20 Years; 20 Players: No.9 John Humphrey
In no order or rank I am selecting 20 Players who I remember the most fondly in my almost 50 years as a Charlton fan.
I’m doing this to commemorate writing this Blog for 20 years. I’m picking Places too, but this is my Player No.9 – John Humphrey.
£75,000 Lennie Lawrence paid Wolves for John Humphrey in the summer of 1985. He was 24 and a handsome devil. The right back agreed to drop a division, but he was rewarded with a promotion in which we replaced his old club in the top tier.
In the five seasons he patrolled our right side of defence he missed only one league game and faced the best wingers and strikers playing in the country at that time. Barnes, Waddle, Le Tissier, Lineker, Rush, Aldridge, Beardsley, Fashanu.
Maybe it was because we stood in the decrepit Arthur Wait Stand but Humphrey was fantastic to watch up close. Graceful but strong in the tackle. He was a quick-thinker and a quick mover. He would glide down the right wing and put in some peaches of a cross.
John won three consecutive POTY awards (1988, 1989, 1990) and no Charlton player has ever done that. After we were relegated in 1990, in what was I think a pretty unscrupulous move, Palace signed him for a song in lieu of some rent. Fortunately we were on our path back to The Valley at that point.
Humphrey returned to the Addicks towards the end of his career for the 1995/96 season and got to play at The Valley.
Humphrey made well over 300 top tier appearances and played until he was 40 finishing up at Chesham. By that time he was teaching at Croydon’s Whitgift School who with former Addick and his old roommate Colin Pates set up a formidable student footballing academy there. Follwing that Humphrey became head of football at Highgate School in north London.
Appearances 267. Goals 3 (1985 – 1990 and 1995 – 1996)
I stood in the half awake stand in the Palace years, albeit mostly in the pen closest to the Sainsbury’s end or whatever it was called and also got to see him close up.
He linked well with Robert Lee arguably making him a better player. Lee could push forward in the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to ever go sprinting back because Humphrey was out of of position or was struggling and you could literally count the mistakes he’s make in a season on one hand and still have a couple of fingers left over.
A crying shame that he never got an England call up, he played well against some internationally rated wingers but we were never a fashionable enough club.
John or Tasty as he was known lived above me in a converted vicarage . In season he was a true professional quiet never out drinking as was the culture in those days. At the end of season we would go for a drink, he was a genuinely decent guy and good company. For a Charlton fan it was a thrill to spend time with him and to see him grace the pitch.