Football hard-men. Every great club has had one. Every fan hates the thug at their rival club. Sometimes their demeanour spills over the confinements of the football pitch and into the public realm. Insert your favourite expletive here for such players if you wish.
Not every hard man is like this, and the bruising football players of yesteryear would have today's thugs bursting into tears into their Gucci manbags. Eddie Thomson played for Hearts and Aberdeen in the 60s and 70s, and what a beast he was.
Bryan Cooney of the Sunday Herald is able to boast a strong friendship with Eddie, and confirms he was a gentleman off the park, just as we come to expect from the real British footballers of years gone by.
Read Bryan's great story, including the one regret he harbours from that friendship, here.
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