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RIP Tommy Smith MBE ex Liverpool / England half back and enforcer aged 74

RedChaser
RedChaser Posts: 19,888
edited April 2019 in Other Football and Sports
Bill Shankly once said Tommy wasn't born, he was quarried. RIP to one of the old school hardmen.
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Comments

  • Redmidland
    Redmidland Posts: 44,700
    RIP Tommy....now he WAS a proper hard-man, no histrionics from him. God bless sir. 
  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,281
    Every team had their enforcer/thug. He was Liverpool's.  RIP


    Was it Tommy Smith who was on disability benefit, took a penalty in a charity game at Anfield and lost his benefit when someone reported him to the DHSS?
  • Brendan_O_Connell
    Brendan_O_Connell Posts: 8,938
    RIP
  • RedChaser
    RedChaser Posts: 19,888
    edited April 2019
    Henry Irving said:
    Every team had their enforcer/thug. He was Liverpool's.  RIP


    Was it Tommy Smith who was on disability benefit, took a penalty in a charity game at Anfield and lost his benefit when someone reported him to the DHSS?
    Yes Henners, here you go from wiki;

    Smith had his benefit payments stopped for a short time after he managed to take a penalty on the Wembley pitch at half-time during the 1996 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Manchester United; he stated that "I couldn't believe they would do that, I was getting money for charity. I only kicked the ball once."
  • Davo55
    Davo55 Posts: 7,846
    One of the real, genuine hard men in the game late 60s and 70s.

    RIP Tommy.
  • soapy_jones
    soapy_jones Posts: 21,387
    RIP.  In the modern game he would of held world records for bookings, sending offs, bans for crippling, referee retirements... the lot!
  • AddickFC81
    AddickFC81 Posts: 4,053
    RIP
  • Carter
    Carter Posts: 14,264
    Rest in peace Tommy Smith, genuine tough hard bastard and I imagine that's exactly how he would like to be remembered 
  • Bedsaddick
    Bedsaddick Posts: 24,774
    Probably the first “Hard Man” I remember as a kid. RIP 
  • RedChaser
    RedChaser Posts: 19,888
    soapy_jones said:
    RIP.  In the modern game he would of held world records for bookings, sending offs, bans for crippling, referee retirements... the lot!
    Agreed, Vinny Jones was a pussy cat by comparison.

    Smith used psychological ploys to threaten and intimidate opposition players.That said, he certainly had the respect of his peers, with fellow "hard man" Jack Charlton once saying "Tommy Smith was easily the hardest player I faced. I ran into him once and he knocked every ounce of breath out of me. I tried to get up and look like he hadn't hurt me, but he had." Source Wiki.

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  • valleyfan
    valleyfan Posts: 151
    RIP Tommy. Liverpool legend. 
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,737
    RIP
  • Chippycafc
    Chippycafc Posts: 14,166

    RIP tommy, was only talking about him this week with a guy who is an electrician who did some private work for Graeme Souness when he lived nr Winchester. Souness told him that Tommy Smith hated him and they never got on.

    Hard man, and wasn't he crippled n later life due to all the injections he had in his near to get him through matches.

  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,057
    Oh dear poor old Tommy.
    I visualise him playing in the European Cup Final for Liverpool.
    Hard as nails, but not really dirty like Chopper Harris.
  • cblock
    cblock Posts: 1,962
    RIP  Tommy
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,057
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHfLMdAFSFg

    UEFA Cup Final 1976.
    Tommy Smith at 2.40.
    Look at The Kop.
  • Covered End
    Covered End Posts: 52,057
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfUr41g1Ers

    European Cup Final 1977.
    Smith no 4.
  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 69,964
    RIP. The sort of player that fans of that club will idolise, the local lad who leaves everything on the pitch and breathes the club
  • Cardinal Sin
    Cardinal Sin Posts: 5,233
    RIP Tommy Smith. Red rock.
  • LenGlover
    LenGlover Posts: 31,671
    edited April 2019
    The real Len Glover accidentally nobbled Tommy once when he was playing for Leicester against Liverpool and, by his own admission, spent the rest of the match absolutely bricking it!

    https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/who-would-want-leicester-city-2698540

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  • stonemuse
    stonemuse Posts: 34,061
    RIP a legend in the game 
  • sunbury-addick
    sunbury-addick Posts: 1,931
    RIP Tommy, proper hardman
  • Bournemouth Addick
    Bournemouth Addick Posts: 16,287
    Ahh...that's sad news. Proper old school footballer but was also a very good player too. You didn't get in the Liverpool team of the 70's without being able to play as well put it about a bit.

    RIP Tommy.
  • redman
    redman Posts: 5,292
    RIP Tommy, his professionalism and loyalty a model for young players. 
  • letthegoodtimesroll
    letthegoodtimesroll Posts: 10,653
    The thing about the hard players of the 60s and 70s is although they wouldn’t get away with it in ‘the modern game’, neither would those cnts that that dive and play act in todays  game and get away with it because they would get the shit kicked out of them. 
  • Bangkokaddick
    Bangkokaddick Posts: 4,302
    Still remember commentator Barry Davies's delight when he scored in the UEFA Cup Final. Hard man but well-liked.

    RIP
  • Johnnysummers5
    Johnnysummers5 Posts: 8,469
    RIP Tommy
  • i_b_b_o_r_g
    i_b_b_o_r_g Posts: 18,948
    RIP
  • Algarveaddick
    Algarveaddick Posts: 21,176
    RIP
  • bobmunro
    bobmunro Posts: 20,869
    My earliest memory of watching football on television was the 1965 FA Cup Final, Tommy Smith against Billy Bremner! No question who was the hardest of the two but whereas Bremner was a dirty player (probably the dirtiest I've ever seen), Smith was just granite.

    A controversial character on and off the pitch, but today I'll reflect on him as a footballer.

    RIP Tommy - the 'Anfield Iron'.

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