Manchester United´s Wing Wizard

Mickey Thomas

Moch­dre born Mickey Thomas began his roller­coaster career with Third Divi­sion Wrex­ham where the tal­en­ted out­side left would play along­side such fine play­ers as Arfon Grif­fiths, Joey Jones, Mel Sut­ton and John Roberts. The prodi­gious youth made his first league appear­ance for Wrex­ham against John Bond´s Bournemouth at Dean Court in Janu­ary 1972 and the Race­course Ground fans quickly took him to their hearts.

The Welsh wiz­ard was a per­former who always seemed to rise to the occa­sion and he was a mem­ber of the side that reached the FA Cup Quarter Finals in 1974 as well as the European Cup Win­ners Cup Quarter Finals in 1976. After clinch­ing the Third Divi­sion Cham­pi­on­ship with Wrex­ham in 1977–78, the flank engine was bought by Manchester United boss Dave Sex­ton for a fee of £300,000 shortly after. Argu­ably, the high­light of his career came when he won an FA Cup run­ners up medal in 1979 after a nar­row 3–2 loss against Arsenal. A dir­ect and con­fid­ent winger with accel­er­a­tion and fin­ish, he made over 100 appear­ances for the club before a con­flict with the man­age­ment even­tu­ally forced him out in 1981.

Accord­ing to an old Welsh say­ing, the best Welsh­men are those who live their lives out­side of Wales. As for Mickey Thomas, he was to appear for a num­ber of clubs in Eng­land before he decided to return to his first love Wrex­ham in July 1991. A nat­ural born enter­tainer, he was always in a good hwyl and would give his very best try wherever he played but his ambi­tions were all too often thwarted by per­sonal prob­lems off the foot­ball field. Although his pro­fes­sional career went through more highs and lows than a manic depress­ive on cocaine, Mickey Thomas went on to win a total of 51 full caps for his nat­ive Wales.

Manchester United Books