Langan’s ball

HE MIGHT have been one of the most feted English footballers of all time but, in an era when many top players couldn’t afford to give up the day job, Tom Finney wasn’t called the ‘Preston Plumber’ for nothing: the great winger once even turned up to fit a new sink for Football League boss Alan Harwicker.

But you don’t have to journey all the way back to the 1950s to encounter international footballers whose life experiences are light years removed from the wealth and glamour and privilege which permeate the upper reaches of the game nowadays.

Just over 20 years ago, Dave Langan was a regular for the Republic of Ireland, a whole-hearted, rampaging full back who featured prominently in the 1988 Euro qualifiers but who, sadly, failed to make the cut when Jack Charlton assembled the squad which would go on to hit unprecedented heights in Germany.