Manchester City and Rochdale
In February 1973, Whelan was on the verge of signing for Bolton Wanderers when his mother received a phone call from Manchester City manager Malcolm Allison. He was offered a month-long trial with the club, and within three weeks he had been offered a professional contract and was making his debut against West Ham United, starting up front with Francis Lee on 17 March 1973. However, Whelan only made five more appearances for City over the next sixteen months before departing for Rochdale in July 1974. In his first season with Rochdale, Whelan was voted as the club's Player of the Year. In the second season he became, jointly with Clive Charles of Cardiff City, the first black player to receive a PFA divisional award being named by his fellow pros in their all-star team. He scored 20 goals in 130 first team outings for Rochdale.
Read more about this topic: Tony Whelan
Famous quotes containing the words manchester and/or city:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Without infringing on the liberty we so much boast, might we not ask our professional Mayor to call upon the smokers, have them register their names in each ward, and then appoint certain thoroughfares in the city for their use, that those who feel no need of this envelopment of curling vapor, to insure protection may be relieved from a nuisance as disgusting to the olfactories as it is prejudicial to the lungs.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)