Yes, he was our Maradona. The death of Maradona as seen many a clip on TV recently, where he glides effortlessly through midfield to end up in the box and score. When I watch them I think of Glavin. What a player and a nice bloke as well.
They say never meet your heroes or you'll be disappointed - well I did just that doing this interview and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Superb player, the best I have seen in over 50 years watching the Reds, and a great bloke as well. It turned out that Ronnie and I had a heart condition in common; I've met him twice since and on both occasions he remembered that and asked how I was doing. Unassuming and self-deprecating, a true great.
Not only did he score more goal than Dalglish that season, he played fewer games as well. Dalglish was the striker, Ronnie outscoring him from midfield.
Ronnie and Banger were reunited at Emley in the late 90s when Ronnie was manager and Banksy along with a few other ex Barnsley players played at West Ham in the Cup only losing 2-1. The scorer Paul David was a big mate of my son in law
Low centre of gravity meant it was hard to knock off the ball. Ghosted past opposition players could pick a killer pass and his finishing was of the highest quality. Best player I have ever seen pull on a Barnsley shirt by far.
Ronnie was magnificent - a great player to watch. But I'd have Neil Redfearn just ahead in terms of our GOAT. Maybe not as easy on the eye, but he scored only one goal fewer for us than Ronnie (admittedly in more games) and captained us magnificently up to and in the Premier League. Two stellar players for us, but Redders would just shade my vote.
Just reading peoples comments about King Ronnie has the hairs up on the back of my arms , what a player , he played & lived the game to score goals , he would drive forward & his only thought would be to get on the end of things & strike at goal & it didn"t matter which foot , he was deadly with both , it was a privilege to watch the maestro in action , my all time favourite player , Long Live The King !
Anyone got a link to the stats for this please? Been looking but can only find 48 in 149 games. Can find a season breakdown for Dalglish but not Ronnie.
My understanding was that Liverpool wanted Ronnie rather than Dalglish but they flipped their target when they heard that Ronnie was likely to face a jail sentence because of the fire at his sports shop in Glasgow. I remember when he first came to us he was dropped by Alan Clarke who had wanted him to undertake a holding role in midfield and he'd had the temerity to wander upfield to score. Fortunately for us that tiff was a short term thing and we saw over the coming seasons THE greatest player to have pulled on a red shirt in my 57 years of following Barnsley.
Sorry but that’s not correct. Redders scored 83 (per recent post about our top 20 goal scorers) to the King’s 92, and as you say Redders played in many more games. Redders was undoubtedly a magnificent player for the Reds and of course was voted the greatest Reds player of all time. The King was in second place, almost certainly because many voters only knew the period around Premier League time. And Redders never had Ronnie’s class.
This. The buzz and audible breath of anticipation around the ground whenever he picked the ball up in his own half was something to behold. Never experienced that with any other player ever. You simply knew something good was about to happen. Comfortably the best player I've seen in a tarn shirt.
Going off Wiki for this (not always the most accurate source, I know!) They say Ronnie had 73 goals in 182 games for us; Redders 72 from 292. Not sure how you define 'class', but Redders played (and scored) at a higher level for us. All subjective, of course! Fact is, we were lucky to have them both.
Having never seen Ronnie play, I can’t comment on him being the best ever, I can see where someone might say Redfearn though as he did over a longer time and higher level. I don’t recall watching Redfearn play and thinking of him as others describe Ronnie though either.
