WEMBLEY will rise as one today to honour Ray Wilkins and this year’s FA Cup final will become synonymous with his name.
Those who knew Wilkins best are still in shock at the former midfielder’s death after a heart attack five weeks ago. He was just 61.
Current Crystal Palace and former England No 2 Ray Lewington started at Chelsea on the same day as Wilkins, when they were both ten years old.
Simply sharing the same first name was enough to draw two youngsters together. But it turned out to be the start of their 50-year friendship.
They shared similar family backgrounds, their birthdays were a week apart and they played together in Chelsea’s first team before Wilkins was sold to Manchester United in 1979.
Those two of Wilkins’ former teams — he also had long spells with AC Milan, Rangers and QPR — contest the only major silverware Wilkins won as a player, even though many say he is the most talented midfielder England ever produced.
Wilkins won the Cup with United in 1983 — scoring a stunner in the 2-2 draw with Brighton before beating the Seagulls 4-0 in a replay.
Lewington said: “I was lucky as a Chelsea player. I had a free ticket to the best seat in the house having Ray play in front of me.
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“Our manager Eddie McCreadie would just tell me to win the ball, then give it to Ray. That was my job at the back of a diamond formation.
“Really talented players make the game look easy and that went against Ray in some ways. He made it look so easy that some thought he wasn’t trying.
“He was called the crab, which isn’t the most complimentary nickname.
“They would say he always passed sideways, never forwards — which is simply not true. Those who really saw his talent knew you could drop a ball to him anywhere and he’d dig it out and lay on the next brilliant pass.
“It’s fitting that two of the clubs he graced play in the Cup final today. That’s recognition. But Ray never really got credit for his talent here in England.
“Even though he won 84 caps for this country, his performances were only truly loved by the Italians when he went out there. They saw it in him.”
Wilkins was ahead of his time in every sense. Lewington recalls how his great mate accelerated clear of his peers by joining AC Milan — a rare event in the insular world of 1980s Italian football.
Lewington, 61, said: “We joined Chelsea together. We weren’t allowed to actually play for the club in those days, just trial games at the end of each season.
“But we grew up together. We went through the youth team through to the reserves. He progressed a lot quicker than me and was captain of the club at 18.
“Ray was an exceptional talent. He had the ability to take inswinging corners with both feet at the age of 14 — that’s the sign of a naturally gifted player for you, a real class act.
“You find in young kids particularly that if one shows stand-out talent that it can breed resentment in others. Yet Ray never suffered with that. Everybody liked him.
“When he was promoted to the first team at 17, everybody was genuinely pleased for him.
“We all knew he was way ahead of us. But he never needed aggression, never lost his temper; he was just a plain and simple nice lad . . . a charming man.
“We had a lot in common. I was one of six and so was he. Same name of course and our birthdays were a few days apart. We were both small as well and the youngest at Stamford Bridge by some way.
“We didn’t go out on the pull together because Ray wasn’t like that. His dad had played for Brentford and was very strict. If you wanted to make it as a pro, you had to live right. All the time.
“His brothers were pros and the whole family thought the same. Ray was serious about making it as a professional footballer. He was dedicated, football was his life.
“We had a joint 21st birthday and used Stamford Bridge because we had such big families — my mum was one of 11.
“There were loads of cousins there and some of my aunts and uncles still talk about that night because Ray was so charming.”
With sports scientists and data analysts beavering around every club these days, could graceful Wilkins have cut it in the laboratory-made world of modern football where science is as important as art?
Lewington said: “Ray would be able to play in any era.
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“Remember, he played on pitches that were 40 per cent sand yet he made it look like a billiards table.
“He played against teams which would try to stop him by any means and in the 1970s and 80s he wasn’t protected by referees the way players are now.
“There were crunching tackles flying around all over the place.
“But he still shone and he would be a star today no problem.”
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