Club author Anthony Vickers has released his latest Boro book.
‘Middlesbrough Legacy Numbers’ is a bright and breezy comprehensive record of the first 1,000 players to turn out for Boro since the Victorian amateur kings turned permanently professional in 1899 and made a massive quantum leap into the Football League.
The highly-readable tome, an absolute door-stop of 296 A4 pages, contains pen pictures of every single one of that Legion of Legends who have shaped the story of the club: biographical details, all their Boro statistics and their club career plus some fascinating and revealing background stories packed full of colour, drama and historical eye-openers.
The book complements the club’s recently launched Legacy Numbers initiative that aims to harness our history. Following painstaking research in club archives, dusty press cuttings and the national census, each and every player who has ever appeared in a senior competitive game since a first-footing 3-0 defeat at Lincoln in September 1899 has been allocated an official Legacy Number. Aidan Morris became the 1000th in this season’s opener against Swansea.
Numbered among their ranks are the giants who are burned into the Boro psyche: George Camsell (#250), George Hardwick (#316), Wilf Mannion (312) and Brian Clough (#393); the heroes that echo down the generations like Alan Peacock (#396), John Hickton (#456), Graeme Souness (#492), Tony Mowbray (#543), Bernie Slaven (#570), Juninho (#656) and Gareth Southgate (#701). All the heroes.
It covers all those stars who helped forge your own personal bond with Boro, whether that is the Ayresome Angels, Charlton’s Champions, the Class of 86, the Foreign Legion of the Riverside Revolution or the history makers who lifted the Carling Cup and embarked on an unbelievable European adventure.
But there are hundreds of others who have played important supporting roles. In every team, every generation there are hard-working if under-rated utility men, teenage hopefuls who fell short, fading stars just passing through, stop-gap signings, ‘did a job’ journeymen, bright talents cut down by injury, pantomime villains and anonymous one-hit-wonders. They are all in there too.
There are the half-forgotten heroes who helped Boro make the big step up to become an established power and those who have beavered away through bleak spells in the grainy black-and-white era who are rarely now recalled. Their role is recognised.
And they are not just numbers. They are the embodiment of the club down the ages, the details of their life and career revealing so much about the changing nature of the game – and how much remains the same - and of the ambitions and status of the club. Every player has a tale to tell that is a thread in the rich tapestry of history.
Middlesbrough Legacy Numbers is and essential addition to every well informed fan’s Boro bookshelf. It is available in the club shop or online NOW priced at £22.
Shop the Middlesbrough Legacy Numbers book online at MFC Official Direct