merse
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Post by merse on Oct 15, 2010 12:31:12 GMT
 After many years of ill health, Malcom Allison has died at the age of 83. Having been lucky enough to be in his company on a few occasions whilst working at Plainmoor when he was manager of Plymouth Argyle for the second time around, he remains one of the most memorable people I've ever met. A friend of my old colleague Alex Jackson (he was Alex's manager at Argyle during his first managership of them), he occasionally popped into Plainmoor for a cuppa and a yarn in the afternoons and there was one epic night in the 200 Club ( I think it was either Jimmy Dunne's or Mike Hickman's Testimonial) when he held court in that little bar of ours under the stand long into the early hours. Of course he was also a former playing colleague of Frank O'Farrell at West Ham in the fifties. For those of you too young to remember, he was a truly inspirational and innovative coach who enthralled so many who worked under him, and I've never met anyone who played for, or worked with the guy who ever had a bad word to say of him.....................indeed, I think all of them to a man worshipped Malcolm. So much more than "The Man in the Fedora" that's for sure ~ irreplaceable, unique and unforgettable.
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Post by merseygull on Oct 15, 2010 14:03:15 GMT
A sad loss of one of the games' true characters...
The man with the cigar and fed...
RIP Malcolm
ATB,J.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2010 19:41:55 GMT
For those of you too young to remember, he was a truly inspirational and innovative coach who enthralled so many who worked under him, and I've never met anyone who played for, or worked with the guy who ever had a bad word to say of him.....................indeed, I think all of them to a man worshipped Malcolm. I was at the 1976 Palace v Southampton FA Cup semi-final at the height of Big Mal's fedora phase. Here's the cover from that day's programme plus a feature about the man. Note the reference to Messrs O'Farrell, Bond and Brown:   Also, from the same programme, just look at the feast of entertainment you could have taken in at the seaside during the summer of 1976. Wonder if Malcolm ever encountered (m)any of the Tiller Girls?  |
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merse
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Post by merse on Oct 15, 2010 20:19:37 GMT
Wonder if Malcolm ever encountered (m)any of the Tiller Girls? Well he was living with a Bunny Girl between his two marriages........... Serena Williams wasn't it? ;D |
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merse
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Post by merse on Oct 15, 2010 20:37:32 GMT
I've been researching the life of Malcolm tonight and he really cut a sad figure in later life. He lost most of his savings in the BCCI collapse, but in his late sixties he established a stable relationship with a young primary school teacher ~ Lyn Salton which bore them a daughter, his sixth child by three different mothers. Sadly that relationship ultimately ended in 2000 and he was arrested for trying to force an entry into the former family home and in his later life suffered from achoholism and depression. His first wife, Beth; had divorced him as did his second wife, Sally-Ann. He last worked as a contracted football manager in 1993 (he was 67 then after all) when he departed Bristol Rovers and in his later life worked as a local radio summariser (he got fired for swearing on air) and scouting for Arsenal.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2010 20:59:04 GMT
Well he was living with a Bunny Girl between his two marriages........... Serena Williams wasn't it? ;D That's the one although I promised myself I wouldn't introduce the name of Fiona Richmond to this thread.... Yes, it was a sad later life especially when he seemed ageless for so long. |
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Post by stefano on Oct 15, 2010 21:40:42 GMT
Wonder if Malcolm ever encountered (m)any of the Tiller Girls? Well he was living with a Bunny Girl between his two marriages........... Serena Williams wasn't it? ;D Surely you mean bunny boiler?  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2010 21:34:42 GMT
Despite the flamboyant image Big Mal thought deeply about football & was a highly innovative Coach. I always found listening to him to be very interesting. I found myself in Bristol one Saturday in the early 1990's and went along to watch Big Mal's Rovers. After the game it was announced that tickets would be on sale for the next home game...versus Bristol City. With the small capacity at Twerton Park demand out-stripped supply by some considerable margin but I was pleased to have my ticket. In the lead up to the game speculation seemed to centre on just how many goals the prolific Andy Cole would score in the match . However it was Big Mal's Rover's who triumphed handsomely on the day winning 4-0. Cole was marshalled superbly & City were bamboozled by Mal's midfield 'whirl'. Having googled 'Malcolm Allison whirl' I can't find too many references but here is one...thankfully assuring me that I hadn't imagined it after all. My understanding was that the 'whirl' just involved the midfield players.. with possibly all four of them moving on a place at intervals so you could be a holding midfielder at the start and after a couple of moves of the 'whirl' be the furthest upfield of the midfielders before half time had arrived. The game was played on 13th December 1992 & I am fairly sure that Marcus Stewart ( a few weeks after his 20th birthday) was part of Big Mal's midfield whirl that day. As mentioned, the final years of Mals life were far from kind to him, but overall I'm sure he had a highly enjoyable life in football.   Big Mal RIP |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Oct 17, 2010 19:28:33 GMT
Linking in to our History Room, Big Mal took over at Crystal Palace from Bert Head - who we last saw standing outside Waitrose with Albert Hutchinson.
I'd have to admit that my abiding memory of his time at Palace was the Fiona Richmond incident - but I was at a very impressionable age at the time.
Merse has mentioned Malcolm popping into Plainmoor for a cuppa during his second stint at Argyle. Frank O'Farrell mentioned this at one of the TUST functions he attended. It surprised me that Frank and Malcolm were such good friends because they seem absolute chalk and cheese personality-wise - but they obviously had a deep football connection through the West Ham academy.
My personal memory of Big Mal comes from when I lived in Portugal for a year. My team Vitoria Guimaraes were in the first division and Malcolm's Vitoria Setubal were in the second, but we were drawn at home to them in the Cup. I did once see an English football mag refer to Guimaraes-Setubal as the Vitoria derby - a bit like calling Torquay-Rotherham the United derby.
We generated quite an intimidating atmosphere at Guimaraes, but Big Mal strolled round to us behind the goal and doffed his fedora at us. I don't know if it was true, but I had a funny feeling that we could possibly be the only two Englishmen in the stadium.
I was too young to take in the Allison/Mercer glory days at Man City, but I do remember the 1971/72 season when City were odds-on for the League until Allison signed the mercurial Rodney Marsh who ended up disrupting the pattern of the team rather than being the final part of the jigsaw as City fell away to be pipped at the post by Derby.
Malcolm never achieved on his own what he did working in tandem with Joe Mercer - who was so different in temperament to him. Larger than life, high maintenance characters sometimes need a counterweight to balance them out - much as Clough and Taylor was a far more rounded proposition than Clough on his own. Nominally, Big Mal was no. 2 to Mercer and I don't think he ever found a no.2 to complement him at no.1 as well as he complemented Mercer. Venables was his no.2 at Palace, but was more of a sourcerer's apprentice than someone who gave a sharply contrasting counterblance in the way that Peter Taylor did to Clough. I wonder if Allison would have achieved a lot more if he had found the right assistant.
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