Latest news with #Kop
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Jones 'a unique and funny lad'
Joey Jones was a "Liverpool fan at heart" and famous for his "dressing room craic", said Phil Thompson after his former team-mate's death at the age of 70 on enjoyed a glittering three-year period with Liverpool, winning a First Division title, two European Cups, a Uefa Cup and a European Super Cup between 1975 and 1978."Joey was a great lad, an absolutely great lad. Joey's probably one of the nicest young men you'd meet," ex-defender Thompson, who played for the Reds between 1971 and 1984 and then went on to be assistant manager under Gerard Houllier, told BBC Radio Merseyside."But he was also a good footballer who knew his limitations and that's what made him so special."He knew what he was good at, which was defending. The defensive game now is probably not Joey's thing, but what Joey gave our team at that time was a blend, because Joey could defend."What made our side back then was how we got on together, and Joey was one of those unique, just outright funny lads. You'd remember how he always clenched his fist to the Kop before games and that made him unique to them. The Kop loved Joey."It was the dressing room craic that Joey was famous for, he didn't want to do any harm to anybody and yet we always knew he had a short fuse."We remember him getting into a altercation with Ray Kennedy. Kennedy took advantage of his nature and was clipping Joey from behind his legs and Joey just turned and laid one into him. It shocked not just Ray but the rest of us."But he was a terrific lad - such a Liverpool fan at heart."Listen to the full chat on BBC Sounds
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Joey Jones obituary: The Liverpool legend had fists that pumped up the Kop and a challenge that could stop a tank, writes DOMINIC KING
The shake of his fists — that's what it was. Joey Jones only wanted to show he was doing his best but, unbeknown to him, he was creating a legacy. You only had to look at clips of him thundering down the left to understand what made him part of a team that conquered Europe twice. You only had to speak with him for a few minutes to appreciate why he was universally adored by those with whom he shared a dressing room. Jones, you see, played football with the same enthusiasm as those who came to watch him for Wrexham and Liverpool, for Chelsea and Huddersfield and for Wales, who capped him 72 times. He was blessed with rare gifts but knew how blessed he was to have a rare opportunity. 'I was very lucky not to be sent away to (an institute) for young offenders at one stage because of some of the things I got up to back home,' he once said. 'We weren't robbers or nothing like that, we'd just have punch-ups! I didn't need drink to get me going. I was nuts anyway.' So after those lung-bursting surges or those challenges that could have stopped a tank in its tracks, Jones would shake his fists to the Kop as a sign he was doing it all for them. So popular was the gesture, a connection between pitch and terrace, it followed him long into retirement. 'I get embarrassed really,' he once told 'Why did they like me? It's not going to be because of my football skills, is it! All I could do was give 150 per cent for them, not 100 per cent. 'But it's nice to be remembered for something. I've never professed to be anybody I wasn't.' That's what set him apart. Jones, who died aged 70 on Tuesday after a battle with illness, was the boy who grew up in a council flat in Llandudno where he had pictures of Liverpool players on his wall. One day he was idolising them from afar, the next he was training with them at Melwood. Jones, who signed for Liverpool in July 1975, became so popular during three seasons at Anfield that before their first European Cup final, a particularly witty banner was unfurled in recognition of him. 'Joey ate the frogs legs and made the Swiss roll,' it proclaimed, to acknowledge defeats of Saint-Etienne and FC Zurich. 'Now he's munching Gladbach.' 'It doesn't matter if it's Liverpool fans, Manchester United fans or whatever — they all remember the banner,' said Jones. 'It was the ultimate compliment, really. They made a banner like that for me? That meant everything.' So humbled was he by the gesture, Jones kept the banner at his home in north Wales — the area he loved so much he could never move away, not even when Chelsea signed him in 1982. He and Mickey Thomas, his best friend, would either commute to London on a daily basis or, occasionally, sleep in the fitness room. Most people wouldn't last three months doing that but Jones did the journey for three years, helping Chelsea win the Second Division in 1984. Thomas, who stayed by his side throughout, described himself as being 'heartbroken' that 'Sir Joey has left us'. The grief and emptiness is felt far and wide. You could not fail to be swept up in Jones's enthusiasm. To listen to him talk about games in which Wales had beaten England at the Racecourse Ground gave you shivers. Jones played in 1980, four days after England had beaten reigning world champions Argentina at Wembley, when Mike England's side obliterated their neighbours 4-1, and again in 1984 when a Mark Hughes goal settled the contest. 'The best way to describe the game was a 1-0 hiding,' Jones told me, chuckling down the phone. 'I'll tell you now, the celebrations were something else!' There will, in time, be a celebration of his life and rightly so. Jones, known as 'Mr Wrexham', made the first of 479 appearances for the club against Chester in 1973, with his last coming in 1992. He will be commemorated with a statue outside the Racecourse Ground. It will ensure, just like his shaking fists and that banner, that he will never be forgotten.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Joey Jones: Immortalised in a banner, forever engrained in the fabric of Anfield
'Joey ate the frogs legs, made the Swiss roll, now he's munching Gladbach'. The 24-foot-wide banner, dubbed the Scouse Bayeux Tapestry, exemplified the regard former Liverpool defender Joey Jones – who has died at the age of 70 – was held by fans. Strung out in Rome's Stadio Olimpico before the 1977 European Cup final victory against the German opposition, Jones said the message referencing wins over St Etienne and Zurich made him feel 10 feet tall. Not that he needed the extra motivation as the fiery Welshman's full-blooded commitment was never in question – his clenched fist towards the Kop when he ran onto the field became his trademark. It did get him into trouble on occasions, however. He was accused of inciting a riot when he threw seat cushions aimed at him on the bench back into the crowd after Liverpool's semi-final win over Barcelona in the Nou Camp on their way to UEFA Cup victory in 1976, while he was arrested twice when playing for Chelsea. But it was that attitude which endeared him to Reds fans in his 100 games in his three years at the club. 'I guarantee the Germans would have known every player in our team apart from me – just one of the lads who has come off the Kop,' he said of the banner, which after 20 years in his garage is now in Liverpool's museum. 'I guess that's why the fans identified with me because I'd give it my all and I was one of them. 'I never considered myself to be skilful but I was the type of player I think any team needs. 'I think as much of that banner as I do the winners' medal.' Jones' mother came from the Toxteth area of the city, his paternal grandmother was a Scouser and he stood on the Kop to watch his heroes. He never really felt he belonged in the exalted company of a Liverpool dressing room which included the likes of Ray Clemence, Kevin Keegan and Ian Callaghan. Growing up on a council estate in north Wales, he was taught by nuns in a Catholic school, played for the now-defunct Llandudno Swifts, a club which also started the careers of fellow Wales internationals Neville Southall and Eddie Niedzwiecki, and got into bother with the local 'Bad Gang Parrots' gang. Jones spent 'a few weekends' in the local cells and was lucky not to have been sent to a young offenders' institution – but even signing for his first professional club did not stop unruly behaviour. 'I would be playing in the first team in Wrexham coming back on Mondays with black eyes and everything,' he recalled. Jones, who expected to get a job in a factory when he left school, never felt his talent would take him any higher than the Division Three club at the time so when Liverpool came calling, after a swap deal to Sheffield United involving Len Badger and £100,000 fell through, in 1975 he could not believe his luck. He missed out on a league championship medal in his first season having not made enough appearances but the greatest year of his career was to follow. Jones was an integral part of another title-winning side, lost an FA Cup final to Manchester United before becoming the first Welshman to win the European Cup – with Wales, for whom he won 72 caps between 1975 and 1986, beating England at Wembley for good measure. A second European Cup followed a year later but Jones was on the bench, an increasingly common feature that season, and against his better judgement – and not because he accidentally elbowed manager Bob Paisley putting on his tracksuit top in the dugout – he rejoined Wrexham in the summer. Spells at Chelsea – with whom he won the Division Two title in 1984 despite a daily London commute from Wales – and Huddersfield preceded a final return to Wrexham, where he moved on to the coaching staff. He had a brief spell as caretaker manager and remained a fixture at the Racecourse Ground even after his retirement, following heart surgery in 2002 and a minor stroke in 2015, he returned as youth team ambassador in 2021.
The Independent
a day ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Joey Jones: Immortalised in a banner, forever engrained in the fabric of Anfield
'Joey ate the frogs legs, made the Swiss roll, now he's munching Gladbach'. The 24-foot-wide banner, dubbed the Scouse Bayeux Tapestry, exemplified the regard former Liverpool defender Joey Jones – who has died at the age of 70 – was held by fans. Strung out in Rome's Stadio Olimpico before the 1977 European Cup final victory against the German opposition, Jones said the message referencing wins over St Etienne and Zurich made him feel 10 feet tall. Not that he needed the extra motivation as the fiery Welshman's full-blooded commitment was never in question – his clenched fist towards the Kop when he ran onto the field became his trademark. It did get him into trouble on occasions, however. He was accused of inciting a riot when he threw seat cushions aimed at him on the bench back into the crowd after Liverpool's semi-final win over Barcelona in the Nou Camp on their way to UEFA Cup victory in 1976, while he was arrested twice when playing for Chelsea. But it was that attitude which endeared him to Reds fans in his 100 games in his three years at the club. 'I guarantee the Germans would have known every player in our team apart from me – just one of the lads who has come off the Kop,' he said of the banner, which after 20 years in his garage is now in Liverpool's museum. 'I guess that's why the fans identified with me because I'd give it my all and I was one of them. 'I never considered myself to be skilful but I was the type of player I think any team needs. 'I think as much of that banner as I do the winners' medal.' Jones' mother came from the Toxteth area of the city, his paternal grandmother was a Scouser and he stood on the Kop to watch his heroes. He never really felt he belonged in the exalted company of a Liverpool dressing room which included the likes of Ray Clemence, Kevin Keegan and Ian Callaghan. Growing up on a council estate in north Wales, he was taught by nuns in a Catholic school, played for the now-defunct Llandudno Swifts, a club which also started the careers of fellow Wales internationals Neville Southall and Eddie Niedzwiecki, and got into bother with the local 'Bad Gang Parrots' gang. Jones spent 'a few weekends' in the local cells and was lucky not to have been sent to a young offenders' institution – but even signing for his first professional club did not stop unruly behaviour. 'I would be playing in the first team in Wrexham coming back on Mondays with black eyes and everything,' he recalled. Jones, who expected to get a job in a factory when he left school, never felt his talent would take him any higher than the Division Three club at the time so when Liverpool came calling, after a swap deal to Sheffield United involving Len Badger and £100,000 fell through, in 1975 he could not believe his luck. He missed out on a league championship medal in his first season having not made enough appearances but the greatest year of his career was to follow. Jones was an integral part of another title-winning side, lost an FA Cup final to Manchester United before becoming the first Welshman to win the European Cup – with Wales, for whom he won 72 caps between 1975 and 1986, beating England at Wembley for good measure. A second European Cup followed a year later but Jones was on the bench, an increasingly common feature that season, and against his better judgement – and not because he accidentally elbowed manager Bob Paisley putting on his tracksuit top in the dugout – he rejoined Wrexham in the summer. Spells at Chelsea – with whom he won the Division Two title in 1984 despite a daily London commute from Wales – and Huddersfield preceded a final return to Wrexham, where he moved on to the coaching staff. He had a brief spell as caretaker manager and remained a fixture at the Racecourse Ground even after his retirement, following heart surgery in 2002 and a minor stroke in 2015, he returned as youth team ambassador in 2021.
Scottish Sun
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Liverpool ‘contact Newcastle over record £120m transfer bid for Alexander Isak' in latest piece of major summer overhaul
The Kop club mean business this summer SHOCK KOP MOVE Liverpool 'contact Newcastle over record £120m transfer bid for Alexander Isak' in latest piece of major summer overhaul LIVERPOOL have reportedly made shock overtures to sign Alexander Isak in a club-record deal. Kop chief Arne Slot is eager to bolster the Premier League champion's attacking options for the upcoming season. 1 The Merseysiders have already done that with the acquisition of the much-coveted Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen. And Slot is reportedly looking to add some serious firepower to his squad with the acquisition of Newcastle hitman Isak. That's according to reporter Fabrizio Romano, who claims the Kop club have reached out to the Magpies to gauge their willingness to seLl Isak. He wrote on X: "Liverpool made [a] club-to-club approach with Newcastle to discuss record bid for Alexander Isak." According to Romano, if Newcastle double down on their desire to keep Isak the Reds will pursue a move for Hugo Ekitike. He added: "If Isak won't be available, Liverpool can enter Ekitike race. "Decision up to Newcastle as they never wanted to sell Isak + offer new deal." According to The Athletic, Liverpool are willing to shatter their club record fee for the SECOND TIME this summer to land the Swede. They claim the Prem champions would be willing to spend £120million to acquire Isak's services. THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY.. The Sun is your go to destination for the best football, boxing and MMA news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunFootball.
