Pat's Van
Player Valuation: £70m
Fire and Ice.
Following on from my thread last week with regards to Big Bob and Big Dunc, I thought I’d try another one but this time looking at former blue defenders.
First stop Wales, and the School of Science has had many notable welsh alumni over the years, Kev the Rat, Pat’s Van Den Hauwe, Roy Vernon and of course our greatest ever goalkeeper….Dai Davies.
But one of the most impressive would have to be a certain Mr TG (Thomas George) Jones.
A sublime centre half from the 30’s through 40’s whom many of us will have had Dads and Grandads tell us all about. I’ve not seen much of the guy as there’s limited footage available. But he’s been likened to a forerunner of Beckenbauer, let’s just say it’s probable that Franz was more likely a bad little TG Jones wannabe.
Jones was an integral part of Everton’s 1939 title wining team that featured other greats such as Tommy Lawton, Cliff Britton and Joe Mercer, he was thought of by many to be one of the greatest defenders of his generation. Stanley Matthews, and our own William Ralph Dean cited him as one of the greatest and most complete players in the game. The guy could keep a cool head if his hat were on fire, (although hats were rationed shortly after due to the outbreak of war)
Former player Gordon Watson states…
"T. G. Jones was the best signing that Everton ever made," he declared. "When the opposition got a corner kick, he used to head the ball back to the goalkeeper, Ted Sagar.
Nine times out of 10 Ted Sagar would play holy hell with you if you passed the ball back to him. He used to say 'I've got enough to do watching these fellows, as well as passing back from our own players.' But never with T.G."
and Jim King then Everton secretary….
"He was absolutely brilliant, cool under pressure, good in the air and brilliant on the ground. What always stands out in my opinion of T.G., if he took a free-kick, say from the edge of his own box, he'd just stroll up, no effort at all, perfectly positioned, correct-kicking and all that, and the ball would zoom into the other penalty area. The man was absolute perfection."
(back row, third from left)
The War wiped out some full seasons from what surely would have proved to have been an even more decorated career, Italian giants AS Roma were aware of his talent, and offered an unheard of 30000 shillings to have him play for them, although the transfer collapsed due to Mussolini playing silly buggers or something.
It’s the Italian connection that leads me onto the second half of this somewhat tenuous juxtaposition and fast forward 60 years and we’ve another classy centre half starting to ply his trade in our back four, none other than John Turturro lookalike, Marco Matterazzi. A player I absolutely loved to watch and perhaps the Shakespearian mirror image to the cool, collected calmness of TG Jones. There was no doubting his composure on the ball, but four sendings off in his short time with us could’ve been indicative of his temperament.
He didn’t play a lot of games for us, not at all, 27 was his sum total, but anyone who watched him play will have no doubt about the potential he displayed and later went on to fulfil, albeit at other clubs, mainly Inter Milan, where he won 5 Serie A, 4 Coppa Italia and a Champions League, oh and also a World Cup with Italy.
One of a few bright lights in a dark era for the toffs, but like his team mate Olivier Dacourt, we just couldn’t keep hold of them and I think Wally Smigger ended up getting Davey Weir or someone boring instead, yay.
Matterazzi may be argued to be a little more firey, hot-headed, basically more Latino than the aforementioned Tommy Jones. A typical Italian type defender, composed on the ball coupled with lucid lateral touches and neat sweeps when under pressure. But his passion for the game shone through, never more notably than his reaction to his sending off against Coventry City when that diving little !%&$ Huckerby pulled a fast one and poor Marco was in tears. One of his proudest moments came on the grandest of stages, at the famous old Olympic Stadion in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup Final when, having already scored Italy’s goal, he later used his solar plexus to ward off a heavy challenge by Zinedine Zidane after having previously enquired how the Frenchman’s family were doing.
Although Marco’s career at the blues was short lived, he later went on to become an accomplished player, basically won the lot and became extremely highly thought of by respected coaches in the world game such as Jose Mourinho and Marcello Lippi.
So my question is straightforward, out of these two former blues, who do you think was the better defender?
Last week the Latch overcame Big Dunc in an absolute landslide,
https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/bob-latchford-v-duncan-ferguson.73642/
but perhaps this one maybe more even, who knows?
Do we take Dixie’s word to be absolute, or does Marco’s bling give him the edge?
Does Materazzi’s raging fire melt away TG Jones ice cool composure or what?
Leave it to you to decide….
Following on from my thread last week with regards to Big Bob and Big Dunc, I thought I’d try another one but this time looking at former blue defenders.
First stop Wales, and the School of Science has had many notable welsh alumni over the years, Kev the Rat, Pat’s Van Den Hauwe, Roy Vernon and of course our greatest ever goalkeeper….Dai Davies.
But one of the most impressive would have to be a certain Mr TG (Thomas George) Jones.
A sublime centre half from the 30’s through 40’s whom many of us will have had Dads and Grandads tell us all about. I’ve not seen much of the guy as there’s limited footage available. But he’s been likened to a forerunner of Beckenbauer, let’s just say it’s probable that Franz was more likely a bad little TG Jones wannabe.
Jones was an integral part of Everton’s 1939 title wining team that featured other greats such as Tommy Lawton, Cliff Britton and Joe Mercer, he was thought of by many to be one of the greatest defenders of his generation. Stanley Matthews, and our own William Ralph Dean cited him as one of the greatest and most complete players in the game. The guy could keep a cool head if his hat were on fire, (although hats were rationed shortly after due to the outbreak of war)
Former player Gordon Watson states…
"T. G. Jones was the best signing that Everton ever made," he declared. "When the opposition got a corner kick, he used to head the ball back to the goalkeeper, Ted Sagar.
Nine times out of 10 Ted Sagar would play holy hell with you if you passed the ball back to him. He used to say 'I've got enough to do watching these fellows, as well as passing back from our own players.' But never with T.G."
and Jim King then Everton secretary….
"He was absolutely brilliant, cool under pressure, good in the air and brilliant on the ground. What always stands out in my opinion of T.G., if he took a free-kick, say from the edge of his own box, he'd just stroll up, no effort at all, perfectly positioned, correct-kicking and all that, and the ball would zoom into the other penalty area. The man was absolute perfection."
(back row, third from left)
The War wiped out some full seasons from what surely would have proved to have been an even more decorated career, Italian giants AS Roma were aware of his talent, and offered an unheard of 30000 shillings to have him play for them, although the transfer collapsed due to Mussolini playing silly buggers or something.
It’s the Italian connection that leads me onto the second half of this somewhat tenuous juxtaposition and fast forward 60 years and we’ve another classy centre half starting to ply his trade in our back four, none other than John Turturro lookalike, Marco Matterazzi. A player I absolutely loved to watch and perhaps the Shakespearian mirror image to the cool, collected calmness of TG Jones. There was no doubting his composure on the ball, but four sendings off in his short time with us could’ve been indicative of his temperament.
He didn’t play a lot of games for us, not at all, 27 was his sum total, but anyone who watched him play will have no doubt about the potential he displayed and later went on to fulfil, albeit at other clubs, mainly Inter Milan, where he won 5 Serie A, 4 Coppa Italia and a Champions League, oh and also a World Cup with Italy.
One of a few bright lights in a dark era for the toffs, but like his team mate Olivier Dacourt, we just couldn’t keep hold of them and I think Wally Smigger ended up getting Davey Weir or someone boring instead, yay.
Matterazzi may be argued to be a little more firey, hot-headed, basically more Latino than the aforementioned Tommy Jones. A typical Italian type defender, composed on the ball coupled with lucid lateral touches and neat sweeps when under pressure. But his passion for the game shone through, never more notably than his reaction to his sending off against Coventry City when that diving little !%&$ Huckerby pulled a fast one and poor Marco was in tears. One of his proudest moments came on the grandest of stages, at the famous old Olympic Stadion in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup Final when, having already scored Italy’s goal, he later used his solar plexus to ward off a heavy challenge by Zinedine Zidane after having previously enquired how the Frenchman’s family were doing.
Although Marco’s career at the blues was short lived, he later went on to become an accomplished player, basically won the lot and became extremely highly thought of by respected coaches in the world game such as Jose Mourinho and Marcello Lippi.
So my question is straightforward, out of these two former blues, who do you think was the better defender?
Last week the Latch overcame Big Dunc in an absolute landslide,
https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/bob-latchford-v-duncan-ferguson.73642/
but perhaps this one maybe more even, who knows?
Do we take Dixie’s word to be absolute, or does Marco’s bling give him the edge?
Does Materazzi’s raging fire melt away TG Jones ice cool composure or what?
Leave it to you to decide….
Last edited:
