Big mistake

I played golf [badly,it has to be said,VERY tough course] at Whitsand Bay today.In the bar afterwards,i was introduced to a chap called Roy Carter,who works there now,having had a good career as a pro footballer-he played nearly 500 games for Hereford,Swindon,Newport and Torquay in the 1970's/1980's,couple of promotions,league cup semi final.He said that when he was at Newport,Argyle had the chance to sign John Aldridge at the same time as Tommy Tynan but Bobby Moncur turned it down! Roy said that Colin Addison,who was their manager,just couldn't believe that Argyle spurned the opportunity to sign Aldridge,he eventually played for Liverpool,ROI in the world cup etc.I don't think that the directors could be blamed for this one-they actually wanted him to sign and sacked Moncur soon afterwards.Interesting to speculate on what might have been [probably sold for a Plymouth price,but thats another story]-was this the biggest footballing error in Argyle's history? Bit of chit chat really,just to relieve all the politicking and off field crap.

Can remember that, Argyle were offered the pair for something like £40,000 Moncur did not want him. Can remember Roy Carter as well, happy days.

A Tynan-Aldridge partnership would have knocked the Mariner-Rafferty partnership into a cocked hat that's for sure. Don't know why Moncur tuned down Aldridge. Perhaps he thought the two players were too similar?

Freathy wrote:

A Tynan-Aldridge partnership would have knocked the Mariner-Rafferty partnership into a cocked hat that's for sure. Don't know why Moncur tuned down Aldridge. Perhaps he thought the two players were too similar?

Possibly,but they were already a well established partnership-i think Newport reached the QF of the cup winners cup [believe it or not] when they were there.I read in Tommy's book once that one of the reasons he joined Argyle was that he was a big admirer of John Sims and Moncur wanted to play him alongside Simmo and Staniforth, but by the time he got here,Simmo had been sold! Strange goings on,maybe Moncur [who i quite liked as a manager] had someone else lined up before he was sacked.

Believe he thought Staniforth had more class than Aldridge. Pity he did not have both, could have afforded it at the time.

And Tynan played in midfield a lot for Newport. Aldridge played alongside a big target man called Dave Gwyther.

I'm sure Tynan and Aldridge played as a strike partnership for Newport against Argyle at Home park back in the very early 80s. I have a vague memory of Tynan scoring.

82 ~ 83 Argyle 2 Newport 4

It was slightly before my time and I did read about it in the worst football book I have seen - "Tommy Tynan - the Original Football Idol".

Frank Bullitt wrote:

It was slightly before my time and I did read about it in the worst football book I have seen - "Tommy Tynan - the Original Football Idol".

Agreed,that book was never going to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature.There was a much better one by Rick Cowdery,probably published in the 1990's,called "Life at the soccer factory",which was also about Tommy's time at Argyle and his life previously,quite an interesting read and very professionally presented.

Greenskin wrote:

Frank Bullitt wrote:

It was slightly before my time and I did read about it in the worst football book I have seen - "Tommy Tynan - the Original Football Idol".

Agreed,that book was never going to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature.There was a much better one by Rick Cowdery,probably published in the 1990's,called "Life at the soccer factory",which was also about Tommy's time at Argyle and his life previously,quite an interesting read and very professionally presented.

The Cowdery book was far better and gave a good insight into lower league football in the 80s. The Danes book seemed to consist of one conversation with Tynan in a pub (quoted word for word), and the author observing what song was number one in the charts in the time, who was Prime Minister and how much a pint of milk cost. Despite him trying to cash in on the "football idol" aspect of Tynan's career he only spends half a page talking about it.

I think I bought Paul Roberts book about the Shilton team at the same time, and I could not believe the difference in the quality of the two books. I thought Roberts book was excellent.

Is Harley Lawer still about? He wrote quite a few decent reads.

GOB wrote:

Is Harley Lawer still about? He wrote quite a few decent reads.

Harley's "Argyle classics "is visible on my bookshelf as i post! Great read,brings back a few memories when browsing through that one.I think Harley is still around,must be retired now i should imagine.Another great Argyle book is "Thanks for the memory",by Steve Rhodes,an account of the 1958/59 promotion season and the years that led up to it.As Frank said,Paul Roberts book is excellent,i'd love someone to bring out a book on the Waiters years,could be an interesting tale or two there,methinks.