John Bond: RIP

Sad to hear of the death of former Hammer John Bond. He was playing before my time, but while researching my book Flying So High: West Ham's Cup Finals I watched all 90 minutes of the 1964 FA Cup Final against Preston in which he featured. Bondy liked to get the ball in the box early and looked a decent player. Failing to adequately replace the likes of Bond, Brown and Standen was the root cause of West Ham underachieving after the 1964 and 1965 FA Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup wins. Despite having Moore, Hurst and Peters these three leaving left a gap that took many years to fill. I also remember John Bond as the charismatic manager of Norwich and Manchester City. He'll be missed.