Ritchie Humphreys

[The Night-Owl]

7 minutes ago, theowlsman said:

He was a cracking player. Would have been the best striker in World football, Van Basten said so, but Pleat ruined him.

 

Pleat dropped him when the lad was at the peak of his form as a Carbone type of player, he then lost his confidence, got pissed about by Pleat having to play as a defender, and never regained the form he would’ve continued with had he remained up front.

 

At least he never wore beige slip on shoes like Pleat though, nor skipped about in them on the pitch like a fairy, like Pleat did.

 

ps - I wasn’t much of a David Pleat fan.

 

Still amazed how we started the first four games; fell away, went long unbeaten and somehow finished 7th in the top flight with Pleat in charge. Still feels a world away ever since and nowadays, feels like a lifetime ago.

[Mike Hunt]

Top lad Ritchie, known him from being a nipper , had a good career in football 

[Salmonbones]

Just now, hugeowl said:

Top lad Ritchie, known him from being a nipper , had a good career in football 

 

Pig to boot as well, but we will forgive him for that!

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, alanharper said:

 

No, that's an urban myth. Van Basten wasnt even there. Johan Cruyff was asked about Humphreys after he'd scored in a pre-season game in Holland (In Van Basten's home town of Utrecht). He said he'd played well and could have a bright future, which was then misquoted/mangled by the journalists and became Cruyff saying that Humphreys was the new Van Basten! 

 

According to Humphrey's himself it was Van Basten that was there and mentioned he had a decent game but the rest is a myth

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24937449

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, RUMBELOWS91 said:

Pretty sure he did as I think it was Pleat that tried it. Might be wrong though.

 

Ian Nolan was pretty much ever present in 1996-97 and 1997-98, Pleat was sacked early in 1997-98. 

[torryowl]

2 minutes ago, Ever the pessimist said:

To be fair we probably drew loads of those games. We went something like 22 games unbeaten in the middle of that season, but drew most of them.

we had a 5 game unbeaten  run in dec /jan  against Liverpool,man utd , Chelsea,arsenal and everton winning 2 of them …….we were a more than decent team that season …...unlike a lot on here  i quite liked pleat . 

[WalthamOwl]

Scored a few stunning goals in the first 4 or 5 games of the season when he broke on to the scene for us. 

[alanharper]

4 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

According to Humphrey's himself it was Van Basten that was there and mentioned he had a decent game but the rest is a myth

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24937449

 

 

And according to Humphreys himself here it was Cruyff, not Van Basten!

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/seat-at-the-fas-table-for-the-old-new-van-basten-ritchie-humphreys-8869946.html%3famp

[Guest]

Just now, torryowl said:

we had a 5 game unbeaten  run in dec /jan  against Liverpool,man utd , Chelsea,arsenal and everton winning 2 of them …….we were a more than decent team that season …...unlike a lot on here  i quite liked pleat . 

 

Remember winning 1-0 away at Anfield. Peter Atherton just followed McManaman everywhere he went for 90 minutes.

[ReadingOwl]

1 minute ago, torryowl said:

we had a 5 game unbeaten  run in dec /jan  against Liverpool,man utd , Chelsea,arsenal and everton winning 2 of them …….we were a more than decent team that season …...unlike a lot on here  i quite liked pleat . 

I always thought he talked the Club down. He didn’t believe in the players enough.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, alanharper said:

 

And according to Humphreys himself here it was Cruyff, not Van Basten!

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/seat-at-the-fas-table-for-the-old-new-van-basten-ritchie-humphreys-8869946.html%3famp

 

Brilliant! Can't believe a word that bloke says.

[The Night-Owl]

3 minutes ago, Salmonbones said:

 

Humphreys had one person who was pushing him,  Chris Waddle.   Waddle thought a lot of Humphreys and often had him back after sessions to do one on one coaching.

Pleat didn't like Waddle's influence in the camp and got rid of him early in that season, and with that he also consigned Humphreys to bit part play.

 

 

 

 

 

Waddle was one of my childhood heroes and favourite players, even before he joined us. Loved him back in those days, along with the likes of Roberto Baggio; Savićević, Matthaüs, Barnes and Gazza. I was heartbroken when he was let go. He was immense for us in his first couple of seasons, yet he still had it briefly when he left us, with some memorable goals. I loved how he became a playmaker for us. Watching the likes of Waddle and Sheridan spraying the ball about gracefully was one of the highlights of my childhood and the best it's ever been for Wednesday during my lifetime.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, The Night-Owl said:

 

Still amazed how we started the first four games; fell away, went long unbeaten and somehow finished 7th in the top flight with Pleat in charge. Still feels a world away ever since and nowadays, feels like a lifetime ago.

 

Finished the season in terrible fashion when we were on course for a place in Europe. Got two hammerings at Blackburn and West Ham in the space of about a week.

[alanharper]

8 minutes ago, torryowl said:

we had a 5 game unbeaten  run in dec /jan  against Liverpool,man utd , Chelsea,arsenal and everton winning 2 of them …….we were a more than decent team that season …...unlike a lot on here  i quite liked pleat . 

 

Drew far too many games, only lost 1 game at home all season (that Chelsea game early on) but only won 8 and drew 10.

 

Then we only got 1 point from the final 4 games (3 of them were away) and missed out on qualifying for Europe by just 4 points. 

[alanharper]

4 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Brilliant! Can't believe a word that bloke says.

 

Typical pig! 

[Ever the pessimist]

5 minutes ago, ReadingOwl said:

I always thought he talked the Club down. He didn’t believe in the players enough.

Completely agree. Think one of his first public comments on getting the job was basically how we had been overachieving and needed to lower expectations.

[PriceAPP]

8 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

Remember winning 1-0 away at Anfield. Peter Atherton just followed McManaman everywhere he went for 90 minutes.

Remember all the papers at the time going a bit crazy over that “stop mcmananan, stop Liverpool”

[Ever the pessimist]

1 minute ago, alanharper said:

 

Drew far too many games, only lost 1 game at home all season (that Chelsea game early on) but only won 8 and drew 10.

 

Then we only got 1 point from the final 4 games (3 of them were away) and missed out on qualifying for Europe by just 4 points. 

Lowest point for me was losing pathetically at home to Wimbledon in the cup quarter final. 

[Ronio]

13 minutes ago, The Night-Owl said:

 

Still amazed how we started the first four games; fell away, went long unbeaten and somehow finished 7th in the top flight with Pleat in charge. Still feels a world away ever since and nowadays, feels like a lifetime ago.

Very briefly top of the league after those first four games.  

 

When Carbone and Di Canio were on top of their game, they were unstoppable.  Loved watching us during that time.  

 

All went downhill after the Di Canio incident.  

[ReadingOwl]

Just now, Ever the pessimist said:

Completely agree. Think one of his first public comments on getting the job was basically how we had been overachieving and needed to lower expectations.

Certainly at the end of the month when we were top - he seemed totally surprised and “down played” the performances and the players attributes. It appeared he was waiting to fail.

 

It still erks me how we lost that game at Arsenal - from memory we were much the better team and again, from memory, Walker was unlucky to be sent off.