Ray Wilkins RIP

Sad day , Butch was a class act both on & off the pitch

 

Could do with a player like him in Russia to help our cause. Had the balls to leave his comfort zone and play abroad, which more English players should do. Done well to fight for so long, as what happened was so terrible, recovery was sadly a long shot. Shows the measure of a man that so many clubs he never played for, including ourselves have been classy enough to share their thoughts on their social media platforms.

 

RIP.
Very sad no age at all, and always came across as such a genuinely nice man.

 

Very sad, shame he never pulled through after the weekend. As others have said, loved listing to him on talksport..
RIP Butch..

 

RIP Ray... a loss of a great man.

 

It's a shame about Ray. The sort of player Gary Gardiner could only dream of being. Ray was the original crab, only thing is he had real still & flare as well to spot a killer pass or move.

 

Arguably every bit as good as Gazza’s against Scotland but you never see this one shown........

 

A legend

 

Terribly sad news. One of my favourite players back when I enjoyed international football. RIP Ray.

 

I may have posted this before, when I was about 15 my mate and I went to various clubs for trials during the school holidays. We went to Chelsea and after we were dropped off at our digs we were told to wait outside the morning after and we would be picked up and taken to the training ground. The following morning we were stood outside waiting when a Ford Escort Mexico pulled up the window rolled down and a voice shouted come on lads. We looked at each other gob smacked, it was only Ray Wilkins come to pick 2 spotty oiks up. We were speech less England and Chelsea star Butch Wilkins was giving us a lift and Talking to us. He picked us each morning for the rest of the week. Always respected him
R.I.P Mr Wilkins

 

Commenter on another journal this morning:

"Once spent a summer as a 19 year old working at QPR. We were cleaning the hospitality boxes, Ray Wilkins was the manager. Wasn't a single day he didn't stop to say 'morning fellas' to us on his way through. A class act."

To contrast that, I remember queueing to renew ST's before one season and Simon Davey pulling up very nearby in his club VW and walking straight past us all without a word.

 

Nice story about Ray in to-days paper. An ex-soldier through no fault of his own ended up homeless.
He was sleeping rough and he was sitting on a piece of cardboard outside a Tube station in London.
Next thing he knows Butch Wilkins sits on the cardboard alongside and starts chatting to him.
Butch suggested he take him for a coffee and gave the guy some money. The ex-soldier said to Ray
" let me buy the coffees out of this because I want to feel like a man." Ray fully understood and let him.
With the money he had left, he managed to find shelter for the night and met a guy who specialised
in helping ex-soldiers who had fallen on hard times.
Since then, he's managed to find his own place and has now met a woman that he is going to marry and
he says that if he hadn't have had that chance meeting with Butch his life may not changed for the better.
Thought that was a great story and confirmation of what a great bloke he really was.