Johnny Haynes

Not to be confused with Jonathan Hayes or Jonathan Hayes (American football).

Johnny Haynes

Personal information
Full name	John Norman Haynes
Date of birth	(1934-10-17)17 October 1934
Place of birth	Kentish Town, London, England
Date of death	18 October 2005(2005-10-18) (aged 71)
Place of death	Edinburgh, Scotland
Position(s)	Inside-forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1952–1970	Fulham	594	(147)
1961	→ Toronto City (loan)
1970–1972	Durban City
1972–1973	Wealdstone	3	(0)
1973	Durban City
1974	Durban United
1974	Durban Celtic
1975	Maritzburg
International career
1954–1962	England	56	(18)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Norman "Johnny" Haynes (17 October 1934 – 18 October 2005) was an English footballer, best known for his 18 years at Fulham. He played a club-record 658 games and scored 158 goals for the club between 1952 and 1970. An inside forward, Haynes is widely regarded as the greatest footballer ever to play for the London club, particularly noted for his exceptional passing skill and ability to read a game. An accomplished international, he made 56 appearances for his country, including 22 as captain (many of them while playing for Fulham in the Second Division). Haynes became the first player to be paid £100 a week, immediately following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961. Pelé was once quoted as calling Haynes the "best passer of the ball I've ever seen".

Life and career

Johnny Haynes was born in the Kentish Town area of London, his first school was Houndsfield Road School, Edmonton and then attended The Latymer School in Edmonton during his youth. He signed for Fulham as a schoolboy in 1950 and played loan spells at amateur sides Feltham (in the Middlesex League), Wimbledon (Isthmian League) and Woodford Town (Delphian League). He turned professional in May 1952, at the age of 17 (the youngest possible age legally) and made his debut at 18. Unusually, and despite many offers from other clubs, he remained at Fulham for his entire professional career, until leaving for South Africa in 1970, where he played for the now defunct Durban City, alongside former Fulham teammates Johnny Byrne and Bobby Keetch.

Johnny Haynes was the first footballer to appear for England in every class of football available in his playing era - school, youth, under 23, `B` and full international level. His debut for the full senior side came on 2 October 1954, scoring a goal in a 2-0 England victory over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast. An accomplished career saw him making 55 further appearances (the last 22 as captain) for the national side, with perhaps his best game being 1958 at Wembley Stadium when he scored a hat-trick against the Soviet Union in a 5-0 win. He was to become one of the famous stars of the sport along with Stanley Matthews and others of the era, and was to be one of the first to appear in adverts (for Brylcreem), after Denis Compton. He is sometimes considered the David Beckham of his day, with his exceptional passing ability turning him into somewhat of a "schemer" despite being an "inside forward". During his time at Fulham, he was picked on several occasions (as Captain) for the London XI in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

He became captain of the side in 1960, and a year later led his team to a famous 9-3 victory over Scotland at Wembley, (considered to be one of his finest performances). His final appearance, for England was on 10 June 1962, as England were defeated 3-1 by Brazil in the World Cup quarter-final at Estadio Sausalito in Viña del Mar, Chile. After the competition, Walter Winterbottom was succeeded by Alf Ramsey, who was less enamoured of the cocksure, free-spirited Haynes and never once picked him.

His career was also severely affected by a car accident in 1962 on Blackpool promenade, when the sports car in which he was returning late to his hotel was blown by a gust of wind into the path of another vehicle. Haynes broke bones in both feet and badly injured a knee; he missed a season and, when he returned to the Fulham side, was not quite the same player. Prior to the accident he had captained England 22 times, and, being only 27, was expected to lead them in the 1966 World Cup; but he was never again selected for the national team. Haynes made 32 of his 56 appearances for England when Fulham were in the Second Division. No player has appeared as many times for the national team when playing outside a country's top tier.

In his record 658 appearances for Fulham, 594 of which were in the Football League, he rose to become club captain and scored a total of 158 goals, another club record and one which was only surpassed by striker Gordon Davies in 1991. Haynes' best scoring season was 1958-59 with 26 from 34 games. He has scored the most hat-tricks (9) for Fulham, scored 4 goals twice and once even 5 goals in a First Division match. He was very selfless player allowing others to take penalties even when he was on a hat-trick. Haynes wasn't a prolific goalscorer, instead preferring to set up goals and assist. Haynes is often known for having saying he would prefer to give a good long-ball rather than score personally. He would often hone his passing skills alone at Craven Cottage laying a towel out in front of the clubhouse and pinging balls onto it from the centre spot.

Haynes had a single spell in football management, taking charge of the Cottagers for a brief spell in November 1968 after the dismissal of Bobby Robson as player-manager, but Haynes never had any ambition to go into coaching. In 1970, he retired professionally aged 35, and joined the South African club, Durban City, for whom he played one season and helped them to win the national championship. This was his only winner's medal in club football.

Long after his departure from Fulham, Haynes remained an immensely popular and respected figure at the club whose supporters had dubbed him "The Maestro". Unquestionably far more gifted than his colleagues in a relatively low profile team compared to the best of the day, he is fondly remembered for his tendency to fail to disguise his exasperation with his teammates and their frequent lack of understanding of his intentions and ideas. This often resulted in Haynes' iconic hands-on-hips stance or him giving an earful, usually to his pal Tosh Chamberlain who brought him to Fulham.

On 17 October 2005 (his 71st birthday), at approximately 2:55pm BST (1:55pm GMT), Haynes was driving his car along Dalry Road in Edinburgh, Scotland, the city in which he had lived since 1984 after leaving South Africa when he suffered a brain haemorrhage, which effectively rendered him brain-stem dead almost instantaneously. The car veered off into the oncoming traffic and hit a light goods vehicle. Although the accident was witnessed by a doctor who managed, using CPR, to restart Johnny's heart, he was effectively dead. Although kept on a ventilator for some 30 hours, all tests that were undertaken by the medical staff in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, showed negative activity in the brain and, as per his family's wishes, after he had donated some of his organs, the ventilator was turned off at approximately 9pm GMT on the evening of 18 October 2005. Earlier afternoon reports that day from several major news sources, and the Fulham FC official website, suggested that Haynes had already died, but these were retracted within an hour, with Haynes' condition subsequently described as "serious". His third wife, Avril, who had been travelling in the passenger seat, was also injured in the accident, and was described later in the day as being in "stable" condition, having suffered five broken ribs and a punctured lung.

First £100-per-week player

Johnny Haynes, as one of the finest players of his era, was of constant interest to other football clubs, which contributed to the pressure which led to the demise of the £20-per-week maximum wage applied to the game until 1961. Fulham chairman Tommy Trinder had boasted that Haynes was worth £100 a week, not expecting that the £20 pay cap (equivalent to £340 in 2010) would be abolished. When it was removed, Trinder paid up without complaint to make Haynes the first footballer to earn £100 per week. Fulham famously turned down an offer of £80,000 from AC Milan for "The Maestro" that would have been over double the record for a transfer at the time and would have made Haynes the best paid player in the world.

Tributes

On the day of the death of Johnny Haynes, Alan Mullery, another high-profile Fulham and England player, made the following tribute: "He was the only reason I went to Fulham as a young boy of 15 leaving school. He was my hero, the captain of England and Fulham. The word great rolls off the tongue quite easily these days but he really was. He was the best passer of a ball I have ever seen - I don't know anyone who could pass a ball as accurately. Anyone who saw him will know what a great player he was."

The Fulham Supporters Trust stated: "His dedication, skill, professionalism, grace and charm - both in his playing days and in retirement - serve as a poignant reminder to many of today's footballers about what true greatness really means."

Playing for England against Northern Ireland in 1955, Haynes ran onto a long clearance into the Northern Ireland half. He met the ball as it touched the ground and miraculously flicked a deft half-volley over a defender's head, straight to his Fulham colleague Beford Jezzard, making a rare England appearance - his career was cut short by injury not long afterwards. Jezzard's half volley was saved by the Northern Ireland goalkeeper Upritchard who got both hands to the ball but was almost knocked into the net by the force of the shot. In 1959 at Craven Cottage Haynes delighted even Tottenham fans by playing a magnificent 30 yard pass through the centre of the Spurs defence - the same one that helped them to "The Double" the following year - which put Jimmy Hill through with a clear run on goal from which he scored.

George Cohen, a World Cup winner for England in 1966 and a Fulham teammate of Johnny Haynes, stated: "I have a hundred individual memories of the beauty of John's play. One stands out for the sheer perfection of his skill. It was a charity match which, but for that one second, has faded completely from my memory. The ball came to him at speed on a wet, slippery surface but with the slightest of adjustments, one that was almost imperceptible, he played it inside a full-back and into the path of an on-running winger. I looked at our coach Dave Sexton on the bench and he caught my glance and shook his head as if to say 'fantastic'. Haynes could give you goose bumps on a wet night in a match that didn't matter."

Bobby Moore, Haynes' successor as England captain, said of him: "Once you get used to watching that perfection you realised the rest of the secret. John was always available, always hungry for the ball, always wanting to play. I loved watching the player. Later I learnt to love the man."

In 2002 Haynes became an Inaugural Inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his football talents and impact on the English game. Perhaps his greatest achievement as a footballer was that most of what he tried to create for Fulham - and for some England teams - went to waste but his own game never deteriorated. He always played superlative football for the full 90 minutes.

Books

• Its All In The Game

• In March 2008 the first full book on Johnny Haynes' career was published by club photographer Ken Coton and life-long supporter Martin Plumb. Eulogised by journalists, the book with over 300 pages and 300 photographs details all of his games and goals with rare archive footage (Ashwater Press)

Craven Cottage

The Johnny Haynes stand at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham Football Club.

Johnny Haynes Stand

Weeks after its centenary year, on 27 November 2005, it was announced that the Archibald Leitch-designed Stevenage Road Stand at Craven Cottage would be renamed The Johnny Haynes Stand. Other suggestions to honour Haynes had included a redesign of the gates of Craven Cottage and the retirement of the number 10 shirt worn by Haynes throughout his time at Fulham.

Statue

[1]

On 28 July 2008, Fulham announced that fundraising had commenced, with the co-operation of a fan's group, to produce a lasting tribute to Haynes. A statue was commissioned and was unveiled at Craven Cottage before the Premier League match against Sunderland on 18 October 2008. The Statue also appears on Fulham Membership Cards issue in 2010.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1952-53||rowspan="18"|Fulham||rowspan="7"|Second Division||18||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1953-54||41||16|||||||||||||||| |- |1954-55||37||8|||||||||||||||| |- |1955-56||40||18|||||||||||||||| |- |1956-57||33||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1957-58||38||15|||||||||||||||| |- |1958-59||34||26|||||||||||||||| |- |1959-60||rowspan="9"|First Division||31||10|||||||||||||||| |- |1960-61||39||9|||||||||||||||| |- |1961-62||38||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1962-63||8||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1963-64||40||8|||||||||||||||| |- |1964-65||39||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1965-66||33||6|||||||||||||||| |- |1966-67||36||6|||||||||||||||| |- |1967-68||34||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1968-69||Second Division||28||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1969-70||Third Division||27||3|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3594||147|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5594||147|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics end

Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1954||1||1 |- |1955||2||0 |- |1956||7||4 |- |1957||6||3 |- |1958||10||4 |- |1959||7||1 |- |1960||7||3 |- |1961||8||2 |- |1962||8||0 |- !Total||56||18 |}

External links

• Haynes' profile at Neil Brown's statistics site
• FA profile of Johnny Haynes, including full details of his England appearances
• of Fame/johnnyhaynes.htm National Football Museum profile
• Fulham Football Club announcement of death
• Pathe newsreel footage of Johnny Haynes hattrick for England against Russia
• BBC article
• Brian Glanville: Silent fans pay tribute to their midfield maestro
• Memories of Craven Cottage
• BBC Archive Collections:Football Legends - Johnny Haynes