Eddie Firmani

[DistantBlue]

Never started a new thread before .......exciting!
Just wanted to say for no apparent reason that I was privileged to see both Billy Best and Eddie Firmani in the flesh
And although the Billy B was the best ever seen at Roots Hall
Eddie Firmani was the most sublime
Just thought I'd share that with you !
Back to sleep now
Bye

 

[Zeuss]

Firmani was the only player whom you could b egin to compare with Collymore (totally different in style of course) and he was old (35?) and way past his best when he joined us.

 

[mfurok]

Superb player and an absolute class act.

Trevor Roberts told a meeting of the Youth Section of the Supporters Club that he had learned more in 5 minutes whilst training with Eddie Firmani than he would ever learn from Alvan Williams.

 

[McNasty]

Superb player and an absolute class act.

Trevor Roberts told a meeting of the Youth Section of the Supporters Club that he had learned more in 5 minutes whilst training with Eddie Firmani than he would ever learn from Alvan Williams.

Not on how to kill someone, he wouldn't.

 

[getintoem]

I have clear recollections of both Billy Best and Eddie Firmani, both great players. Firmani's great skill made him appear to have all the time in the world. Even with defenders buzzing around him he would somehow manage to bring the ball under control and create space for himself.

 

[Mick]

Firmani was the only player whom you could b egin to compare with Collymore (totally different in style of course) and he was old (35?) and way past his best when he joined us.

A superb player, Eddie Firmani was 32 years and 2 weeks old when he made his debut in a home match v Swansea. His first goal came four days later at Oxford.

Not a good season, as Alvan Williams finally got Southend out of Division Three (in the wrong direction).

Firmani played in every game but two up to the turn of the year. We lost those two matches by a combined 13 goals to 1. We weren't very good with him that season; we were shocking without him!

 

[Napster]

My Dad's favourite player.
Also, Firmani is the only man ever to have scored 100 League goals in both England and Italy.

 

[Ricey]

My Dad's favourite player.
Also, Firmani is the only man ever to have scored 100 League goals in both England and Italy.

That's crazy! Surely there must be another player who has achieved that, with the amount of foreigners we get over here now.

 

[Uncle Leo]

That's crazy! Surely there must be another player who has achieved that, with the amount of foreigners we get over here now.

It is isn't it? Thinking about it, 100 goals is four or five good seasons for a striker. So to have nine or ten such seasons, across two different leagues, is pretty special! Must have been some player and the more we hear on here of those greats from the past, the better :thumbsup:

I've had a quick look at players who have scored 100+in the PL and not many of them have had any sort of career in Italy (Robbie Keane just 100 goals shy following his brief spell at Internazionale)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

That's crazy! Surely there must be another player who has achieved that, with the amount of foreigners we get over here now.

Not really.

Not many players score 200 goals in a career, let alone have a career fairly evenly split between Italy and England.

The only one I can think of that would be close would be John Charles. Maybe he missed out as he also played centre-half.

Next best would probably be someone like Zola, but I expect he only scored 50 odd goals for Chelsea in six years or so.
In fact I'd be surprised if there were more than about half a dozen who'd managed more than 50 goals in each. Take someone like David Platt - he had a better than average career in Italy and probably scored less than 50. The likes of Vialli, Ravanelli, Klinsmann, Shevchenko came to England to boost their pensions funds and probably got less than 100 in England between them.

Moving onto Spain, they were making a fuss this weekend that Gareth Bale scored the most goals in La Liga by a Brit passing Lineker's record - that was only 50 odd and he probably hasn't scored that many goals in the UK. Torres would be the only other name which would come to mind as someone who'd scored 50 in both England and Spain.

It's probably a similar story for the Bundesliga - Tony Woodcock and Kevin Keegan might have scraped 50 goals out there and Edin Dzjeko, Tony Yeboah might have reached it in England but they're likely to be well short of 100 goals. Berbatov is probably the closest for the England-Germany double.

It just goes to show how special Firmani was. Wish I could have seen him play for us.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

There was a chap who scored shed-loads for Celtic (I know that's not the same as Division 1 here) and then came (I think) to Manure for a while .............. but I can't for the life of me think where he originally made his mark. He was Scandinavian I believe with plated hair to boot.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

There was a chap who scored shed-loads for Celtic (I know that's not the same as Division 1 here) and then came (I think) to Manure for a while .............. but I can't for the life of me think where he originally made his mark. He was Scandinavian I believe with plated hair to boot.

Henrik Larrsson - I'm not sure he got to double figures for Manure.

I think he played for someone like PSV before moving to Scotland.

 

[lombard]

Eddie Firmani was also general manager of New York Cosmos in the 70's.When Pele,Cryff and Beckanbauer played for them.He later ran a garage in New Jersey. I was privileged to see him play at Roots Hall and also New York Cosmos.I'm
not sure if he is still alive ? Great player and nice man too.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

Henrik Larrsson - I'm not sure he got to double figures for Manure.

I think he played for someone like PSV before moving to Scotland.

Larson - that's the man. :thumbsup:

What about that chap (big Dutch bruiser) who came and played for Man U - Van Nipplesroy or something like that.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Henrik Larrsson - I'm not sure he got to double figures for Manure.

I think he played for someone like PSV before moving to Scotland.

Feyenoord. But he didn't score many before joining Celtic for a relative pittance.

Sergio Aguero is nearly at 100 in England's top flight, but he 'only' scored 70-odd for Atlético and has said he'll return to Argentina when his City contract is done so that's another one who won't be matching Firmani's phenomenal achievement.

 

[woodbridge shrimper]

Eddie Firmani was also general manager of New York Cosmos in the 70's.When Pele,Cryff and Beckanbauer played for them.He later ran a garage in New Jersey. I was privileged to see him play at Roots Hall and also New York Cosmos.I'm
not sure if he is still alive ? Great player and nice man too.

I also had the privilege to see him play in those two seasons 65-67 Not a bad record for us played 55 and scored 24 not far off 1 every two games. Met him as a 15 year old at one of the Blues meet the team evenings and was so impressed with the way he conducted himself. Advised me how to take penalties which I think is still relevant today He said Hit the ball as hard as you can straight down the middle. The keeper will dive and even if it hits his legs if its hard enough it will go in. Perhaps our recent penalty takers should take note.
A great man and by all accounts still doing OK at 82 years old

 

[LCBB72]

I also had the privilege to see him play in those two seasons 65-67 Not a bad record for us played 55 and scored 24 not far off 1 every two games. Met him as a 15 year old at one of the Blues meet the team evenings and was so impressed with the way he conducted himself. Advised me how to take penalties which I think is still relevant today He said Hit the ball as hard as you can straight down the middle. The keeper will dive and even if it hits his legs if its hard enough it will go in. Perhaps our recent penalty takers should take note.
A great man and by all accounts still doing OK at 82 years old

King Billy Best played 225 league games and scored 106 , not counting cup games so about the same as Eddie .

 

[B.B.The Legend Lives On.]

Never started a new thread before .......exciting!
Just wanted to say for no apparent reason that I was privileged to see both Billy Best and Eddie Firmani in the flesh
And although the Billy B was the best ever seen at Roots Hall
Eddie Firmani was the most sublime
Just thought I'd share that with you !
Back to sleep now
Bye

Eddie Firmani was a lovely man and a true "Gentleman" as has already been mentioned on this thread. He was one of the goalscorers in our first ever match in the old 4th.Division(for younger fans that is now league 2). It was common knowledge at that time that he did not get on with Alvan Williams. Got to know Eddie quite well in the two years he spent at Roots Hall due mainly to travelling away when we dropped into the basement league in 1966. When he signed in 1965 my mate Terry and I would often go to Victory Sports and Priory Park to see the players in pre-season training to collect autographs. We would also clean Eddie's car which was a Blue Mercedes, a quality player with a car to match. I last saw Eddie in 1978 when New York Cosmos played a friendly at Chelsea, as he got off the team coach he walked over to me for a chat then he gave me the N.Y.C. lapel badge he was wearing, one of many things that I treasure to this day. I believe he still lives around the Tampa Bay area in America.

 

[woodbridge shrimper]

Yes perhaps a close second the "The Legend". Hope you got my messages from the East and hope to catch up at the Sheffield United or Oldham game. Tried to contact the Car wash guy again but no joy.

Eddie Firmani was a lovely man and a true "Gentleman" as has already been mentioned on this thread. He was one of the goalscorers in our first ever match in the old 4th.Division(for younger fans that is now league 2). It was common knowledge at that time that he did not get on with Alvan Williams. Got to know Eddie quite well in the two years he spent at Roots Hall due mainly to travelling away when we dropped into the basement league in 1966. When he signed in 1965 my mate Terry and I would often go to Victory Sports and Priory Park to see the players in pre-season training to collect autographs. We would also clean Eddie's car which was a Blue Mercedes, a quality player with a car to match. I last saw Eddie in 1978 when New York Cosmos played a friendly at Chelsea, as he got off the team coach he walked over to me for a chat then he gave me the N.Y.C. lapel badge he was wearing, one of many things that I treasure to this day. I believe he still lives around the Tampa Bay area in America.

 

[Napster]

Still giving pep talks to his local football team in Lake Placid, Florida

http://www.highlandstoday.com/hi/sports/green-dragons-playing-strong-down-stretch-20160112/