ARTICLE: Promotion rivals sign Thomas

[ClaretTony]

Shock news in 1972, possibly not that he was sold but more who bought him

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/promotion- ... ign-thomas

[evensteadiereddie]

Peter Higgs' assessment was spot on.
I was 18 and had been following the Clarets for six years by then and was stunned. I knew we were a good side with or without Thomas but it seemed like a hell of a risk.
Ralph Coates' departure upset and depressed me more

[Quicknick]

I too was 18 then, and I was so disappointed. Thomas is still one of my favourite Clarets of all time. But we can't complain about how the season ended. As the Longside roared in an end of season testimonial between current and past Clarets in which Thomas featured, Thomas Thomas runner-up!

[ClaretTony]

Peter Higgs' assessment was spot on.
I was 18 and had been following the Clarets for six years by then and was stunned. I knew we were a good side with or without Thomas but it seemed like a hell of a risk.
Ralph Coates' departure upset and depressed me more

Ralph’s departure was inevitable with relegation but it came very quickly. Probably the one player sale that upset me more than any other. Wonderful player for us was Ralph.

[Quicknick]

It did me, too. Another that really upset me was James going to Derby.

[claretblue]

I too was mystified and disappointed with his departure!

...It may have been no secret that manager Jimmy Adamson and Dave Thomas were at odds but I knew nothing about it at the time.

Dave still remains (as far as I'm aware) the only player toy receive a runner-up and Championship medal in the same season!

a great player for us who went on to have a wonderful playing career with QPR, Everton, Wolves + England.

It was great to see him back at Turf Moor a couple of seasons ago with his former youth and 1st team colleague Kindon!

[onewillieirvine]

Mine were......

John Connelly
Willie Morgan
Brian O'Neil
Ralph Coates
Dave Thomas
Martin Dobson

[Quicknick]

Mine were......

John Connelly
Willie Morgan
Brian O'Neil
Ralph Coates
Dave Thomas
Martin Dobson

If I had to name six, they would be these six.

[mdd2]

Mine was Wayne Thomas leaving for all that money

[Woodleyclaret]

Davy Thomas regretted signing for Wolves he was often not picked
My big disappointment was the selling of Billy Hamilton to Oxford as we were living in South Oxfordshire at the time and it really sunk home how low we had dropped to.
Very depressing times in the mid eighties

[Petersa]

Have to say that although I was initally disapointed Geoff Nulty became one of the heroes of that promotion campaign. He did a lot of the the unspectacular sleeves rolled up stuff that enabled Martin Dobson to flourish. Don't think Dobbo was as good without him

[aclaretinstevenage]

This transfer dissappointed me more than any other, great player was Dave Thomas.

[claretfern]

One of my favourites was DT.
Went on to great things with QPR and Everton. Made Bob Latchford at Everton, supplying him with all those crosses from the wing.

[Silkyskills1]

I always thought that Dave Thomas was the player we expected great things from from an early age. He showed it in flashes but was inconsistent and very little attention was given to his age. After the shock.of relegation in '71 we naturally expected to ' bounce straight back' and being in a lower division also expected Thomas to 'shine' and lead us to promotion. It didn't happen. I don't know anything of the issues between manager and player so can't comment but maybe Dave Thomas was viewed as a luxury we could cash in on. Nulty was far more defensive minded allowing other flair players to be more adventurous. It's only an opinion and Geoff Nulty became an integral part of the team for the next 3 exciting years. Dave Thomas flourished too showing the sort of form we all expected from him when he was barely out of his teens at Turf Moor. Two top professionals.

[Taffy on the wing]

Shock news in 1972, possibly not that he was sold but more who bought him

See link
https://www.uptheclarets.com/promotion- ... ign-thomas

That was a tough day!

[Cirrus_Minor]

I had forgotten that Thomas was only 21 year old. What a player. Incredible that we seemed to improve without him after selling him to our direct competitors QPR, something that would repeat when we sold Austin to the same club who were again our direct competitors in effectively the same league many years later.

[daveyclaret]

I was a huge Thomas fan and disappointed that he left. I remember well one of his best performances with a goal in a game on the Turf.That game was against Liverpool in the first game of the 1970-71 season, a season which ended with the Claret's relegation from the First Division.

In that game, Emlyn Hughes was playing midfield for Liverpool and was running the game and the Clarets were under the cosh. Liverpool scored in the 19th minute (time taken from Claret Tony's scores for that season) and were dominant. Clarets equalised in the 41st minute (again taken from Claret Tony scores) through Thomas. The build up to the goal was through Thomas on the right wing running with at speed with the ball and then playing a fast one-two with a Claret's player (I don't recall who). The one-two brought Thomas inside and from around 20 yards he hit a shot into the bottom corner of the Bee Hole End goal beating Ray Clemence. That was as good as it good as it got for the Clarets as Liverpool continued to dominate and scored a second goal in the second half to win the game 2-1.

As a big fan of Thomas, I went to see him play for England U23s against Scotland U23s, a game played at Derby County's then Baseball Ground. The game was played midweek and on an afternoon due to electric cuts for floodlights from an ongoing Miners' strike at the time. The game ended 2-2 and I still have the programme from the game and, without looking at the programme, I recall the game as being in 1972 in the season before Thomas got transferred to QPR.

One thing I do recall from the game though, was that I was a young man 20 years old, who didn't have care was solid everywhere, like a rock. How times change.