Gary Robson and Carlton Palmer are to receive their Baggies Caps at tomorrows game against Sheffield Wednesday.
https://www.wba.co.uk/news/2018/december/two-more-old-heroes-to-receive-caps/
I knew Gary (and Bryan) as a kid, a really quiet unassuming lad, not a bit like Bryan.
Carlton Palmer was a really funny bloke, some of the old TV footage of him is quality!
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=carlton+palmer+joking&oq=carlton+palmer+joking&aqs=chrome..69i57.6943j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8also this article sheds some light on CP
CARLTON PALMER had just thrown up in the dug-out before Sheffield Wednesday’s match against Queen’s Park Rangers on New Year’s Day in 1994 when a concerned Les Ferdinand shuffled across.
“He said to me, ‘You OK Carlton? You stink of booze’,†says Palmer, recalling one of the few occasions when alcohol really did effect him on the pitch.
“When the floodlights came on in the second half, I was so disorientated I was facing my own goal. But we still won 2-1.â€
But that effect was a rarity for former England midfielder Palmer who, despite playing for a host of top clubs including West Brom, Leeds United, Southampton, Nottingham Forest, Coventry and Watford, used to drink a shot of brandy to calm his nerves before each match.
Ron Atkinson, his manager at Sheffield Wednesday, had “no problem†with it, according to Palmer.
“Every player has their rituals that they associate with being successful,†he says. “And mine was take a tot of brandy before games because I used to get so nervous. It used to calm me down.
“It wasn’t a secretive swig from a hip flask hidden in my wash bag or anything like that. I was quite open about it.
“I would always come out of the dressing room last and insisted on being the last one on the field. I would wander into the lounge in the main stand at Hillsborough, past the surprised sponsors and be-suited executives, jog to the bar where the staff had lined up my drink, swig it down, joke with them ‘see you again in 90 minutes when I come in to collect my man-of-the-match award’ and run out on to the pitch.
“Big Ron never had a problem with it. Nobody had a problem with it as long as I did my job on the pitch. What you do off the pitch is immaterial in my view as long as you perform on it. It was a psychological need.
“Gary Lineker habitually took Imodium before England games; at West Brom, I remember the goalkeeper Stuart Naylor was sick before each game; and when I came across him on England duty Stuart Pearce used to find a quiet corner, put on a set of headphones and sometimes even stuck his head into a book. He never did stretches. Part of my ritual was a shot of brandy!â€
After moving to Leeds, Howard Wilkinson politely suggested that Palmer cut out the alcohol to see if it improved his performances, let alone prolong his career. Palmer agreed but his form promptly fell off the proverbial cliff.
“The more I didn’t drink the worse I played,†he says.
Wilkinson, convinced that the midfielder had ignored his advice, dropped him, stuck in the reserves before calling him into his office to ask what was wrong. When Palmer assured him he was not touching a drop, Wilkinson reached into the fridge in his office, pulled out a can of lager and told him to drink it. And once he was back on the ale on a regular basis, his form returned.
But when pictures of an inebriated Palmer, in his club track suit, cavorting on the back of Sheffield Wednesday team-mate Woods on their night out before that QPR game appeared in the Sunday papers, it was the beginning of the end of Palmer’s time at Hillsborough