What do you do when you’re languishing near the bottom of the old Second Division and attendances are at a worrying all-time low?
Signing a 46-year-old might not seem the obvious solution to the problem, but that’s exactly what Stoke City did 52 years ago this weekend. The player in question was, of course, Stanley Matthews. And it proved a masterstroke by Stoke’s young manager Tony Waddington.
Matthews had left Stoke, his hometown club, for Blackpool 14 years earlier and had gone on to become perhaps England’s greatest player of the 1950s. He is still the oldest man ever to win a cap at 42, and even had a Cup Final named after him following his Wembley display against Bolton in 1953.
Most pundits ridiculed the idea of Matthews going back to Stoke and beseeched him not to make the move. He was 10 years older than the man who would be his boss and most urged him to retire gracefully. Despite being strapped for cash, Stoke paid £3,000 and gave Matthews a two-year contract at £50 a week doubling his Blackpool wages.
Matthews’ first game was on October 24, 1961, against Huddersfield. Traffic jams stretched for miles and the attendance was 35,974 more than four times the 8,409 they attracted for the previous game at the Victoria Ground. He couldn’t quite inspire Stoke to promotion that season, but the feelgood factor was back.
The next season, Waddington signed hard man Eddie Clamp to protect Matthews and fielded the oldest team in the entire Football League. Matthews scored his only goal of the season in the final home game of the campaign, a 2-0 victory over Luton which ensured Stoke gained promotion to the First Division.
He was voted Footballer of the Year for the second time in his career, 15 years after winning the inaugural award. On January 1, 1965, he became the only footballer to be knighted whilst still an active professional player. His last ever appearance came a month later, just after his 50th birthday.
His second spell at Stoke added 59 more appearances to the 259 he’d had first time around. With 379 games for Blackpool, he is one of only a handful of players who can be said to be true legends at two different clubs.
Stan passed away in 2000, aged 85.
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