There have been many legends over time at our wonderful club, but I doubt any of them would have had a bigger heart than Billy Bonds? Playing nearly 800 first team games in a span of 21 years, Billy played in several positions including right back, right wing, midfield, central defence and even as a forward on occasions under Ron Greenwood. He of course would go on to manage the club after his playing career for four eventful years which saw two promotions and one relegation.
It is impossible to cover Billy’s fantastic career at West Ham in one short article, so I thought a look back at some of his early comments after he first joined the club would suffice today. Bill joined the Hammers from Charlton in 1967 for a figure just shy of 50 thousand pounds. After playing in Ken Brown’s testimonial he made his league debut against Sheffield Wednesday in the opening game of the 1967-8 season. He was an immediate club favourite for his overlapping runs from right back where he and winger Harry Redknapp formed a great playing relationship. Young Bill was clean shaven and had tidy hair but as time passed we would get to know and love his long hair, bearded, swashbuckling style that would become a fearsome sight for the opposition.
Billy’s first impression of West Ham was that the side gave away goals too easily. He was once quoted as saying “There isn’t anyone around to get hold of us. That’s what we need. There is not enough talking on the field. I talk, and so does Alan Stephenson. But West Ham players have too much respect. They think everyone is capable of doing a job” Billy went on to say how much he admired Ron Greenwood, Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst before saying that despite reputations, his respect never led him to be frightened of anyone in the game. He told of Ron Greenwood demanding that West Ham players never hurt or try to hurt any opponent whilst it was evident that many other teams had players that would deliberately chop or hack down opponents if they thought it necessary. Billy said around the time, “there is a lot of dirty play in today’s game – It’s “in” you might say”.
West Ham in those days were highly regarded as a footballing team but one that would also let the opposition play. The Hammers on song could beat anyone on the planet but the soft edge to the side would often see our dreams fade and die as more uncompromising teams often took advantage. Eventually, Billy would go on to provide a new steel on the field that West Ham were missing, but it would take time. His seventh game for West Ham was to unveil the soft belly he was talking about. A 3-0 lead at Upton Park against Stoke was turned incredibly into a 4-3 defeat. In his early days Billy’s worst footballing moment came with the 3-0 FA Cup defeat at 3rd division Mansfield in 1969. Not only was this one of the biggest cup shocks of all time, but the Mansfield coach that day, Jock Basford, was also the coach that “discovered” Billy in his early days. Jock told Billy after the game that Mansfield’s tactics were simple. Throw the long ball into the penalty area whenever and as often as they could – West Ham can’t deal with that.
But Billy would have better times ahead in his career. He was six foot two and had eyes of blue………