Rodney Marsh was one of the brightest stars of the 1970s, a truly golden era for English football. A phenomenally skilful player, he was also a maverick, happier to showboat than he was to follow the more prosaic instructions of his managers. Not that his supporters ever cared if he tackled back or not. They were blown away by his cavalier approach and came in their thousands to see him humiliating defenders with impunity.
Marsh enjoyed his greatest period of success at Queens Park Rangers, where he scored 106 goals in 211 appearances but his career actually began just down the road at local rivals Fulham in 1963. A reasonably prolifc goalscorer, his early potential was lost amid a series of injuries including one particularly nasty collision that cost him the hearing in his left ear. After a falling-out with Cottagers manager Vic Buckingham, QPR boss Alec Stock saw his chance and moved in with an offer of GBP15,000. It would prove to be one of the bargains of the decade.
"I suppose we took a chance," Stock said years later. "Immediately after he had signed there were people in the game who took great delight in telling me what was wrong with our new player. 'He's a clown' they said. 'He doesn't like hard work and he isn't consistent. I wasn't particularly looking for consistency. I wanted style and imagination. I wanted someone to bring that out of my Rangers team. I thought he could be special.'
Stock was right, Marsh was special. 44 goals in his first full season powered the Super Hoops out of the Third Division and even secured the League Cup after a thrilling battle with West Bromwich Albion at Wembley Stadium.
It wasn't just his goals that won the fans over, it was his refusal to play safe, his insistence on flicks and tricks. He could turn defenders inside-out with his dribbling and loved to humiliate his markers by poking the ball through their legs or by sending them the wrong way with his footwork.
After the promotion from the Third Division, Marsh missed the first half of the following season through injury, but still returned to score goals at a prodigious rate, finishing as the club's top scorer and sending QPR straight through the Second Division and into the top flight for the first time in their history. But another injury saw him sidelined for the opening months of QPR's debut in the top division and, by the time he returned, they were already bottom of the table. They would eventually be relegated.
In 1972, he left for Manchester City in a eyebrow-raising GBP200,000 transfer. Unfortunately, Marsh's style didn't suit the more regimented tactics of the Blues and they squandered their lead at the top of the table, eventually finishing fourth.Marsh's flair and cheek made him an instant favourite with the City fans, but he would never quite fulfill his potential with the club.He eventually left in 1976 for the glamour of the North American Soccer League, returning for a brief spell for Fulham before ending his career on the other side of the Atlantic.
It was a similar story at international level where Marsh found that not everyone shared his sense of humour. "If you don't work hard," barked England manager Sir Alf Ramsey, "Then I'll pull you off at half-time!" "Blimey," said Marsh. "At Manchester City, we only get a cup of tea and an orange."
Ramsey never picked him again. Nine international caps were no reward for his immense talent. Nevertheless, Marsh remains a hero in the blue half of Manchester and back in West London, proof that football doesn't always have to be serious.