SUMMER OF LOVE
City legend’s fun at Swindon... riding a tandem to ground and digging graves for a job
JOHN RICHARDSON
IT is a safe bet that Mike Summerbee will not be revisiting first club Swindon on Friday night on a tandem bike!
The Manchester City legend and club ambassador will be back at the County Ground for the televised FA Cup thirdround clash.
Swindon still have a special place in his heart.
It is where a 16-year-old wiry winger was introduced to the football stage under the guidance of influential manager Bert Head, who eventually went on to manage Crystal Palace.
It was also an era when many players in the lower leagues had to find other employment to see them through the summer with their football wages suspended during the close season.
Summerbee recalled: “I loved the camaraderie of it all, but we had to have jobs to keep us going through the close season.
“I used to work for the local council, cutting grass, painting, doing odd jobs which at times included digging graves. It kept you in touch with the fans, the living and the dead!”
And in the early 1960s,
when Summerbee played more than 200 games for the Wiltshire side, there were no flash cars in the training ground. In fact, in his early days he did not even own a car.
“Ernie Hunt, a team-mate, and I had a tandem and we used to cycle together on our tandem to the ground,” he added. “It was great fun.”
Summerbee had to grow up quickly in the physical world of the old Division Three.
“I used to be a real coward,” he admitted. “But the biggest
We had jobs to keep us going in the close season. Digging graves kept you in touch with the fans, the living and the dead!
telling off in front of the other players by the manager completely changed me.
“I’d pulled out of one or two tackles and Bert Head really tore into me. I never pulled out of another tackle again.”
After moving to Manchester City Summerbee gained a reputation of being a feisty competitor, one who would give rugged full-backs a taste of their own medicine. Team-mate Francis Lee described it as “getting his retaliation in first”. The transfer came in the summer of 1965 when Summerbee was subsidising his income by collecting deck chairs on Torquay beach.
It was a dream come true for someone who had idolised some of the City players from an early age living in Cheltenham.
“I would travel to Villa Park, West Brom, Wolves to see City play,” Summerbee revealed. “I used to enjoy watching Bobby Johnstone, Ken Barnes, Bert Trautmann and the rest.
“All those memories were in my head when I spoke to the Manchester City manager Joe Mercer about signing. I loved Swindon, but City were something else.
“Swindon was a great education and they are a club still close to my heart. It was my football apprenticeship.
“Bert Head was also a manager who believed in young players. I played with Bobby Woodrum, Don Rogers, Keith Morgan in the first team when we were all 16, 17 years old.”
At City Summerbee became a vital cog in a machine containing greats like Lee, Colin Bell and Tony Book which went on to lift the title.
He also became best pals with Manchester United’s George Best, the pair opening a boutique together.
To anybody’s knowledge they never turned up anywhere on a tandem bike, though.