Paul Futcher

Yesterday was the anniversary of his death. iMHO the best defender we've had - just the type of player we need at the moment. Older, cool head to guide some of the younger players through a game

 

Certainly the most classy. Decades ahead of his time. Would be worth a king’s ransom in today’s market

 

Futch was class!!! Rolls Royce defender. Hardly made a tackle, just read the game superbly. One of my all time favourite Reds. Like has already been said if he was 25 now he'd go for multi millions. One player who'd fit into today's defending requosits in the modern game.

 

Whilst agreeing with the overall sentiments, he also was prone to the odd misfortune. Surprised he ever came to us - always thought he was in different class

 

All humans are - he was still the best defender we've had

 

Aye, his 30 yard chipped own goal over Clive Baker was sublime. Messi couldn't have pulled that one outta bag !!!

 

Fantastic player for us. You could hear him shouting to his team mates telling them what
to do and where to run. It's called experience. Definitely responsible for helping to make Carl Tiler
the player he became. We dropped a right cod in letting him go too early.

 

You trying to say an experienced player will help develop a talented young lad....... Ffs who'd have thought that??? ?

 

The best centre half I've ever seen playing for Barnsley. RIP Futch.

 

I apologise for posting this again, I first did so not long after he passed away, I hope it is still worth a read again.


Back to the Futcher – Memories of one of our greatest

Paul Futcher was a footballer ahead of his time, and I’ve no hesitation in saying he is the finest central defender I’ve seen in my time watching Barnsley (from 1980). That’s not to offer negative views on our other outstanding defenders, Evans, McCarthy, Smith, Tiler, Taggart, Davis, De Zeeuw among others, but simply a personal view of a footballer who could probably have played in any position and excelled.

Supporters born after 1990 probably think that a “footballing centre half” is a modern phenomenon (Ferdinand, Pique, and more recently John Stones etc) but Futcher, in my opinion, was doing that a generation ago. I never saw Bobby Moore play, but based on TV footage I have seen, Futcher was very similar – tackled on his feet, comfortable running with the ball, full range of passing and being a yard faster in his head making up for any lack of physical pace.

Much has been written about his career prior to his time at Barnsley, but everything he did when wearing the red of Barnsley just had that touch of class. Even his own goals.

Like every genius, there was a flaw in the DNA that flared up every now and again, be it a 35 yard own goal or a sending off. But for nearly 7 years, we had the privilege to watch him play for a working class town team. We were lucky to have him but there was never any element of “what am I doing here” with Futcher, and it’s notable that the two longest spells with clubs that he had were at Barnsley and Grimsby.

Within a couple of weeks of him signing for us, it was clear he was a class apart. His reading of the game meant that he gave our kit man an easier job as he rarely had to go to ground, his shorts often as clean after the game as when he started. Derby, from whom we signed him, were battered 5-1 in what I think was his first home game for us, and whilst success was limited, Futcher was crucial to our club comfortably hanging around in mid table regularly season after season. We were a club that had plateaued, suffered falling gates especially after the miners strike, and mid table really can be looked on as relatively successful in the context.

He never scored for us, Neville Southall saving possibly his closest effort in an FA Cup tie, tipping over a 35 yard strike after a typically elegant dribble upfield. He did score an own goal for us when playing for Oldham, and whilst my memories of specific games are vague, I do remember a beautiful curling own goal over Clive Baker when we were playing, I think, at home to West Bromwich Albion in 1987/88. I remember Lee Dixon scoring a similar one when playing for Arsenal. He also strolled through the game against West Ham in the league cup, with a classy run setting up Steve Lowndes for our fourth goal in a 5-2 win.

I also remember in that same 1987/88 season, against Ipswich when David Currie made his debut, when he got a red card from referee George Tyson about 5 minutes after the final whistle, no doubt for offering an opinion on Tyson’s performance in our 3-2 defeat. Tyson even dragged Futcher down the old players tunnel to make sure those who were still in the ground saw it.

The following season saw us over perform in the league to a degree, finishing seventh, two points off a play off spot, with a decent side. Futcher was at his best that season for me, absolute thoroughbred, and partnered by a combination of Mal Shotton, Paul McGugan and Carl Tiler. In the FA Cup game when we beat would be champions Chelsea 4-0, Futcher essentially walked through the game, never giving Kerry Dixon or Gordon Durie a sniff. That said, in the league game at home, he was sent off, along with Steve Cooper, and in the return at Stamford Bridge, Dixon scored four!! He also looked a class apart when we played Everton in the 5th round, and almost broke his scoring duck.

1989/90 was a struggle, and as far as I can remember, saw Futcher dropped for the first and only time in his Barnsley career, on the eve of a home game with Sheffield United, which we still lost. Allan Clarke was sacked a few weeks later, and new manager Mel Machin reinstated him and everyone reaped the benefits. At times during the run in that season, which saw us escape from what looked like inevitable relegation in the autumn, we had a back line consisting of Futcher, Smith, Taggart and Tiler. Some defence by anyone’s standards.

For someone like Tiler and Taggart, playing alongside Futcher must have been ideal, young and learning the game. Futch had impeccable standards. He once gave Tiler a right bollocking, audible to all, for conceding a corner when a touch and clearance would have conceded only a throw in. Marginal gains. “That’s too fu@@ing easy Carl” was his summing up of it.

Given his impact on the improvement of results under Machin, it was a surprise to say the least when it was announced in the close season that Futch had been released, apparently due to his age. I can’t help but think that Machin was foolish to do so, and after a short spell at Halifax, Futcher more or less proved him wrong by becoming a similar club legend for a relatively successful Grimsby Town under Alan Buckley, staying with them into his late thirties.

I’ve highlighted a handful of memories when in truth the same sentiments and examples of his class and finesse could probably be written about virtually every game he played. The rogue own goals and sendings off meant he wasn’t quite perfect, just almost perfect.

What would his value in the 2016 transfer market be if he were playing in this era? Stones aged 22 cost £48 million. I’d say Futcher was better.

News of his death from cancer, aged 60, was shocking and sad, and I think anyone who saw him play at Oakwell could have written their own version of this quite easily. We’ve been fortunate at Barnsley that over the years I have been watching them, we have had plenty of good players, and a few great players. For me, Paul Futcher was the greatest centre half of them all, and an absolute privilege to watch a player of his calibre wear the red of Barnsley from 1983-1990. He made football look easy and elegant and I’m not sure a player of his stature would, in the current era, join a mid table Championship club in his prime, never mind stay for 7 years.

A fitting footballing epitaph for Futch, in this pseudo era of the “footballing centre half” would probably be “Been there. Done that”.

RIP Futch.

 

Great read thanks for re-posting

 

Said so at the time and I’ll say it again.....class post that mate.

 

Great & true words.

 

Thanks for that. Brought back a lot of great memories.

 

When the centenary exhibition was on at the Cooper gallery, my dad bought me this and Futch signed it for me. Still proudly on display on my wall to this day.

 

Caption competition? What a great photo.

 

He gave me my Coca Cola gold award at the civic. That’s reminded me to go a root about for the photo.
What a player.

 

Spent a lot of time with the younger ones too did Paul, beh8nd the scenes

 

The epitome of the “Rolls Royce” player, kept his kit clean and barely needed to break sweat. It was the bargain of the century when we stole him from Derby, his first game was indeed a 5-1 thrashing of Derby, one of the scorers being Calvin Plummer who came from Derby at the same time as Futch.

 

Keef the Bolton Bull$hitter described Martin Crainie as a Rolls Royce of a player. Decent as he was, he was never in Futch’s league. More a Mondeo. Futch was different class.