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R.I.P. Frank Worthington.

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In my mind I can still see a goal against us at Carrow Road created by a no-look reverse pass he made to their winger, Len Glover. RIP.

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Once failed a medical at Liverpool, allegedly because of sheer excitement affecting his BP. Absolutely wonderful player. I can remember him doing juggling tricks during the warm up in front of the Barclay 

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1 minute ago, dylanisabaddog said:

Once failed a medical at Liverpool, allegedly because of sheer excitement affecting his BP. Absolutely wonderful player. I can remember him doing juggling tricks during the warm up in front of the Barclay 

You couldn’t help looking at him doing those tricks pre match. Rolling the ball down the back of his neck and back heeling it to continue the show. 

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10th November 1976. I'm in the queue at Luigi's fish and chip shop in Queens Road, Leicester. In comes Frank Worthington for his cod and large. The night before Leicester had lost 5-1 at Liverpool, so Luigi shouts, "Eh, Frankie, what happened last night?". He replies, "What do you mean what happened? It was a good game. I scored."

An absolute hero.

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30 minutes ago, sgncfc said:

10th November 1976. I'm in the queue at Luigi's fish and chip shop in Queens Road, Leicester. In comes Frank Worthington for his cod and large. The night before Leicester had lost 5-1 at Liverpool, so Luigi shouts, "Eh, Frankie, what happened last night?". He replies, "What do you mean what happened? It was a good game. I scored."

An absolute hero.

Queens road near Victoria park? Nice part of the city. 

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RIP Frank.

Memory of my youth the Barclay chanting the unclean version of his name.

Hugely respected talent and such a cool dude.

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Only got England caps because of Joe Mercer. Shame that this country didn't realise what he brought to the game. Everything looked easy to him.

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1 hour ago, dylanisabaddog said:

Once failed a medical at Liverpool, allegedly because of sheer excitement affecting his BP. Absolutely wonderful player. I can remember him doing juggling tricks during the warm up in front of the Barclay 

 

1 hour ago, Midlands Yellow said:

You couldn’t help looking at him doing those tricks pre match. Rolling the ball down the back of his neck and back heeling it to continue the show. 

I remember this too, as Capt Pants has said, he was getting the w*nky worthington chant until he did that, finished up getting a round of applause. I remember watching football focus and he said he was a big fan of The Jam which helped change my opinion of him 😁

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3 hours ago, Midlands Yellow said:

Queens road near Victoria park? Nice part of the city. 

Yes - Knighton area. Just looked on Google Maps and the chippie is still there, but in a new name.

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Fantastic ball player and great guy.

Many years ago my oap parents holidaying in Spain, called into a lively Irish bar on their last night. Two glamorous couples invited them over to their table and they got chatting/ laughing etc. One was Frank Worthington, hair slinked back, cowboy boots the lot!

Dad was a player of old, they talked about the game, mum danced with his mate and girlfriends. Dad joked, ' you were a bloody talented player but  a  play boy' ...'Yes I was and still am' 😂

'Your mate was a player also, can't place him'

'That's Tony, Tony Currie'.

 

Sad day, but he did it his way

RIP.

 

'

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Reading about his long illness i was unaware that it was in fact Alzheimer's. Absolutely dreadful.

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I remember when Huddersfield got promoted he & Trevor Cherry were the stand out players. But it soon became obvious that Big Frank was something else. He should have been a fixture in the England team; as demonstrated above he could do things nobody else could do. R.I.P. Frank, fabulous footballer & entertainer.

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4 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Only got England caps because of Joe Mercer. Shame that this country didn't realise what he brought to the game. Everything looked easy to him.

Not just him though-look at the list of players in the 70s who only got a handful of caps each-Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Peter Osgood, Charlie George. Is this perhaps the reason why we failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in 74 and 78?

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One hell of a player who managed to burn the candle at both ends and get away with it. Shows how good he was.

Wouldn’t have minded if he’d scored that Ipswich goal against us. Great skill.

I remember he was in the Leicester team that beat us in the FA Cup in ‘79 but my1 main memory from that game is of Keith Weller in his sexy white tights 😀

RIP

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57 minutes ago, ......and Smith must score. said:

One hell of a player who managed to burn the candle at both ends and get away with it. Shows how good he was.

Wouldn’t have minded if he’d scored that Ipswich goal against us. Great skill.

I remember he was in the Leicester team that beat us in the FA Cup in ‘79 but my1 main memory from that game is of Keith Weller in his sexy white tights 😀

RIP

I suffered that game too, weren’t we top flight and they were in the old 2nd division? 

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The story of that failed medical:

 

Bill Shankly had identified the Huddersfield Town centre-forward as the kind of skilful goalscorer he wanted in his emerging second great Liverpool line up. Following successful transfer talks - a club record £150,000 deal was agreed in 1972 - the move was put on hold when Worthington failed a medical after having high blood pressure.

 

Shankly was unfazed, instructing Worthington to take a holiday to Majorca to reduce his blood pressure. "My father had just died so I was probably suffering from some form of anxiety, but I was also enjoying the fruits of being young," he explained. He was dating Miss Great Britain at the time, but chatted up another woman on the plane to the Balearic Islands before having a 'threesome' with a Swedish mother and daughter, and then another romp with a Belgian lady.

 

He returned to Anfield for a second medical, andfailed again, leading Liverpool to call the move off.

Edited by Midlands Yellow

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17 hours ago, Mr Angry said:

Not just him though-look at the list of players in the 70s who only got a handful of caps each-Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Peter Osgood, Charlie George. Is this perhaps the reason why we failed to qualify for the World Cup finals in 74 and 78?

What a list of great players. We will never see their type again in the game. RIP Frank

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The story goes that Frank was playing for Leicester at Anfield. Waiting in the tunnel before running out, Tommy Smith handed Frank a piece of paper. On it was that evenings menu at Liverpool Royal Infirmary 😉 

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