Thanks / No Thanks: Sheffield Wednesday

No Thanks – Tommy Tynan

 

There are people far better placed than me to tell you about Tommy Tynan, Malcolm mentions him in his season review of 1978/79, but the former Liverpool youth was certainly one who flopped badly at City. He signed for a club-record fee of £33,000 from Sheffield Wednesday, a figure worth about £190,000 today. He did sign for a poor Lincoln team, but came on the back of 31 goals in 91 appearances for The Owls. Surely, that one in three ratio could help keep us in the Third Division? Sadly, not.

In his autobiography, Tynan refers to his stay with the Imps as ‘the worst time of my footballing life’, which was a feeling very much reciprocated by fans who saw him play. Our money bought us a single Tynan goal, a free header in our 2-2 draw with Oxford. He was sold to Newport for £25,000 in February 1979 with a single goal from his nine outings. He bagged a goal every three games for The Ironsides (as they were then known), before moving to Plymouth. Later in life, Tynan became something of a legend at Home Park. In the 1984/85 season, he was the joint top scorer in all Four Divisions with 31 goals, and he scored 126 goals in three stays with The Pilgrims.

He is apparently now a taxi driver, which I’m pretty sure will make a few Imps fans smile ironically.