Jack Charlton RIP

Not sad news for him, because he had dementia and is now free from that miserable condition, but sad news for me. I was never a big football fan, but the Charlton brothers were another inevitable fixture throughout my early life. Big Jack was always the one you remembered first... big lad, big personality, such a great, characterful voice. RIP.
 
Back in 1972 when I was 14 my Dad was big friends with a bloke who was also a Leeds scout.
He offered to take us to the Leeds v Liverpool match and hopefully could get the autographs for me.
Before we got to the ground we stopped off at a house for dinner but I'll leave that out because you would just call me a liar.
We got to the ground and the first thing I noticed was Jack Charlton standing outside the ground talking to everybody and Fred (the scout) says that's what he does every match, he talks to the fans before the game.
We went over and it was obvious that Jack knew Fred very well and he asked if there was any chance he could get autographs for me so he said come back here at a certain time.
We went back and Jack took me into the Leeds & Liverpool dressing rooms and I got all the autographs and then he took me back to my Dad - what a legend.
Leeds lost 2 - 1.

RIP Jack.
 
I think like many football fans we've all heard of the Charlton brothers.

My memory of seeing Jack was at the 1994 World Cup hosted in the US. He was managing the Republic of Ireland, the only home nation to qualify for the world cup. So the entire UK was focused on watching Jack and his team. He was a big man with a big presence. He was charismatic and knew how to rally the players.

I'm sorry to hear that he suffered from dementia in his later years. Very sad. RIP.
 
Didn't know he was ill but if he had dementia then better to pass on as he was deceptively an extremely sharp and intelligent man. He not only managed the Republic of Ireland football team to their greatest successes at the time, but he was very underrated in his role in helping to heal some Irish and British enmity.

A modest, plain talking man who loved football, fishing and a drink, the Irish public virtually universally absolutely loved and adored him.

As an English World Cup winner he had the freedom of Ireland, maybe their most beloved manager ever, just goes to show what a great man he was.

His Ireland teams were full of English accents as well, but they played for Ireland with true passion and Jack was always dedicated to them in the role.
 
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