Larry Lloyd, no-nonsense defender who twice gained the European Cup with Nottingham Forest – obituary
Larry Lloyd, who has died aged 75, was an English footballer who gained main home and European honours as a rugged, no-frills defender with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest beneath the larger-than-life managers Bill Shankly and Brian Clough, in addition to being chosen for England by Sir Alf Ramsey.
Lloyd’s worldwide profession spanned 9 years however amounted to solely 4 caps. 4 years after he was first chosen he had dropped into the Second Division, but his contribution to Forest’s meteoric rise satisfied certainly one of Ramsey’s successors, Ron Greenwood, to revive him to the nationwide workforce.
Laurence Valentine Lloyd was born in Bristol on October 6 1948, the eighth of 10 kids borne by his mom René. His father Tom was blind and by no means noticed him play, which Lloyd ranked alongside his resolution to promote his medals for £12,000 when he was “completely skint” in 2001 as his “biggest remorse”.
The teenaged Lloyd, an engineering apprentice, performed for Henbury Outdated Boys within the Bristol Downs League and represented Gloucestershire at youth degree. Although he lacked tempo and finesse, Bristol Rovers took an opportunity on his fearless tackling and aerial power, giving him his Third Division debut in August 1968.
Lloyd stood 6ft 3in tall and weighed greater than 14st. His defensive companion Stuart Taylor was 6ft 5in, resulting in their being dubbed “the Twin Towers”.
Inside six months, Liverpool’s chief scout, Geoff Twentyman, was impressed by Lloyd’s dealing with of Everton’s Joe Royle in an FA Cup tie. In April 1969 Shankly paid £55,000, a file price for Rovers, to carry him to Anfield, the place he was earmarked to succeed the veteran Ron Yeats because the rock round whom the rearguard can be rebuilt.
Lloyd was solely 20 when he grew to become a fixture within the aspect, enjoying in tandem with the equally strong Tommy Smith when Liverpool misplaced 2-1 to Arsenal within the 1971 FA Cup remaining. His type alerted Ramsey, who was looking for a dominant successor to Jack Charlton and Brian Labone. Eleven days after his Wembley disappointment he was again on the stadium dealing with Wales in a 0-0 draw.
Two additional caps adopted in the course of the 1971-72 marketing campaign earlier than Ramsey settled on the extra skilful Roy McFarland of Derby County. Shankly, although, picked Lloyd for all 66 of Liverpool’s aggressive video games as they gained the double of the League Cup and Uefa Cup in 1972-73.
Lloyd’s future at Liverpool look assured after he scored what proved the decisive purpose within the remaining of the latter competitors, securing a 3-0 first-leg lead over Borussia Moenchengladbach. They misplaced the return 2-0 in West Germany however held out to safe the membership’s first European trophy.
Nonetheless, the harm which pressured his substitution towards Norwich Metropolis in February 1974 signalled the tip of his Anfield sojourn. Phil Thompson took his place, and after Shankly resigned on the finish of the season, the brand new supervisor, Bob Paisley, favoured the 20-year-old’s larger mobility and passing means.
Lloyd later admitted: “I threw my toys out of the pram and demanded a switch.” Coventry Metropolis paid a club-record price of £240,000 however his time there was blighted by harm. In September 1976, on the advice of Clough’s assistant Peter Taylor, Forest persuaded him to drop a division by becoming a member of them on mortgage.
The transfer was made everlasting for £60,000 after Clough assured him an uncommon signing-on price: a washer. The supervisor duly liberated one from the Metropolis Floor with out telling the laundry girls, who have been fast to berate a bemused Lloyd.
The newcomer was paired with Kenny Burns, deemed a trouble-maker at Birmingham Metropolis however described by Taylor as “the Scottish Bobby Moore” as Forest started their cost from the decrease Second Division. “No person messed with these two,” Clough stated.
After gaining promotion in Lloyd’s first season, they gained the League Championship on the first try, additionally lifting the League Cup by defeating Liverpool, sweetly for Lloyd.
Clough and Taylor’s band of discount buys, free transfers, misfits and mavericks promptly added two successive European Cups. Within the second remaining, towards Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg, Lloyd excelled regardless of an ankle-ligament harm. He additionally earned two League Cup winner’s medals.
His England recall got here in Might 1980 – he was paired with Phil Thompson – however resulted in his substitution throughout a 4-1 humbling by Wales.
Lloyd had typically clashed with Clough, notably for refusing to put on the membership blazer. However 10 months after his worldwide swansong he grew to become a member of the identical occupation as player-manager of Fourth Division Wigan Athletic. His assistant, Fred Eyre, wrote in his memoir that Lloyd was liable to “wild outbursts” and may very well be “strong-willed, single-minded, explosive and uncontrollable”.
However he achieved promotion in his first season, then stored Wigan within the Third Division in 1982-83 earlier than taking on as Notts County supervisor within the high flight. Relegated in 1983-84, Notts sacked him two months into the following season.
Lloyd, “disillusioned” with soccer, ran the Stage Door pub in Nottingham, as soon as banishing Roy Keane from Forest’s Christmas celebration for “giving me some lip”. He later labored as a radio pundit on the membership’s matches earlier than transferring to Spain, the place he ran a bar. In 2008 his autobiography, Arduous Man, Arduous Recreation, was revealed, and in 2021 he returned to Nottingham.
Larry Lloyd married Susan Justice in 1969. They’d a daughter and a son however divorced.
Larry Lloyd, born October 6 1948, died March 28 2024
