John Sjoberg R.I.P

[DesertFox]

A little bit before my time but on reputation alone he was one of the true City greats. RIP John.

 

[weller74]

As Birch said in his tribute, a stalwart who formed a great partnership with Graham 'The Tank ' Cross. He was as hard as nails, unflinching tackler against some of the best centre forwards & a bit of an unsung hero in the great Matt Gillies side of the early 60's which Bill Shankly described as 'the best team in the big league in those days' in an autobiography. John had a great positional sense, & I never saw him lose his cool.

RIP John, you were a fine player & will always be remembered as a great servant to the club

 

[newtonfox]

welcome to TB .

sorry your first post was on a sad not though .

 

[weller74]

Thanks newtonfox. Always very sad when a fine player is no more, but the club & the real fans go on forever.

 

[newtonfox]

Thanks newtonfox. Always very sad when a fine player is no more, but the club & the real fans go on forever.

Your welcome.

 

[weller74]

I think the memory of the Bloomfield team has become more important because of the poor performances in the last few seasons. They could never compete witht the Liverpools and Arsenals over a season but were quite capable of beating them on occasion. The other great Leicester team of the O'Neill era were "grinders" and were arguably a more effective team. The Bloomfield team played with such flair. Every football fan in the country knew that Weller and Worthington were brilliant players and that Shilton was quite simply one of the world's best ever goalkeepers. We have had fine players since (Lennon, Izzett, Walsh) but IMO only Gary Linker can be compared to those three.

 

[weller74]

Couldn't agree more with your IMO re Gary. We have had no one apart from him to compare with Keith, Frank & Shilts. IMO both Keith & Frank were far better all round players than Gary, but they were very different players - Gary was an out & out finisher in the Greaves mould - priceless.

Bloomfield era was fantastic - an if only team . Martin's team were as you say grinders with great team spirit but restored the pride at least for fans of my age, but still think the 1963 side inc . John Sjoberg were the best City side I have ever seen.

 

[Brauny Blue]

Couldn't agree more with your IMO re Gary. We have had no one apart from him to compare with Keith, Frank & Shilts. IMO both Keith & Frank were far better all round players than Gary, but they were very different players - Gary was an out & out finisher in the Greaves mould - priceless.

Bloomfield era was fantastic - an if only team . Martin's team were as you say grinders with great team spirit but restored the pride at least for fans of my age, but still think the 1963 side inc . John Sjoberg were the best City side I have ever seen.

You didnt see Frank McLintocks team then:icon_wink

 

[newtonfox]

Just to let you all know john's son wishes to pass on his thanks for all your post's .

his grandson plays for the same development team as my lad, he should be on here at some piont to say thanks himself.


Newt's

 

[weller74]

You didnt see Frank McLintocks team then:icon_wink

Oh my god i did, I think I thought we were relegated at Xmas, we probably actually were !! Not sure which side was the worst, last season's mob or Frank's geriatrics. he was a great player for us though !

 

[David Gwilliam]

The article on Frank Worthington in the Mercury today is a startling reminder that fan power drove Jimmy Bloomfield out in favour of Frank McClintock who got us relegated. Sadly Jimmy died shortly afterwards and so never knew how well he and his team are remembered.

 

[weller74]

Just to let you all know john's son wishes to pass on his thanks for all your post's .

his grandson plays for the same development team as my lad, he should be on here at some piont to say thanks himself.


Newt's

Please pass on my condolences to him, I have been thinking about John a lot since the news broke. I was an autograph hunter when John was first in the side & he always obliged with a smile & friendly comment, think the only goal I can clearly remember him scoring was away at Barrow in Furness ( before the M6 ) of all places in the FA Cup when we won 0-2 . I passed on the sad news to a friend of mine now living in Oz who knew John fairly well, & he confirmed what a lovely guy he was.

 

[weller74]

The article on Frank Worthington in the Mercury today is a startling reminder that fan power drove Jimmy Bloomfield out in favour of Frank McClintock who got us relegated. Sadly Jimmy died shortly afterwards and so never knew how well he and his team are remembered.

Remember the day well. We had a slight chance of Europe, but that disappeared after a 0-5 defeat to WBA at Filbert Street. The crowd turned on Jimmy bigtime ( not guilty ! ) as we only finshed 8th in the big league. My god if only these days. But he bought some great talent to Filbo, & that side should at the very least have won a cup & at their best they were fantastic to watch.

 

[newtonfox]

Please pass on my condolences to him, I have been thinking about John a lot since the news broke. I was an autograph hunter when John was first in the side & he always obliged with a smile & friendly comment, think the only goal I can clearly remember him scoring was away at Barrow in Furness ( before the M6 ) of all places in the FA Cup when we won 0-2 . I passed on the sad news to a friend of mine now living in Oz who knew John fairly well, & he confirmed what a lovely guy he was.

He should be able to read this himself when he comes on :icon_wink

but will do,next tuesday evening

 

[fox58]

it is a sad loss one of the true un-sung hero's of the 60's and early 70's team a player who unlike todays so called stars stuck by the team when they were relegated and played a major in the promotion back to the top flight

 

[manhead666]

R.I.P. John

You was one of my favourites when i first started going down to Filbert Street a true stalwart along side Graham Cross you will be sadly missed.

 

[fox58]

i remember going to John's testimonial against Derby and there being a decent crowd but I wonder if anyone has any idea which city player has had the largest gate for their testimonial.

 

[newtonfox]

He should be able to read this himself when he comes on :icon_wink

but will do,next tuesday evening

Spoke to his son again tonight and he read most of the post out at his dad service which was on sunday.

he thanks you all for your comments ,he will try and get on here as soon as he gets time.

 

[Auckland fox]

Always remember the 1969 cup final when John was out injured and Alan Wollett played in his place. I always thought that if John had been playing he would never have allowed the Man city player to make the cross which led to their winning goal. Always one of my favourite of city's unsung hero's will be remembered

 

[Redditch Fox]

Remember the day well. We had a slight chance of Europe, but that disappeared after a 0-5 defeat to WBA at Filbert Street. The crowd turned on Jimmy bigtime ( not guilty ! ) as we only finshed 8th in the big league. My god if only these days. But he bought some great talent to Filbo, & that side should at the very least have won a cup & at their best they were fantastic to watch.

I remember the game well - some of the aggro was around a perceived failure to bring in big names to augment or replace the ageing stars of the Bloomfield era. Anyway, you are right and we have never had a side (in my lifetime) that played such attractive football as Bloomfield's. Bloomfield himself was a polished, classy player for the Arsenal and set very high standards in the sort of football he wanted his teams to play.

But back to John Sjoberg who never seemed to have a bad game. Older members may recall that John displaced Ian King - who was himself a fine player - to take the centre half spot.