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A former football journalist from Fleet Street once recounted an encounter with Stan Bowles at a betting shop in Nottingham shortly after his transfer to Forest in 1979. Bowles was feeling down, but not because he had placed a losing bet.
The reporter inquired, “How are you doing, Stan?”
“This manager,” Bowles replied, and proceeded to tell a story about Brian Clough.
When Bowles first entered the Forest dressing room and took a seat, Clough gave him a serious look and asked, “What is your name?”
“What is it that you are asking? What is my name?” responded Bowles.
“What is your name?” Clough persisted.
My name is Stan Bowles. You have recently acquired me from QPR.
Clough thought about it and replied, “I need you to retrieve the ball and pass it to that overweight man over there [gesturing towards the renowned John Robertson].” As per the late reporter, Bowles, who passed away at 75, was at the betting shops with a feeling that he had joined the wrong team. If Clough was attempting to humble him, it was unlikely that he would conform.
According to Peter Taylor, Bowles was brought in by Clough to give Forest “time and space.” As his assistant, Taylor expected Bowles to fulfill that role for Robertson, but Bowles was unhappy about being played in a different position. The partnership only lasted one season and at one point, Clough yelled at Bowles, saying “You cockneys are all the same.”
“Sorry,” Bowles stated, “I am a native of Manchester.”
When the label “maverick” was given to a group of football players in the 1970s, Bowles was the first to proudly wear it. His memoirs detail a string of experiences involving dog racing, bars, fights, criminals, betting clubs, failed relationships, and debts owed to bookmakers.
A nonconformist lacking natural ability would not have received media coverage, but Bowles possessed an abundance of it. In a book co-authored by Ralph Allen and John Iona, Terry Venables wrote in the introduction: “He falls into the same category as Dalglish and Beardsley. Was he a midfielder attacking or a forward defending? I have no hesitation in including him in their ranks – he was that talented.” Denis Law commented: “He has 100% skill. No one in English football can control a ball better in tight spaces.”
Bowles was seen as a chaotic genius by Queens Park Rangers fans during their most successful years. In today’s society, these unconventional players continue to captivate audiences. However, their seemingly carefree lifestyles raise the question of whether they would be able to survive in the current game. The Premier League’s abundance of analysts and data experts would have struggled to handle Bowles’ antics, such as oversleeping for a team flight and hiding in a friend’s house for so long that he was reported missing by the police.
Two fist-fights with Malcolm Allison, City’s assistant manager, were extreme even by the standards of the 60s and 70s, and before Bowles could find “true happiness” with QPR he went into exile at Bury, Crewe Alexandra and Carlisle. The popular image of him as a dilettante is contradicted in part by his long shift as a professional: eight league clubs from 1967-1984. At the last of them – Brentford – he was persuaded to sign in 1981 by “£4,000 in readies”, which he took to White City dogs and mostly surrendered to his old friends the bookmakers.
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If 507 appearances in club football spoke well of his ability to mix mayhem with majesty, his five England caps placed him squarely with the mistrusted artists of the 1970s: the players who spectators often assumed would have rescued England from the wilderness of non-qualification for tournaments.
Perhaps. Bowles received only one trophy, the 1979 Uefa Super Cup, during his brief time with Forest despite his impressive dribbling and deceptive passing skills. He was chosen by three different managers – Alf Ramsey, Joe Mercer, and Don Revie – to play for England. However, he controversially left the national team after being substituted in the second half of a match against Northern Ireland in 1974, opting to go to White City instead of traveling with the team to Scotland. At a dog race with a friend, a photographer from the Daily Mirror who had been following them was physically confronted for reporting on Bowles’s absence from the Scotland game.
After playing for QPR and Forest, he transitioned into the later years of his career, before the rise of high salaries, by joining Leyton Orient. During a match against Grimsby, he responded to their abusive behavior by throwing a bucket of water. His time at QPR was the peak of his career. He joined the team in 1972, taking the place of Rodney Marsh who had moved to Manchester City. He formed a lasting connection with Dave Thomas, Don Givens, Gerry Francis, and Frank McLintock, and their team is fondly remembered by both neutral fans and supporters of QPR.
Francis described him as a carefree individual who lives in the moment – a polite term, given his battle with what would currently be classified as a problem with gambling. The urge to gamble was seen as more of a charming personality quirk and a source of entertaining stories rather than a condition requiring intervention.
The HMRC was not as watchful. Bowles claimed that Hamburg had preferred him over Kevin Keegan in 1977. QPR chairman, Jim Gregory, gave him £4,000 to stay, which they celebrated with champagne. Keegan went on to win European Footballer of the Year twice.
Similarly to George Best, Bowles refused to acknowledge the potential harm of his drinking and gambling habits. In one of his books, he finishes with his characteristic jokes: “I have sufficient funds to sustain me until the end of my days – as long as I happen to keel over at precisely 4:30 this afternoon. However, I do have a significant debt to settle – with my bookmaker.”
The lively story outside of the soccer field hides the lasting impressions of his performance on it, particularly when he wore the blue and white jersey of QPR. He was always a reliable source of entertainment. Forest acquired him, as Taylor praised, “for his skill on the field”, despite Clough acting as though he didn’t recognize him.
Source: theguardian.com
