The Robin Friday story that has never been revealed – until now

Robin Friday was born on this day in 1952.

He was a maverick genius, a cult hero and the ultimate rock 'n' roll footballer.

This is a story of his final months as a player at Cardiff City, a tale that has never been told - until now.

https://nation.cymru/culture/the-rob...led-until-now/

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Originally Posted by ccfcbluebird

Robin Friday was born on this day in 1952.

He was a maverick genius, a cult hero and the ultimate rock 'n' roll footballer.

This is a story of his final months as a player at Cardiff City, a tale that has never been told - until now.

https://nation.cymru/culture/the-rob...led-until-now/

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I stopped at "Cardiff's all time cult hero"

Why? It's factual.
In a 2004 BBC poll, Friday was voted the top "all-time cult hero" for both Reading and Cardiff City.

Nothing really new in this article other than it was Pentonville nick he was banged up in in the summer of 1977 as opposed to Reading or Exeter prisons which were the other rumours at the time. The bit about Lawrenson finding him difficult to handle during the Brighton game is not true. Not having played since the embarrassing defeat in the second leg of the Welsh Cup final against Shrewsbury the previous May, having done time and his lifestyle catching up with him he was totally ineffective in that game and it was frustration that ended up with him booting Lawro in the face. The David Giles story about him throwing his team mates clothes in the bath has been around for years and is not new. At least the article does not try to perpetuate the kitbag myth. As for cult hero I prefer to judge City players by what they do on the pitch and, whilst you could see there was talent there, he showed precious little of it for us. When he did play, he was mostly useless.

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Originally Posted by Optimistic Nick

I stopped at "Cardiff's all time cult hero"

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Thanks for saving me the time reading rubbish.

By the headline, thought they’d found out something new about the waste of space.

He was a massive disappointment. Not a genius. Nothing to do with rock and roll.

I'm glad, no one in this thread, got suckered into this "legend" myth surrounding the player. If he hadn't been snapped flicking the 'V-sign' at Luton Town goalkeeper Milija Aleksic, by the Echo photographer, he would have been forgotten about almost instantly.

I read the article and learned a few things;-

1. If you were at the reserve match between City and West Ham sometime in October 1977, you'll know that it was 99% certain Friday had been inside because he played that game with one of the most obvious prison haircuts I've seen. I didn't know what he'd been to jail for though.

2. I'd assumed Friday had been in prison for the early part of the 77/78 season, but he was only sent down in late September, so he should have been with us for pre season training and the early games of that campaign - it sounds like things really went downhill for him in the summer of 77 though.

3.. It was news to me that the 6-3 loss at Bolton wasn't Friday's last appearance for City, he played in another reserve match after that.

I've not read either of the books, but I think the writer is probably right to have made the first one about his time at Reading and the second one about what happened after that, because i strongly believe that we're talking about two different players really.

Certainly, the player I saw in a Newport v Reading match, early in 73/74 I think it was, was a First Division footballer in the making - he was miles above every other player on the pitch that night in terms of technique and flair. If the roles had been reversed and we'd got the early part of Friday's career and Reading the final year of it, I'm sure he'd be remembered at Cardiff as the article tries to make out he is. Based on that ninety minutes at Newport, I can fully understand why Reading fans made him their player of the century and the club's biggest cult hero.

However, the question I'd love to see answered, but never will, is how many of those City fans who made Friday the club's biggest ever cult hero in that BBC poll were old enough to have seen him play for us? The distinct impression I get from supporters who saw him in a City shirt is that their views on him are pretty similar to mine.

Friday provided a few great fleeting images (him getting Bobby Moore to lose his rag in his very impressive debut, the v sign against Luton and how he inspired he came on as a sub to inspire a comeback from 2-0 down to draw with Wolves, who were Second Division Champions that year, are three which spring to mind).

That's it though really, for most of his time here, he was, if anything, a liability because he had no team ethic and you never knew when he'd lose it and get involved in some pointless feud. There's another player, also sadly no longer with us, who is City's real cult hero - Whitts was a hundred times the player for Cardiff City that Robin Friday was.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

I read the article and learned a few things;-

1. If you were at the reserve match between City and West Ham sometime in October 1977, you'll know that it was 99% certain Friday had been inside because he played that game with one of the most obvious prison haircuts I've seen. I didn't know what he'd been to jail for though.

2. I'd assumed Friday had been in prison for the early part of the 77/78 season, but he was only sent down in late September, so he should have been with us for pre season training and the early games of that campaign - it sounds like things really went downhill for him in the summer of 77 though.

3.. It was news to me that the 6-3 loss at Bolton wasn't Friday's last appearance for City, he played in another reserve match after that.

I've not read either of the books, but I think the writer is probably right to have made the first one about his time at Reading and the second one about what happened after that, because i strongly believe that we're talking about two different players really.

Certainly, the player I saw in a Newport v Reading match, early in 73/74 I think it was, was a First Division footballer in the making - he was miles above every other player on the pitch that night in terms of technique and flair. If the roles had been reversed and we'd got the early part of Friday's career and Reading the final year of it, I'm sure he'd be remembered at Cardiff as the article tries to make out he is. Based on that ninety minutes at Newport, I can fully understand why Reading fans made him their player of the century and the club's biggest cult hero.

However, the question I'd love to see answered, but never will, is how many of those City fans who made Friday the club's biggest ever cult hero in that BBC poll were old enough to have seen him play for us? The distinct impression I get from supporters who saw him in a City shirt is that their views on him are pretty similar to mine.

Friday provided a few great fleeting images (him getting Bobby Moore to lose his rag in his very impressive debut, the v sign against Luton and how he inspired he came on as a sub to inspire a comeback from 2-0 down to draw with Wolves, who were Second Division Champions that year, are three which spring to mind).

That's it though really, for most of his time here, he was, if anything, a liability because he had no team ethic and you never knew when he'd lose it and get involved in some pointless feud. There's another player, also sadly no longer with us, who is City's real cult hero - Whitts was a hundred times the player for Cardiff City that Robin Friday was.

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Sadly , I am old enough to have seen him play and would not put him in the top 100 City players of my lifetime.

He was a liability on and off the pitch, in my opinion.

Yes, he was a colourful character and a maverick with undoubted ability but his career is a tale of disappointment and ultimately failure.

I wouldn’t have wished his destructive lifestyle and early death on anyone but I cannot consider him a City legend.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

I read the article and learned a few things;-

1. If you were at the reserve match between City and West Ham sometime in October 1977, you'll know that it was 99% certain Friday had been inside because he played that game with one of the most obvious prison haircuts I've seen. I didn't know what he'd been to jail for though.

2. I'd assumed Friday had been in prison for the early part of the 77/78 season, but he was only sent down in late September, so he should have been with us for pre season training and the early games of that campaign - it sounds like things really went downhill for him in the summer of 77 though.

3.. It was news to me that the 6-3 loss at Bolton wasn't Friday's last appearance for City, he played in another reserve match after that.

I've not read either of the books, but I think the writer is probably right to have made the first one about his time at Reading and the second one about what happened after that, because i strongly believe that we're talking about two different players really.

Certainly, the player I saw in a Newport v Reading match, early in 73/74 I think it was, was a First Division footballer in the making - he was miles above every other player on the pitch that night in terms of technique and flair. If the roles had been reversed and we'd got the early part of Friday's career and Reading the final year of it, I'm sure he'd be remembered at Cardiff as the article tries to make out he is. Based on that ninety minutes at Newport, I can fully understand why Reading fans made him their player of the century and the club's biggest cult hero.

However, the question I'd love to see answered, but never will, is how many of those City fans who made Friday the club's biggest ever cult hero in that BBC poll were old enough to have seen him play for us? The distinct impression I get from supporters who saw him in a City shirt is that their views on him are pretty similar to mine.

Friday provided a few great fleeting images (him getting Bobby Moore to lose his rag in his very impressive debut, the v sign against Luton and how he inspired he came on as a sub to inspire a comeback from 2-0 down to draw with Wolves, who were Second Division Champions that year, are three which spring to mind).

That's it though really, for most of his time here, he was, if anything, a liability because he had no team ethic and you never knew when he'd lose it and get involved in some pointless feud. There's another player, also sadly no longer with us, who is City's real cult hero - Whitts was a hundred times the player for Cardiff City that Robin Friday was.

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About sums it up.I remember speaking to Richie Morgan when he was the manager and he didn't have a single kind word for him.

The signing of Friday did not reflect well on Jimmy Andrews. After Robin Friday’s impressive debut against Fulham Andrews rather stupidly rang Reading manager Charlie Hurley to crow about what a brilliant signing he’d made. Hurley gave him short shrift and told him to give it a week or two and reality would dawn in him which it did. The club never acknowledged publicly the real reason for his absence citing virus infections and illness. Admitting to the truth would have been too embarrassing. I knew that former Club Historian Richard Shepherd was in possession of the Club Board Minutes dating back many years as I thought they might shed some light on Friday’s time here. I asked him about them but the minutes for 1977 were missing. He was keen to know himself having heard the imprisonment rumours. Erasing history to avoid embarrassment ? We will never know.

Although I supported Reading at the time Friday was at the club I was only a little lad with no one interested in taking me to see the team play. So I never saw him play. Unlike most Reading fans I don’t buy into the greatest player we ever had. Most of his League appearances were in the lower two divisions and his reckless behaviour was always going to impact upon his ability to succeed at a higher level.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ccfcbluebird

Why? It's factual.
In a 2004 BBC poll, Friday was voted the top "all-time cult hero" for both Reading and Cardiff City.

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Sorry, I've re-read my message and it was rude, in particular if you wrote that article.

But what I said was literally true - I did stop. There seems to be this generally accepted idea that he was a legend, but I've yet to speak to anyone who would actually stand by that. Seems he was actually a bit of a dickhead; mostly shit; and at least the most famous "cult hero" things he did off the pitch seem to be bollocks anyway. So I tend to yawn as soon as I see anything that tees him up as some sort of legend. Also the outcome of a BBC poll doesn't establish it as fact - something like that is never going to be factual.

As TOBW says above, the only new bit of information wa that he was in Pentonville and not Reading jail. City fans know his last 1st team game was at Bolton,. it's a matter of record.

I was 'lucky' enough to see him play, a brilliant two goal debut against Fulham at Ninian Park, a game in which he gave Bobby Moore the runaround. I was at the Luton game too. He fouled the 'keeper, and there was a bit of barging each other afterwards, the ref gave a free kick. The keeper took the free kick, it went straight to Friday, who ran goal, rounded the keeper and scored, hence the V sign. Apart from that he was unremarkable, an obvious talent but obviously with his problems.

He wasn't the Messiah, as some think, he was just a very naughty boy.

My dad was on the board in the late 70's and when I asked him about Friday as I didn't really remember him myself (I'd been about 7) he just shook his head and said an absolute wanker!!

I never saw Friday play, but it makes my blood boil that he’s held in higher esteem by a fair portion of our fanbase than players that did far more for the club. He seemed nothing but a liability and bet he was hated by his teammates. TLG interviewed David Giles a few years back and Gilo mentioned then that Friday smacked Steve Grapes in training for basically nothing.
Friday scored something like 6 goals in 26 appearances and probably couldn’t give a toss about Cardiff City. Doesn’t deserve the praise he gets in a million years.