Tommy Lawton

[Fan of Big Tone]

I was listening to Radio Nottingham on the way to the match last Saturday and they were interviewing Tom Lawton who is the son of the legendary Tommy Lawton, it was quite interesting to hear how Tommy (who was the England centre forward) came to sign for Notts who were in the equivalent to today's league 2.

 

If I can remember what he said he went something like this, Tommy was at Chelsea and he was a big friend of Arthur Stollery who was a physiotherapist at the club and promised him that if he ever got a job as a manager he would sign for him no matter where it was. So when Arthur was appointed manager of Notts Tommy shook the football world by signing for us for a record £20,000 fee. In today's terms it was like Wayne Rooney signing for Accrington Stanley, can you imagine what it would be like to be a Notts fan then? Lawton was at the peak of his career and signed for little old Notts County! In those days of course there was a maximum wage no matter who you played for, I think Tom mentioned £20 a week so Tommy was no worse off and Notts could afford his wages.

 

Another thing his son said was that the first thing he did when he joined Notts was insist that all the players were paid the same wage. As you can imagine Notts gates receipts went through the roof so they were well able to afford this and they even negotiated with the clubs they played away for a share of their gate if Tommy played because everywhere Notts played there was a bumper crowd turn up to see Tommy.

 

Very interesting story I thought.

[Chris]

I've heard segments before, though I didn't know about him insisting everyone was paid the same. Honourable gentleman, I loved hearing stories about him as a child.

[super_ram]

This puts todays prima donnas to shame!

[GrannyPie]

My dad's all time favourite player.

[liampie]

i dont really know much about tommy but its great what was mentioned here, if only more was like.