the last minute from a corner.

Unfortunately "Jobby" Crossan was in a car crash which, although not serious, effectively brought his footballing career to an end.

He eventually ended up running a sports shop in his home town and has only recently retired from that but is, as far as I know, still alive and kicking. Must be in his early eighties now.

, By the way, do any of you Irish lads remember or know about an Irish player with Dundalk, Jim Hasty, the one-armed centre-forward?

I remember reading about him, seems he was a very popular man as well as a player, drew the crowds in all over the place because of his unusual handicap and also because of his goalscoring ability.

I knew that Johnny Crossan played on the continent and travelled home to play for Ireland. On looking it up he played for Sparta Rotterdam and Sporting Liege.

Don #48, wasn't Tony Colman brought up in Jubilee Road, which runs alongside Marine's ground?

Alan, Chris, I'm also a great fan of Neil Young, I've seen him several times, most recently in Lucca, Italy, but also at the Empire in the early '70s when he was supported by a little known band called The Eagles. If you cast your eye towards the Marine managerial chair on Sunday, you'll see him there, he really is multi-talented.

Dave #49, what a player Billy Brindle looked for the youth team. Could have been a contender. Thanks for re-opening the wound of that 1969 FA Cup semi-final, in the long list of Everton disappointments over the years that match is right up there.

The romance of the FA Cup!
Just a shame that the loyal fans cant be there.
Anyone know how much Marine will get for this game?

For me he is one of the outstanding performers in the team, strong in the air, likes a tackle, reads the game well, has a strong centre-back partnership with David Raven, and has popped up with several important goals.

They were looking for a £20k-£25k match sponsor fee, which fell through when fans were barred, but Jamie Carragher's charitable foundation stepped in. There is also about £25k prize money, but this will increase considerably when they reach the 4th Round!

But I seem to think we had another dynamic red-haired player at the time. Decent player..what was his name now... 🤔🤔🤔?

Yes that those three games against City in "66. We won at Wolverhampton"s ground Moliyneux, It was a night game, Johnny Crossan was havlng some good touches, think he hit our crossbar.

I"m OK Dave Have a happy new year. CYB.

Hughie played in the '60s and '70s for several English lower-league teams including Chester. Before I started work in 1967, as I couldn't afford to go to watch The Blues, I used to watch Chester regularly.

Hughie has a claim to fame in that, as part of Chester's 5-man forward line (2-3-5 formation in them days), each of the 5 forwards scored over 20 goals in the 1964-65 season which is some feat and as far as I am aware the only time it has happened. Chester scored 141 goals that season.

There is also a link to Everton in this in that Chester's centre forward at the time was a Gary Talbot, who later on was Everton's official match day photographer.

Your reference to Billy Brindle took me back to a schoolboy match at Anfield. I had heard glowing reports of a kid named Alan Whittle and was eager to see him in action.

The match was Liverpool Boys vs Leicester Boys, and the two stand-out players were Billy Brindle and the Leicester keeper. I believe that the keeper was none other than Peter Shilton.

I'll tell you how I came to that conclusion: I have checked the birth dates of each and they are as follows: Peter Shilton – 18 September 1949; Billy Brindle 29 January 1950; Alan Whittle 10 March 1950. Brindle and Shilton, if that's who it was, were absolutely brilliant.

Thanks mate. That will be a nice boost for the club.

I remember Gordon West thumping him on it, when he was doing his ‘accidentally hitting centre forwards who tried to stop him throwing the ball out' act. Lucky he didn't cut himself on that proboscis!

Did it once too often and got sent off against Newcastle, who scored the winner from the resultant penalty in injury time.

He then proceeded to give poor Sandy Brown a dog's abuse for failing to save it, in the dressing room

And people think Pickford's flaky!

But still an Everton great.

Actually seeing Football League players was like Fantasy Island. I remember watching Liverpool and Plymouth at Windsor Park in the space of a few days. Me and my mates were totally gobsmacked that these guys had sun tans. It was beyond our comprehension.