Down the years there have been numerous examples of fathers and sons both gracing our football pitches, with a couple of particularly interesting instances at Manchester City.
Traversing the Sixties and Seventies, Mike Summerbee was a brilliant winger, one third of City’s triumvirate of greats from that era, the others being Francis Lee and Colin Bell. Summerbee is now an ambassador for the club, his legendary status long secured.
A couple of decades later, along came his offspring Nicky who, like his dad, started at Swindon before also starring at Maine Road. He played in the same position too, hugging the right touchline.
Of course, with such huge boots to fill, Nicky was never held in the same lofty regard as his father. Still, he was a decent player who carved out a respectable career.
While Nicky was worrying full-backs in East Manchester, over in Nottingham, Alfie Haaland was stationed in Forest’s midfield.
The extremely blonde Norwegian would later turn out for City and though he never reached exceptional heights he also was a decent player, posting a respectable career.
A couple of decades on, along came his third and youngest child Erling, terrorising top-flight defences for his dad’s former employer.
Will Erling become a legend in the mould of Mike Summerbee, thus completing this idiosyncratic chain? With City favourites in the Premier League betting odds and the forward smashing records left, right and centre, it feels almost inevitable.
For a single season in the late-Nineties, Haaland senior played alongside Nigel Clough – who was on loan at the time from Manchester City but let’s stop that now – who not only played under his dad at the City Ground, but a dad who had previously proven himself one of the all-time greatest in Nigel’s position.
So remarkable was Brian Clough as a manager, and so engaging was he as a personality, that it’s easy to forget that at Middlesbrough and Sunderland soon after the war ‘Old Big ‘Ead’ had plenty to be big-headed about, scoring 251 goals in 274 appearances. That is Haaland levels right there.
Thankfully for ‘Our Nigel’, he was a different kind of striker to his father, a creator as much as a converter, and the present-day Mansfield gaffer was certainly not the only player to get the hairdryer treatment in the dressing room from a man who once rocked him to sleep.
At Old Trafford, Darren Ferguson made 28 outings for his pater Sir Alex, a figure so obsessed with the game he presumably tied a tactics board above Darren’s crib as a bairn.
Like Clough, the Manchester United gaffer’s achievements in the dug-out were so momentous, making the Reds short-priced in the sports betting for over twenty years, that it’s easy to forget his earlier incarnation as a player. Across the Sixties, Ferguson senior was a no-nonsense forward for Dunfermline and Rangers.
Elsewhere, there are many other such instances of strong, footballing genes. Patrick and Justin Kluivert anyone? What about Lilian and Marcus Thuram who have both starred in World Cup finals?
It is impossible to watch the impish Ianos Hagi at Rangers meanwhile without seeing shades of the majestic Gheorghe.
All of which suggests that it’s hardly unknown for the apple to not fall far from the tree. Sometimes though the tree is a huge and imposing oak, the apple barely edible. At other times, it’s the fruit of the loins that shines brightest.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
