Johnny Haynes

John Norman "Johnny" Haynes (17 October 1934 – 18 October 2005) was an English footballer, best known for his 18 years at Fulham. An inside forward, Haynes is widely regarded as the greatest footballer ever to play for the London club, particularly noted for his exceptional passing skill and ability to read a game. An accomplished international, he made 56 appearances for his country, including 22 as captain (many of them while playing for Fulham in the Second Division). Haynes became the first player to be paid £100 a week, immediately following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961.^[1] Pelé was once quoted as calling Haynes the "best passer of the ball I've ever seen".^[2]

Life and career

Johnny Haynes was born in the Kentish Town area of London. He signed for Fulham as a schoolboy in 1950 and turned professional in May 1952, at the age of 17 (the youngest possible age legally) and made his debut at 18. He remained at Fulham for his entire professional career, until leaving for South Africa in 1970, where he played for the now defunct Durban City.

Haynes became the first player to play for England in every class of football available in his playing era - school, youth, under 23, `B` and full international level. His debut for the full senior side came on 2 October 1954, scoring a goal in a 2-0 England victory over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast. An accomplished career saw him making 55 further appearances (the last 22 as captain) for the national side, with perhaps his best game being 1958 at Wembley Stadium when he scored a hat-trick against the Soviet Union in a 5-0 win. He was to become one of the famous stars of the sport along with Stanley Matthews and others of the era, and was to be one of the first to appear in adverts (for Brylcreem), after Denis Compton.

His career was severely affected by a car accident in 1962 on Blackpool promenade, when the sports car in which he was returning late to his hotel was blown by a gust of wind into the path of another vehicle. Haynes broke bones in both feet and badly injured a knee. He recounts that the police officer who attended the incident reassured him by saying "Don't worry son, you've only broken your legs". He missed a season and, when he returned to the Fulham side, was not quite the same player. Prior to the accident he had captained England 22 times, and, being only 27, was expected to lead them in the 1966 World Cup; but he was never again selected for the national team.^[3]

Haynes made 32 of his 56 appearances for England when Fulham were in the Second Division. No player has appeared as many times for the national team when playing outside a country's top tier.

In his record 658 appearances for Fulham, 594 of which were in the Football League, he rose to become club captain and scored a total of 158 goals, another club record and one which was only surpassed by striker Gordon Davies in 1991. Haynes has scored the most hat-tricks (9) for Fulham, scored 4 goals twice and once even 5 goals in a First Division match. His best scoring season was in the 1958-59 campaign, with 26 from 34 games. In later seasons Haynes was not a prolific goalscorer, instead preferring to set up goals and assist. Haynes is known for having said he would prefer to provide a good long-ball rather than score personally. He would often hone his passing skills alone at Craven Cottage, laying a towel out in front of the clubhouse and pinging balls onto it from the centre spot.

Haynes had a single spell in football management, taking charge of the Cottagers for a brief spell in November 1968 after the dismissal of Bobby Robson as player-manager, but Haynes never had any ambition to go into coaching. His last appearance for Fulham 1st team was on January 17, 1970 in a home match against Stockport County.^[4] In 1970, he retired professionally aged 35, and joined the South African club, Durban City, for whom he played one season and helped them to win the national championship. This was his only winner's medal in club football.^[5]

On 17 October 2005 (his 71st birthday), at approximately 2:55pm BST (1:55pm GMT), Haynes was driving his car along Dalry road in Edinburgh, Scotland, the city in which he had lived since 1984 after leaving South Africa, when he suffered a brain haemorrhage, which effectively rendered him brain-stem dead almost instantaneously. The car veered off into the oncoming traffic and hit a light goods vehicle. Although the accident was witnessed by a doctor who managed, using CPR, to restart Johnny's heart, he was effectively dead. Although kept on a ventilator for some 30 hours, all tests that were undertaken by the medical staff in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, showed negative activity in the brain and, as per his family's wishes, after he had donated some of his organs, the ventilator was turned off at approximately 9pm GMT on the evening of 18 October 2005.

First £100-per-week player

Johnny Haynes, as one of the finest players of his era, was of constant interest to other football clubs, which contributed to the pressure which led to the demise of the £20-per-week maximum wage applied to the game until 1961. Fulham chairman Tommy Trinder had boasted that Haynes was worth £100 a week, not expecting that the £20 pay cap (equivalent to £340 in 2010) would be abolished. When it was removed, Trinder paid up without complaint to make Haynes the first footballer to earn £100 per week. Fulham famously turned down an offer of £80,000 from AC Milan for "The Maestro" that would have been over double the record for a transfer at the time and would have made Haynes the best paid player in the world.

Tributes

On the day of the death of Johnny Haynes, Alan Mullery, another high-profile Fulham and England player, made the following tribute: "He was the only reason I went to Fulham as a young boy of 15 leaving school. He was my hero, the captain of England and Fulham. The word great rolls off the tongue quite easily these days but he really was. He was the best passer of a ball I have ever seen - I don't know anyone who could pass a ball as accurately. Anyone who saw him will know what a great player he was."^[6]

The Fulham Supporters Trust stated: "His dedication, skill, professionalism, grace and charm - both in his playing days and in retirement - serve as a poignant reminder to many of today's footballers about what true greatness really means." ^[6]

Playing for England against Northern Ireland in 1955, Haynes ran onto a long clearance into the Northern Ireland half. He met the ball as it touched the ground and miraculously flicked a deft half-volley over a defender's head, straight to his Fulham colleague Bedford Jezzard, making a rare England appearance - his career was cut short by injury not long afterwards. Jezzard's half volley was saved by the Northern Ireland goalkeeper Upritchard who got both hands to the ball but was almost knocked into the net by the force of the shot. In 1959 at Craven Cottage Haynes delighted even Tottenham fans by playing a magnificent 30 yard pass through the centre of the Spurs defence - the same one that helped them to "The Double" the following year - which put Jimmy Hill through with a clear run on goal from which he scored. George Cohen, a World Cup winner for England in 1966 and a Fulham teammate of Johnny Haynes, stated: "I have a hundred individual memories of the beauty of John's play. One stands out for the sheer perfection of his skill. It was a charity match which, but for that one second, has faded completely from my memory. The ball came to him at speed on a wet, slippery surface but with the slightest of adjustments, one that was almost imperceptible, he played it inside a full-back and into the path of an on-running winger. I looked at our coach Dave Sexton on the bench and he caught my glance and shook his head as if to say 'fantastic'. Haynes could give you goose bumps on a wet night in a match that didn't matter."^[7]

Bobby Moore, Haynes' successor as England captain, said of him: "Once you get used to watching that perfection you realised the rest of the secret. John was always available, always hungry for the ball, always wanting to play. I loved watching the player. Later I learnt to love the man."^[8]

In 2002 Haynes became an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his football talents and impact on the English game.^[9] Perhaps his greatest achievement as a footballer was that most of what he tried to create for Fulham - and for some England teams - went to waste but his own game never deteriorated. He always played superlative football for the full 90 minutes.

Books

• Its All In The Game
• In March 2008 the first full book on Johnny Haynes' career was published by club photographer Ken Coton and lifelong supporter Martin Plumb. Eulogised by journalists, the book with over 300 pages and 300 photographs details all of his games and goals with rare archive footage (Ashwater Press)

Craven Cottage

The Johnny Haynes stand at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham Football Club, renamed in the legend's memory.

Johnny Haynes Stand

Weeks after its centenary year, on 27 November 2005, it was announced that the Archibald Leitch-designed Stevenage Road Stand at Craven Cottage would be renamed The Johnny Haynes Stand. Other suggestions to honour Haynes had included a redesign of the gates of Craven Cottage and the retirement of the number 10 shirt worn by Haynes throughout his time at Fulham.

Statue

On 28 July 2008, Fulham announced that fundraising had commenced, with the co-operation of a fan's group, to produce a lasting tribute to Haynes.^[10] A statue was commissioned and was unveiled at Craven Cottage before the Premier League match against Sunderland on 18 October 2008. The Statue also appears on Fulham Membership Cards issue in 2010.

Career statistics

^[11]

References

External links

• Haynes' profile at Neil Brown's statistics site
• FA profile of Johnny Haynes, including full details of his England appearances at the Wayback Machine (archived 16 March 2009)
• Fulham Football Club announcement of death at the Wayback Machine (archived 26 December 2005)
• Pathe newsreel footage of Johnny Haynes hattrick for England against Russia
• BBC article
• Brian Glanville: Silent fans pay tribute to their midfield maestro (subscription required)
• Memories of Craven Cottage
• BBC Archive Collections:Football Legends - Johnny Haynes

England squads
England squad – 1954 FIFA World Cup 1 Merrick 2 Staniforth 3 Byrne 4 Wright (c) 5 Owen 6 Dickinson 7 Matthews 8 Broadis 9 Lofthouse 10 Taylor 11 Finney 12 Burgin 13 Green 14 McGarry 15 Wilshaw 16 Quixall 17 Mullen 18 Chilton 19 Armstrong 20 Jezzard 21 Haynes 22 Hooper Coach: Winterbottom England squad – 1958 FIFA World Cup 1 McDonald 2 Howe 3 Banks 4 Clamp 5 Wright (c) 6 Slater 7 Douglas 8 Robson 9 Kevan 10 Haynes 11 Finney 12 Hopkinson 13 Hodgkinson 14 Sillett 15 Clayton 16 Norman 17 Brabrook 18 Broadbent 19 Smith 20 Charlton 21 A'Court 22 Setters Coach: Winterbottom England squad – 1962 FIFA World Cup 1 Springett 2 Armfield 3 Wilson 4 Robson 5 Swan 6 Flowers 7 Connelly 8 Greaves 9 Hitchens 10 Haynes (c) 11 Charlton 12 Hodgkinson 13 Kevan 14 Anderson 15 Norman 16 Moore 17 Douglas 18 Hunt 19 Peacock 20 Eastham 21 Howe 22 Adamson Coach: Winterbottom