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R.I.P Ted Bates


Jeff Le Taxi
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I met him once (as a very young nipper, a few years before we moved to St. Mary's)...he used to still run around the touchline of the pitch most mornings right up into the mid-eighties; until not long before he passed away, he was an incredibly fit man for his age. Also very soft-spoken.

 

I always tell someone I know from Norwich that, a. there's a statue of a local lad from Thetford outside Southampton's stadium and when he asks why, I always reply that b. this club owes more to that man than he ever knew or would admit to knowing, a lovely unassuming fella (I would very surprised if he'd be too happy we've made a statue of him, since he'd probably say he was just doing the job he enjoyed).

 

I hear he had a canny eye for talent spotting and finally, if you watch the 76 FA Cup final, when we won, who was sitting next to Lawrie and the first to congratulate him? that's right, Edric "Ted" Bates, r.i.p Mr Southampton.

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Remember vividly the day he passed away. The statue outside the main entrance was the least the club could do in his memory.... that whole process was one of the most farcical in our history, symbolic of the club's position at the time and utterly contrary to the man.

 

I do not believe his passing and the timing of our demise after where not separate issues... Without Mr Southampton we lost our way for a while.

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