Team's to choose from for GW9

Saturday, August 31, 2019

1960-61 Fantasy First Division All-Star Team

The Introduction

I've compiled a hypothetical Fantasy First Division All-Star Team for the 1960-61 campaign.
Obviously, the complete data wasn't available so I was forced to improvise. In terms of assists, I've made educated guesses, based both on extrapolation of the modern FPL assist records and on the number of team goals scored by the sides in question during the 1960-61 league run. In terms of bonus points, it was more or less the same. In terms of the appearances, some data was available and whenever it was, I've mentioned it in the write-up below.





One more word of introduction: at the time, the dominant tactical setup was 3-2-2-3 with left- and right-halves (who were distant relatives of modern wing-backs), two inside forwards (who I classified as Fantasy midfielders, just like FPL tends to do with Dele Alli, Josh King, etc.), two wingers (akin to Salah, Sterling, Hazard, etc.) and one center-forward. All the Out-Of-Position considerations have been factored in the final team.
Oh, and one last thing for those wondering about the inflated point tallies: with 22 teams hanging around, each club's season featured 42 games instead of 38, giving players more opportunities to score points.

The Team

Ron Springett (Shef Wed) has kept 16 clean sheets and, according to the estimates, just barely edged out Preston's Fred Else despite the latter likely picking up an insane number of save points for his relegated side. Springett was a part of the 1966 World Cup winning team but only received his winning medal 45 years after the actual victory - as the FIFA rules in 1966 only awarded medals to the players who made on-field appearances in the tournament.
Gerry Young (Shef Wed) scored 4 goals and contributed to Owls' 16 clean sheets which, in Fantasy terms, set him miles apart from any other 1960-61 defender in the league. Wednesday's most faithful servant, he spent 18 years at the club, 14 of which as a player. He also holds the distinction for switching positions on the pitch: in 1962, he transitioned from being a left half to a central defender and later also frequently featured as a forward.
Maurice Norman (Tottenham) scored 4 goals and helped Spurs to 11 clean sheets in their title-winning campaign. The center-half, renown for being a colossus in the air and a formidable sprinter, would make 23 appearances for England before a horrific double-fracture injury suffered in a friendly match ended his career. According to the man's memories, it took the doctors nearly two years before they even figured out the way to (remotely) fix his tibia and fibula!
Brian Miller (Burnley) scored 5 goals and helped Clarets to 9 clean sheets. Another one-club man, he's been involved in the club for whooping 42 (!) years, either as a player, a fan, a manager (twice), a chief scout, or a father to his son Dave, who'd also pull the Claret shirt. Nicknamed "Mr Burnley", he ended up playing 455 league and cup games for his beloved side, following it's ventures on TV even from a hospital bed just prior to his death in April 2007.
Jimmy Robson (Burnley) scored 25 goals in 36 appearances during the 1960-61 league season. Just like Miller, the inside forward started the season as the First Division champion, despite only being a part-time footballer, otherwise employed as a miner. Curiously, despite scoring on his debut for the England U-23 team against West Germany in Bochum, he's never made another international appearance again. He'd spend 9 years at Turf Moor, scoring 79 goals.
Les Allen (Tottenham) scored 22 times in 42 appearances. Without this Spurs' Hall of Fame Member's fabulous, volleyed goal against Sheffield Wednesday, there would be no 1960-61 league title coming to White Hart Lane. The same season, Allen has also hit five goals in an FA Cup replay against Crewe Alexandra. Unfortunately, he's never repeated such feats, lost his starting XI spot two years later and missed out on Spurs' 1963 Cup Winners' Cup glory.
Graham Leggat (Fulham) scored 24 league goals that season. Just before joining the Cottagers, the winger has managed to meet 16-years old rookie Queen's Park forward, Alex Ferguson, on the pitch of the Scottish Football League. Five years later, Leggat went on to score the fastest hat-trick in the English League's history, in a 10-1 win over Ipswich. That stupendous, three-minute record was only surpassed by Southampton's Sadio Mané in May 2015.
Sir Bobby Charlton (Man Utd) scored 21 times in 39 league appearances. An absolute legend that hardly needs an introduction, Charlton, at the time, was still recovering from the trauma of 1958 Munich air disaster. He's led the depleted Red Devils side to a respectable 7th-place finish and if it wasn't for an abysmal away form (13 defeats in 21 games!), the club would've likely done even better. Four years later, however, United would eventually lift the league...
Jimmy Greaves (Chelsea) scored 41 goals in 40 league games. With three hat-tricks, a four-goal haul against Newcastle and a five-goal extravaganza against West Brom, the legendary forward was a player you wished you'd have more than one Triple Captain chip for. He's later cemented his legendary status at Tottenham, contributing both to the slow disappearance of Les Allen and to the Spurs' five trophies between 1962 and 1967.
Bobby Smith (Tottenham) scored 28 times in 36 appearances. Another Spurs Hall of Famer, he was one of the lowest-paid title winners in England's history, effectively earning just £17 a week for multiple seasons, up until he was 28 years old. Known for a robust, aggressive style of play, he'd struggle with injuries and later, a gambling addiction - which, however, didn't stop him from becoming THFC's second-best goalscorer of all times - with 208 strikes in 317 matches.
David Herd (Arsenal) scored 29 times during the 1960-61 season. Hailing from Manchester, Herd has nearly joined United in 1952, but a last-minute change of heart by the player he was to be swapped for has led him to sign for Arsenal instead. He's become Gunners' 16th best goalscorer of all-time before heading back north and joining Red Devils with a 9-year delay, during the golden era of Dennis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton.
Out of these all-star players, six (Young, Norman, Robson, Allen, Charlton and Greaves) are still alive, as of August 2019.

The Trivia

  • Spurs have won the 1960-61 title with 15 wins and one draw in their first 16 league matches.
  • Despite storming through the season, Spurs still lost at home to... relegated Newcastle (1-2).
  • Runner-ups Wednesday kept 16 clean sheets in what was defensively the best season in their history.
  • Arsenal were deadly at home (12 wins) and borderline useless away from it (only 3 wins).
  • Chelsea have managed to keep only a single clean sheet in 42 games (2-0 away at Preston).
  • Preston went down with 11 clean sheets, the second-best shut-out record (level with Spurs).

The Sources

at
Labels: , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)