| John Bond |
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| Written by Warren | |
| Sunday, 18 January 2009 | |
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Burnley Manager from June 1983 till August 1984 John Bond, this has to be the hardest profile to write. I hate the guy, for what he did to my club, but reading the works of 'Dave Thomas' in No Nay Never, volumes 1 & 2, my mind is one of confusion. John Bond came through at West Ham United, A very competent right-back by all accounts, in 1964 he was on duty against the Clarets in the FA Cup quarter final, which the Irons were victorious, on their way to winning that years FA Cup final. Bond could play. His playing career was mainly at the Boleyn Ground club, he left in January 1966, after 381 league games for the Irons, in which he scored 32 times, Bond left to join Torquay United, then managed by his former West Ham team-mate Frank O'Farrell. He played 130 league games for the Gulls, scoring 12 goals, and helped Torquay to promotion at the end of his first season. He retired in 1969.
November 1973 with the departure of Ron Saunders at Norwich City, gave Bond his first crack at the first division, he saw the Canaries relegated to the second tier. Promotion at the first attempt and an appearance in the League Cup final gave Bond longevity in the Carrow road hot seat, a final Norwich lost 1-0 to Aston Villa. He kept Norwich in the top flight for his remaining few years, leaving to take the Manchester City hot seat in 1980, taking John Benson and John Sainty with him.
Manchester City, a If a respectable finish in his first season was seen as success, then a FA Cup final appearance was beyond the City faithfuls wildest dreams, a Final which will be remembered for three things the fantastic goals by Ricky Villa, and Steve McKenzie in the replay, and the two goals scored by Burnley bound Tommy Hutchinson, one in his own net to equalise his first goal. Bonds time at City started to go wrong in 1982-83, which saw Bond jump ship, he resigned with City looking relegation straight in the face. And on to Burnley ! Now who's to blame for the season which saw a young energetic team, turn into a aging team of has been's and never will be's? John Bond? John Jackson? Benson? Sainty? Dobson? well with the expertise of Dave Thomas and Phil Whalley who in their fantastic pieces, i am going to stick with my own version, possibly wrong. But my finger points straight at Bond ! Burnley through the years have had a conveyor belt of Managers since 1947 all the Burnley managers had played for Burnley and made their way up the food chain, Cliff Brittain was brought from Everton, then former player Hill, former player Brown, Billy Dougall who needs no introduction to the clarets, Potts, Adamson, Joe Brown, Brian Miller and the last of that series Frank Casper who was in caretaker charge before the run of true clarets managing Burnley came to an end ! and what an end. 56 years of promoting from within was stopped in spectacular style by Jackson's appointment of John'bloody'Bond ! Burnley a family club full of tradition saw a disaster waiting to happen between the Ford Escorts and Vauxhall Novas when Bond drove into his first training session in a Jaguar XJS ! The writing was definitely on the wall, Bond had a strategy (apparently), but to me he used Burnley for one last pay days for his 'boys', (No)-Hansbury a keeper who was not fit to lace Alan Stevenson's Boots came from Hong Kong, Hutchinson from Man City via Hong Kong, Gerry Gow form Man City and Kevin Reeves ( who could have been a Burnley legend had injury not cut his career short) also came in form Man City. Out went possibly the greatest talents every to come through the Turf Moor youth set up, Trevor Steven(apparently sold by the board before Bond?)! Brian Laws, Martin Dobson and Burnley lad Andy Wharton also ware shown the door, by Bonds revolution,(and you thought Communism is bad).
Th case of Lee Dixon is a strange one, so many mis-truths about the left back who made over 50 appearances for England and was part of a great Arsenal back four alongside Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Nigel Winterburn. John Clayton's apparent last words as he was replaced for Bond's'Boys' was to hold on to Lee Dixon no matter what! off he went, Bond had turned the majority of the clarets faithful against him, in "No Nay Never 2" ex-director Derek Gill
Joe Gallagher, nice bloke, but when Bond signed him he could have been using a zimmer frame, when he walked into Turf Moor to sign, its not his signing which hurts its the length of time, 5 years! 5 bloody years for a center half that if had been a horse would have been made into pedigree chum years ago, and with those 5 years wages which were so high, that we couldn't sell him, loan him, play him, sack him! the only sensible offer was for euthanasia ! but unfortunately at that time as now its isn't legal! It hurts writing such condemning stuff on my team, the write up was supposed to be just Bonds profile as manager, but its extremely hard to write without feeling about a time in Burnley's history which creates so much passion, still now 25 years after he was sacked !
Bond did have one suc Burnley's final few games of a season that promised so much were left in the hands of assistant manager John Benson, as John Bond decided that he should scout players rather than guide our team to victory's! Just one more unbelievable fact the charismatic clown did.
Bond was sacked! finally on the 1st August 1984, after fourteen months in charge, and those months saw the bright future that Burnley had under Miller/Casper turn into a nightmare which almost saw Burnley destroyed, this started with Bond in 1983 !
Above: How the Sun newspaper reported the story After Burnley Bond spent time in Wales with Swansea City, but it would be just over the Welsh border where Bond and Burnley's paths crossed again, when we both were drawn in the FA Cup at Turf Moor,The game at Turf Moor saw a Shrewsbury team with no manager! Bond decided to watch his son Kevin play instead of managing his team. Bond hid at the back of the stand in a Stewards jacket for the replay at Gay Meadow, Hatred not just from me then! As Semisonic sang "for every new beginning, there's a new beginnings end" Bond was that new beginning, ending 56 years of proud tradition of hiring from within, and with Benson, Buchan and Cavanagh, Burnley struggled to regain our history. 1986 Burnleys worst ever season, saw a true legend Brian Miller return and end the Bond era, when he turned to the youth and returned Burnley to a real sense of home. All this is my opinion, some may agree some may disagree! Bond created a legacy how you interpret that and how deep the anger still burns is down to the Burnley public who were young enough to witness the "coming of Bond"!
Warren 2009 |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 July 2009 ) |
team with a history of charismatic personalities, had hired one more, with his bling and cigar the Bond bandwagon rolled into Maine Road. Bonds wheeling and dealing saw a team galvanised and a respectable 10th place finish was a return on a season full of ups and downs for the men of Manchester.
remembers the booing for Bond in the managers first home game in charge, which incidentally was Bournemouth the club who first took a chance on Bond in management. As Gill reminisces in the book by Thomas it wasn't just because Bond wasn't liked, it was his treatment of the players, the fans favorites dumped, Dobson, Laws! Burnley is a small town, and with small towns news, spreads as does mis-truths! with just weeks in charge Bond had created a divide, a divide which a team like Burnley cannot live with.
cess, Billy Hamilton, Burnleys Northern Ireland international found his goalscoring touch under Bond, a short lived partnership with Kevin Reeves, untill Reeves career ending injury, Hamilton put goals into his repertoire. | < Prev | Next > |
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