Cyrille Regis - a tribute

[PeterWithe]

Reading some of the other tributes, I also didn’t know that Alan Shearer had a trial at WBA.

[Diablo]

Rest in Peace Cyrille. Great article Dave.

[OzVilla]

Reading some of the other tributes, I also didn’t know that Alan Shearer had a trial at WBA.

True but in fairness they already had their future eye on that all-round strikers striker, Colin West.

[robbo1874]

Whilst I’m well aware of his achievements at WBA and the esteem that he is held by most West Mids football supporters, my clearest memories of big Cyrille were his days at Coventry, funnily enough. He’s one of the few players to have played for them, with the notable exceptions of Robbie Keane and Dion Dublin, who I actually coveted at the time he played for them.

RIP big Cyrille - a true West Midlands legend.

[Drummond]

It's very rare to come across a player that nobody has a bad word to say about. Not only that, but everyone has plenty of good words to say about him too. A great in so many ways.

[Toronto Villa]

For me I didn’t have anything really against Coventry until much later on when they started to love themselves. But at the time it was hard not to be happy to see them lift The FA Cup. A proper magic of the Cup moment in the history of the competition. And happy for Cyrille that he made to on of the peaks in the domestic game.

[SamTheMouse]

Beautifully written tribute. He embodied the power of sport to change society for the better. Uplifting and sad all at once.

[garyshawsknee]

I heard on the Guradian football weekly podcast, that Cruyff wanted to sign Cyrille when he was manager at Ajax.

[amfy]

official.minutes applause before the game on saturday.

[The Left Side]

He sat with us at Wembley at the 94 Coca-Cup Final, what a great guy he was.

[Allan C]

Brilliant piece Dave  thank you for writing it

[lordmcgrath5]

Excellent piece which I've forwarded to my Albion mates. A lovely tribute to a great man.

[dcdavecollett]

A great piece -you've excelled yourself with this one.

[Matt Collins]

Excellent article

I’ve been reflecting on this since he died. On the one hand it’s great that he forced people
To change their views, to swallow their bile and to help dilute bigotry

But it also pisses me off that he even had to. That he had to just shut up and prove them wrong on the pitch. In some way earn some people’s respect to be recognised as an equal human being. He shouldn’t had had to.

[WarszaVillan]

For younger fans it's probably hard to understand how virulent and widespread racism was in the 1970s and through the 80s at football matches. One incident that sticks in my mind was Garry Thompson getting sent off at Villa Park playing for Coventry. All the Villa fans were giving 'monkey chants' as he walked off. To my shame as a child I thought this was great fun and joined in. I was lucky enough to have a Dad that turned round and told me to shut the fuck up and I never did it again.

Anyway RIP Cyril you were great.