Johnny (Budgie) Byrne was born in 1939 and died in October 1999. He was simply known as Budgie in the football World, a nickname he acquired due to his constant chattering! Budgie played for Epsom Town and Guildford City Youth before signing for Crystal Palace on the 13th May 1956 which was his 17th birthday. He played five seasons there and his talent and goal scoring record in the lower tiers soon came to the notice of West Ham manager Ron Greenwood, although to be fair, he had already won England caps by then. A deal was struck for the striker that was valued at 65,000 pounds with Ron Brett playing his small part in a money plus player deal. It was a British transfer record at the time. Palace had actually wanted Geoff Hurst in the part exchange but Greenwood decided against it after initially including Geoff as part of the offer. This was shortly before Hurst was transformed from a midfielder to a striker. Greenwood initially moved Geoff Hurst up front as a work horse to create space for Budgie Byrne. Geoff Hurst was to say “Playing alongside him was one of the best things that could have happened to me. He was just 23 but already a big name. He was an incessant talker – he would drive you mad in the dressing room, but once on the pitch you just stood back and admired a rare talent. He was an artful dodger. He would score goals and you would scratch your head wondering how he did it.”
After signing for the Hammers Budgie got off to a slow start as he played in the final eleven games of the 1961/62 season and only scored one goal. Well, the next five seasons improved quite a lot! What would a striker on today’s market be worth if he scored 108 goals in 206 top flight, FA Cup and European level matches? In the Cup winning year of 1963/64, Budgie beat Bobby Moore to the Hammer of the Year award and also played his part in the Cup Final win against Preston. The following season his goals helped the Hammers to the ECWC Final but unfortunately he was injured and unable to play in that famous game at Wembley against 1860 Munich. He did play eleven times for England scoring 8 goals, including a hat trick against Eusabio’s Portugal. Despite his annoying habits, Budgie was teaching Geoff Hurst a lot and the two were scoring for fun. Ron Greenwood tagged him the “English Di Stefano.”
However, during Budgie’s five seasons at West Ham he drove a lot of people mad with his chatter. One such man was physio Bill Jenkins who was tormented endlessly. Bill used to come back with “for your own sake Budgie, never get injured.” But it was Bill who was the one who got injured one evening. Budgie had worked him up so much that Bill charged him like a raging bull but Budgie was quick on his feet and avoided the collision. As Bill stumbled he fell and hit his head on some scaffolding and cut his head very badly. Bill Jenkins was a tough man and refused hospital; “take me home, the wife can sew me up.” After that night Budgie really did not want to get injured! He scored 63 goals in 90 games in the two seasons from 1963 to 1965 but Jimmy Greaves was still Alf Ramsey’s first choice for England’s World Cup squad the following season and with Bobby Charlton, Roger Hunt and the ever improving Hurst in the mix he was overlooked.
In some ways Budgie never recovered from missing out on World Cup selection in 1966. By 1967 Hurst had become the World Cup hero and Greenwood did a deal with Palace that took Budgie back to Selhurst Park for 45,000 pounds. Back in those days most players days were considered over by the time they were 30 so it was a considerable sum for a player reaching the end of his career. He only played 36 games for Palace before moving to Fulham for an even briefer spell. Johnny Budgie Byrne ended his playing career with South African side Durban City. Considered one of the best players to play for West Ham and certainly one of the most entertaining, Budgie passed away from a heart attack aged just sixty. His family requested that Budgies ashes be scattered at Upton Park although they were actually buried in the pitch in front of the old South Bank.