In this series, writers from The Watford Treasury and YBR! magazines trace the varied careers of players who developed at Watford.

First featured in last season’s matchday programme, David Harrison writes about a player who, after a spectacular start here, became so popular with Sheffield United that he has a stand named after him at Bramall Lane.

By the summer of 1967, manager Ken Furphy was building what would become the first Watford squad to reach Division Two. The spine of Furphy’s promotion team was in place, and this wide-eyed 14-year-old was not alone in believing that the 1967/68 season would finally see local dreams come true.

But the season started badly. The football was good but early results poor, with the away form dreadful. Furphy urgently needed to kick-start a season in danger of ending before it began. He turned to the untried Tony Currie, aged 17, with spectacular results.

Tony had joined Watford after spells as a young player with QPR and Chelsea, signing professional forms in May 1967. A natural finisher, he was an instant success. He scored six goals in his first four starts, including two during a memorable home debut against Bristol Rovers, followed by a stunning hat-trick against Peterborough, which caused the football world to take note.

With that latter game taking place in midweek, some serious newspaper writers were drawn to Vicarage Road. The influential David Miller, writing in the Telegraph, observed that ‘not every international player’s professional career begins in celebrated surroundings, and the thought occurred last night that Watford might have such a player in the making’.

After his eye-catching debut, the Watford Observer led with the fairly predictable ‘Currie is Too Hot for Rovers’. Goals were flowing and suddenly we were embarking upon exciting times. Furphy’s team was delivering pretty much what we’d all anticipated back in the summer.

Attendances soared, but the trouble remained away from home. By New Year Watford had scored 34 at home, but just seven on the road. And Tony Currie, for all his precocious ability, couldn’t help address that weakness. In fact, he never scored an away goal for the club.

Tony’s final Watford goals comprised another hat-trick, this time part of a 7-1 thrashing of Grimsby Town, whose hapless full-back Graham Taylor was too busy being run ragged by Stewart Scullion to get anywhere near Currie. But Furphy’s frustration was all too apparent, and by November he was only selecting Tony to play in home games.

The talent was obvious, but his pragmatic manager remained unconvinced that Tony could do the necessary job with consistency. Scouts were soon circling, and it came as no great surprise when Sheffield United, struggling in Division One, pounced. Chairman Jim Bonser sanctioned the deal for £26,500 shortly after Currie’s 18th birthday.

Tony made his first-team debut for the Blades in February 1968, scoring with a superb header against Tottenham. His popularity at Bramall Lane was never in doubt, but impending hero status was confirmed when he scored, both home and away, against Liverpool over Easter. Alas he was unable to help the Blades avoid relegation, but he became a regular, playing every game in 1970/71 as they returned to the top-flight.

Alf Ramsey was sufficiently impressed to award Tony the first of his 17 full England caps in 1972, still aged just 22. However, his international debut was made alongside fellow maverick Rodney Marsh, the combination providing a neat illustration of the expression, ‘Too Much of a Good Thing’.

Blades fans were distraught when, after eight years at Bramall Lane, he moved to Leeds for £245,000 following another relegation. Again, he became enormously popular with the fans (a status he retains to this day, remarkably at both clubs), and remained a virtual ever-present in the England squad. However, his wife never fully settled and in 1979 they moved back to London where Tony joined QPR for £400,000.

He helped Rangers to the 1982 FA Cup final, but knee injuries took their toll and a glittering career rather petered out, following spells with Toronto, Chesham, Southend, Torquay, Tranmere, Dunstable, Hendon and Goole Town. There were probably a few others, too.

With his shaggy, long blonde hair Tony looked like a 1970s glam rocker, but alongside strength, tenacity and deceptive speed, he possessed that precious ability to find a teammate from any distance, while making the ball do whatever he chose. Once established at Bramall Lane, Tony dropped back to orchestrate their attack. These days he might be considered a quarterback, calling the plays from midfield.

Tony featured in what became a classic 1970s football image. Playing for Sheffield United in 1975 he collided with Leicester’s Alan Birchenall. As the pair sat on the ground they puckered up and kissed in a shot that catapulted both men into national prominence, while establishing TC as something of an unwitting gay icon.

Despite racking up well over 500 top-flight appearances, together with those 17 precious international caps, Currie’s career ended without any major trophies. But he was unquestionably one of the great entertainers, having begun a hugely eventful and high-profile career with us at Vicarage Road.

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