Jimmy Bloomfield - great manager, great player!

[kushiro]

I never realized how good he was. To me, he was always 'the boss of that stylish Leicester team in the 70s'. So it came as a bit of a surprise to discover that as a player he was just as stylish as that team. 

 

He made his name at Arsenal in the mid-50s. He played over 200 games for them as an inside forward, with a pretty good goal scoring record - 54 goals in total. Here's one of them - cutting inside the defender and curling it into the top corner. Kenny Dalglish would regularly get Goal of the Month for this kind of thing 25 years later.

 

 

18 months later he stars in a 2-2 draw at Everton - a historic occasion: the first League game under Goodison's new floodlights. No footage of this one - we'll just have to imagine it. Here's the match report:

 

 In enjoying our floodlit honeymoon we must not rule out the possibility of future bleak cold nights that might tempt the greater part of the 54,000 crowd to stay home in front of the telly. But if I could be sure every time of seeing Bloomfield, sending out a stream of passes, I would endure Spitzbergen. The display from Bloomfield was nothing short of superb.

 

(By the way, Spitzbergen was the place in Norway where Italian polar explorers were famously stranded in 1928.)

 

He left Arsenal in 1960 and joined Birmingham City. Here he is in action against Blackpool a few months later. If the goal above is like Kenny Dalglish, here he does what Johan Cruyff did in the first minute of the 1974 World Cup Final - picking up the ball, striding gracefully past four opponents before being brought down in the box. Except the referee doesn't agree and waves play on. Jimmy's body language as he rises from the mud tells you what he thinks of the decision. (You'll have to do some work and click on this one as it's a video that can't be embedded):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvdkRXdxIbo&t=0m5s

 

(Speaking of Cruyff, it was after the 1974 World Cup that Bloomfield, so impressed with Holland's total football, tried to get Leicester to play the same way the following season. He very nearly became England manager that year after Ramsey's sacking).

 

He moved on to West Ham in 1965. On his home debut he scored with a diving header. No footage, but a great picture from the wonderful West Ham site 'theyflysohigh' (with Geoff Hurst looking on approvingly):

 

 

So there you are - scoring worldies, spraying passes all over the park, waltzing through opposition defences, diving headers - it seems he was the complete player. And it seems a mystery why he was never selected for England. He did win two Under-23 caps (playing alongside Brian Clough in 1956/57), and played once for the Football League XI, but never for the full team. 

 

Well, I hope you have enough evidence there to show that the Leicester side of the 70s was very much built in his own image - attacking, skillful, stylish, entertaining - rather like the teams Dalglish and Cruyff built when they became managers. 

 

So - did anyone actually see Jimmy in action? 

 

Edited 4 June 2021 by kushiro

[Fox92]

Wonder which manager was the best player? In more recent times I'd probably Paulo Soua. But we've had a fair few managers who were good players/had good playing careers such as Martin O'Neill, Nigel Pearson, Frank McLintock.

[boots60]

Never saw Jimmy Bloomfield play but as a young lad I thought he was everything a manager should be.

In charge, but not a tyrant, encouraged us to play the beautiful game & produced a side that played wonderful attacking football.

 

Also a babysitter for Frank Worthington!

[boots60]

2 hours ago, Fox92 said:

Wonder which manager was the best player? In more recent times I'd probably Paulo Soua. But we've had a fair few managers who were good players/had good playing careers such as Martin O'Neill, Nigel Pearson, Frank McLintock.

I hate to mention this but 3 of the worst gaffers we ever had were very good footballers.

 

McLintock

Taylor

Megson

[bovril]

Most of the managers we've had since I've supported them have been good players. Only Basset, Sven and Rodgers stick out as never having played at the top level, and Rodgers' career was obviously cut short. 

[kushiro]

Just bumping this for anyone who wasn't around when it was first posted in June. There's a lot of people who just come here during the season - might be a few City fans from the 70s who'd enjoy it.

[enmac]

https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/sport/leytonorient/11156729.jimmy-bloomfield-voted-as-leyton-orients-best-manager/

[kushiro]

Some more precious old Bloomfield action has just appeared online. This is Birmingham 5 Burnley 1 from September 1962 - Jimmy struts around so stylishly and sets up the first goal for Ken Leek (who joined Brum after Matt Gillies controversially dropped just before our 61 Cup Final), then scores himself. Look out for an amazing performance too from Mike Hellawell, who was called up for his England debut shortly after. Also in the Birmingham attack is Denis Thwaites, who more than 50 years later was one of the 30 British victims of the Sousse attacks in Tunisia. 

 

Skip to about the 04.30 mark to see all the best action.

Birmingham City v Burnley 1962-3 - YouTube

 

[fuchsntf]

On 13/08/2021 at 21:17, kushiro said:

Just bumping this for anyone who wasn't around when it was first posted in June. There's a lot of people who just come here during the season - might be a few City fans from the 70s who'd enjoy it.

I did..

Maybe not our most successfull manager...but played & knew how to manage "The beautiful game"

Plus one of the few managers who got

a few times...' player of the match'

Out of respect..

God ..was Weller a beautifull player,or was he God,who came down & tried to show how it should be done & what one can do,with a ball...

One of the best coups  of all time

Bloomfield getting Weller

 to Filbert street...

Edited 8 November 2021 by fuchsntf

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, kushiro said:

Matt Gillies

He should be known as our greatest ever.  Played for us, captained us and our first manager to win us a trophy.