Just try stopping this front three!
Jimmy Greaves, roy race, Trevor Francis: a forward line so fast, so accurate and with such a comic-book imagination, Jurgen Klopp might even swap his Firmino-salahmane trident for it.
Greaves was the greatest english goalscorer of all time, Francis was the first £1million player and as for roy race, well, his playing career lasted from 1954 to 1993.
race won nine league titles, eight Fa Cups and three european Cups. He scored goals decade after decade, usually with a shot harder than Peter Lorimer’s.
race played for melchester rovers and for this he was known as roy of the rovers. He was a big story every week — kidnapped nine times, shot and replaced by alf ramsey. as melchester playermanager, he signed morecambe and Wise as well as two members of spandau Ballet.
as big as any of those blockbuster plot lines is that, at the age of 64, Roy of the Rovers is making a comeback.
‘ eh, technically, he’s not,’ explains rob Power, one of those at rebellion publishing bringing the hero to a new audience.
‘We did consider that but the age thing made it hard to work. Plus, he lost at least one foot in a helicopter crash. so we’re starting again with a brand new roy race unconnected to the old community.’
The 2018 roy is 16 and joins melchester rovers in hard times — they are at the foot of League Two.
‘it’s about football as it is today,’ adds Power. ‘it’s more focused on reality and the drama of the game. melchester rovers are not foreign- owned but other clubs are. The story will follow roy’s career trajectory.’
The original roy appeared in the Tiger comic in 1954 and then branched out into his own publication in 1976. The new roy will feature, initially, in three graphic novels, the first in september. it will be aimed at eight- to 12-yearolds. as Power says, the last time
Roy of the Rovers was seen — 2001 — these children were not born. His name is new to them.
‘But there will be lots of nods to the old story,’ Power adds. ‘There’ll be familiar character names — vic Guthrie, Johnny Dexter — there’ll be in-jokes.’
even though he has not been seen in comic- strip form for 17 years, roy race remains part of British football culture. ‘ mark Lawrenson recently called mo salah’s success “real Roy of the
Rovers stuff”,’ Power says. The new version will do well to have a similar impact. When roy was shot in 1981 — by a disillusioned actor who had been playing him — the story made the BBC news, read out by moira stuart.
Barrie Tomlinson was editor then. He says the assassination idea came from Tv series Dallas and the shooting of Jr ewing.
With roy by then player-manager but hospitalised, Tomlinson and melchester needed a caretaker. Tomlinson approached sir alf ramsey. Not famous for his humour, sir alf nevertheless stood in. He would approve scripts. Unsurprisingly, sir alf was very successful.
‘it culminated in a 14-0 win, a record,’ Tomlinson explains. ‘The sound of the crowd at the game was then played to roy in hospital and brought him out of his coma. it was around then Geoff Boycott became chairman.’
another episode — which made the lunchtime iTN news — came when roy’s wife Penny left him.
‘roy was spending too much time at the club,’ Tomlinson says gravely. and indeed, roy’s workload had increased. in 1978 he was appointed england manager. it was for one game, against the Dutch. ‘He chose the team from comic characters, but up front roy was joined by malcolm macdonald and Trevor Francis,’ Tomlinson says. ‘ england won 5-1, macdonald getting two and Francis a hat-trick. ‘i signed Trevor to write for
Tiger in the early 70s and he wrote a column for many years.’
Francis was a roy template, the boy wonder who became the first £1m footballer. Francis made his Birmingham City debut in september 1970 and in one eightgame spell that season scored 13 goals, including all four in a 4-0 win against Bolton. He was 16.
His manager Freddie Goodwin likened Francis to Denis Law the day before his debut: ‘This boy is going to be a great player.’ it was
Roy of the Rovers material. Greaves was a similar prodigy. in one season for Chelsea’s youth team in the mid-1950s Greaves scored 114 goals. at 17 he made his Chelsea debut at Tottenham and scored.
so roy race is to return, as will melchester rovers. On one occasion roy was close to leaving for manchester United, when Tommy Docherty was manager.
But something about the deal didn’t work. roy of the United? it’s the only transfer in history to be halted by alliteration.