Manchester United´s Tiny Flankman

John Con­nelly

Born and brought up in St Helens, John Con­nelly star­ted out his pro­fes­sional foot­balling career with Burn­ley where the immensly gif­ted right winger won the First Divi­sion title in 1959–60. After scor­ing a most impress­ive 105 goals in 265 league appear­ances for The Clarets, Con­nelly was brought to Old Traf­ford by Manchester United man­ager Matt Busby for a trans­fer fee of £56,000 at the end of the 1963–64 season.

Few play­ers employed a sud­den burst of speed more effect­ively than John Con­nelly. While at Manchester United, he made over 100 appear­ances for the club and he won the First Divi­sion Cham­pi­on­ship with the club in 1964–65. Sur­pris­ingly Con­nelly left Manchester United in the sum­mer of 1967 when he was trans­ferred to Second Divi­sion Black­burn Rovers for a fee of £40,000. The fear­less flank­man spent four sea­sons with the Ewood Park club before he decided to move on to neigh­bour­ing Bury where he fin­ished his play­ing career in May 1973. An old fash­ioned winger, John Con­nelly col­lec­ted 20 full caps for Eng­land after mak­ing his debut in a 1–1 draw against Wales in Octo­ber 1959.

Manchester United Books