The Hall of Fame Number 44 – Dave Thomas
| Date of Birth:
5th October 1950
Place of Birth:
Kirkby-in-Ashfield
Burnley debut:
Everton (h)
13th May 1967
Other Clubs Queens Park Ranger
Everton
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Middlesbrough
Portsmouth
|
When Dave Thomas arrived at Turf Moor in the summer of 1966 as 15-year-old associate schoolboy many experts were already predicting an international future for him.
He’d already played on the Turf, in a schoolboy international, and he was set to make an impact at Turf Moor sooner than anyone imagined.
He went straight into the reserve team but it was still a major surprise when he was called up for his first team debut on the last day of that season. On 13th May 1967 he lined up against Everton at Turf Moor and at the age of 16 years and 220 days became the second youngest player ever to play for the club and the youngest ever to play in the 1st Division.
He was 46 days older than Tommy Lawton whose debut was at 2nd Division level in the 1930s.
It didn’t win him a first team place the following year but he was a vital part of the team that won the FA Youth Cup for the Clarets, playing inside-left with Steve Kindon on the left wing.
With the departure of Willie Morgan in 1968 he stepped up into the first team on a regular basis and was soon joined by Kindon as we went on a run of eight successive victories in the autumn of 1968.
One of those victories was a 5-1 hammering of Leeds who were on their way to the title that season. After the game Leeds boss Don Revie said that Thomas was the finest talent in Britain and possibly in the whole of Europe.
England honours soon came his way and he made his Under-23 debut aged just nineteen whilst still making his mark at Burnley.
Thomas suffered though along with the club over the next couple of years as we lost our status in the top division and then with the emergence of Leighton James he found himself having to play in midfield when he was at his most dangerous as a winger.
There was constant speculation that he and manager Jimmy Adamson didn’t see eye to eye and he was forever being linked with moves to bigger clubs, particularly after we had been relegated.
He remained at Burnley throughout the first season of 2nd Division football and played in all but five of the games that season and as the 1972/73 season got underway he found himself in a midfield role.
He played the first eleven games of the season as we got off to an unbeaten start but incredibly found himself suspended after picking up bookings during a referees clampdown.
After a 2-2 draw at Luton he missed the next two games with suspension and was replaced in the side by Geoff Nulty. It was difficult to imagine at the time but he had played his last game for the club and shortly afterwards was sold.
That was a shock because with a number of top clubs supposedly wanting him he was sold to our 2nd Division promotion rivals Queens Park Rangers for £165,000. They finished behind us in 2nd place that season and he was always greeted with chants of ‘Thomas, Thomas Runner-Up’ when he returned to Turf Moor.
He did actually win both a winners and a runners-up medal that season having played enough games for both clubs.
A year later he made his England debut but amazingly won just eight full caps to add to eleven Under-23 caps.
After two good seasons each in Division One we went down in the third season whilst QPR came within a point of winning the title and Thomas was now fulfilling his potential and in 1977 was snapped up by Everton.
He was quickly a favourite of the Goodison crowd playing as a left winger and providing goal after goal after goal for Bob Latchford.
It was short and sweet though and he moved on to unsuccessful spells with Wolves and Middlesbrough with a spell in America in between before ending his career in the lower divisions with Portsmouth.
Dave Thomas probably never did become the great star those experts said he would be and we certainly never got to see the best of him at Burnley. But he remains one of the finest prospects ever to come through the youth scheme at Turf Moor, a fantastic talent, and probably the best crosser of a ball that I ever saw in a Claret & Blue shirt.
Whether it was a rift with Adamson or a financial decision that saw him move to Loftus Road we will never know but it cost us a great talent who in the next few years could just have helped us become Jimmy Adamson’s Team of the Seventies.
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