Cork soccer legend Frank O'Farrell has died at the age of 94

Frank O'Farrell, football icon, one of Cork’s greatest sporting ambassadors died yesterday morning at 94 years of age.

Born Francis O'Farrell (born 9 October 1927) was an Irish former football player and manager. 

O'Farrell played as a wing half for Cork United, West Ham United and Preston North End. 

He made over 300 appearances in the Football League before joining Weymouth as player-manager. 

He went on to manage Torquay United (three stints), Leicester City, Manchester United, Cardiff City, Iran and Al-Shaab. 

He played for the Republic of Ireland national team, making nine appearances between 1952 and 1959.

Frank O’Farrell was so pleased that he crossed the tracks to enjoy a long and distinguished career in football. 

As a youngster, all this young Irish lad ever wanted to do was drive trains like his Dad. 

“I’ve been blessed and I can have no complaints about the opportunities that life has given me,” said the Corkman who sailed across the Irish Sea to join the Hammers from the now defunct Cork United in January 1948.

Born in Dublin Hill, Blackpool. 

When Frank was five, the family moved to Turner’s Cross Whatever talent he had for soccer had been nurtured by teacher Gerald Fitzgerald in the South Monastery, where he attended before the opening of Christ The King. 

There he captained the school team which defeated North Mon in the U14 final at Douglas. 

Luckily for him Br Dermot, trainer, turned a blind eye as he was beginning his soccer career with Nicholas Rovers. 

Turner’s Cross at the time was a hotbed of soccer. Frank lived in Friars Road seven doors down the street from Big Seanie McCarthy and around the corner were the Noonans, Eugene, Richie and Paddy all capped by the League of Ireland and their brother Kevin. 

Con “Brasso” McCarthy another capped by the League lived just yards away on Congress Road while Tommy Moroney lived a kick of a ball away on Evergreen Road which was the same distance to Peter Desmonds also along Evergreen. 

Tommy and Peter played with Ireland at Godison Park in 1949 when Ireland became the first to beat the English on home soil.

When Frank was 16 he began working on the railway (based in Mallow), his dad drove locomotives and Frank spent a few years as a fireman standing on the footplate, hurriedly shovelling all the coal into the firebox. 

“Football was easy after that!” he said to Neil Welsh when he signed for Western Rovers from Clapton Celtic in 1945. 

Before Clapton he enjoyed playing with St Josephs while temporarily stationed in Waterford. 

He won a Munster Minor Cup medal with Western and at the same time gained experienced by playing Inter-House football against seasoned semi-pros with the CIE.

In 1947, before his twentieth birthday he joined Cork Utd as a replacement for Tommy Moroney who had transferred to West Ham. 

He signed as semi-pro and earned £3 a week plus £1 bonus for a draw and £2 for a win. 

With Cork he got to play with players like Seanie McCarthy, Florrie Burke and Dave Noonan and was on the team that won the Shield. 

To play with them he often had to travel up on the train from Mallow and borrowed his brothers bike to cycle back to North Cork for the night shift.

Little did he know that after just six months he would follow in Moroney’s footsteps and also on whose recommendation it was that he was signed by West Ham.

His long awaited debut with the Hammers didn’t arrive until 1950 when new boss Ted Fenton was at the helm. 

He went on to make 213 appearances in Claret and Blue. 

Upton Park was the home of football intellectuals and the most famous academy in England. 

Over sixty hammers have gone on to manage in the Football League. During his nine seasons at Upton Park apart from himself Noel Cantwell, Dave Sexton and John Bond all went on to manage clubs in the top tier. 

Frank had very happy memories of his years with the Hammers who he was also proud to captain. 

While with the Hammers he was capped eight times by his country and it was in London that he met the love of his life, his future wife, Ann Sheridan when they were both in the Legion of Mary.

Ann passed away last year on March 15th. This time of the year is a very sad time for the family, his brother Mattie's anniversary is Tuesday March 9.

“They were good times and I’ve got very happy memories of my days at West Ham and I’ll always look back and remember the place with fondness,” Said Frank after his transfer to Preston in 1956. 

In a five five-year spell at Deepdale he had the great privilege of playing with England’s International winger the great Sir Tom Finney. 

Frank won his last International cap against Czechoslovakia in 1959 representing Preston.

After hanging up his boots, O’Farrell cut his managerial teeth at Weymouth and Torquay United. 

He succeeded Mat Gillies as Manager of Leicester and took them to an FA Cup final in which they lost 1-0 to Man City in 1969. 

Frank brought Leicester back to the 1st Div as champions in 1971, a feat which was instrumental in landing him the biggest job in football - the managership of Man Utd who selected him in preference to legends like Jock Stein, Brian Clough and Dave Sexton.

“He (Busby) told me that he wanted to step back from managing Manchester United. 

"The team had been together too long, some players were getting old and the team needed to be rebuilt. 

"He said it was a five-year job and that he wanted me to take it on”, Frank told Diarmuid O’Donovan in an interview for the Echo in Liam Ruiseáls during the launching of his autobiography “Changing of the Guard at Old Trafford.” 

Frank then went on to tell Diarmuid more illuminating details of his earliest encounters with Sir Matt., “I asked him what the terms of the contract would be. He said, ‘so many thousand bonus if you win the league, so many thousand if you win the cup, so many thousand for the European Cup and so on and a basic pay of £12,000.’ 

"I said I’d think about it over the weekend, talk to my chairman at Leicester, and get back to him on Monday.

“I spoke to my chairman and he wasn’t happy about it, but I had not signed a new contract so agreed I could talk to Manchester.

“I then arranged to meet Busby and the Manchester United chairman, Louis Edwards to discuss the matter again. 

"We were to meet in a hotel but Busby wasn’t happy with that so I drove out the country, found a lane where we parked and I sat into Louis Edwards Rolls Royce to discuss the matter with them.

"I asked Matt would he repeat the terms again and he said ‘so many thousand for the league and so on…’ and he finished with £12,000 your wages. 

"At that point Louis Edwards interrupted and said ‘No Matt your wrong, it’s £15,000.’ 

“Of course I knew I was in trouble at that point, but what could you do?"

Manchester United was such a big club. On his first day inside Old Trafford Matt showed him an office which they were renovating for him down the hallway from his own manager’s office. 

Matt was to remain in the manager’s office. 

“No Matt, definitely no. We don’t want people thinking that you’re still the manager. Do we”, said Frank politely. 

Busby reluctantly vacated it Man Utd got off to a flying start and were five clear at the top of the league by Christmas. 

Busby was over the moon and declared, At Christmas of the 1971-’72 season, his first at Old Trafford, Manchester United were five points clear at the top of the league. 

Things were going so well that Matt Busby declared, “Frank O’Farrell is probably the best signing I ever made.” 

Frank wasn’t sure about United. 

“George Best was carrying the team but he was also the most disruptive. He would go missing and we weren’t sure if he would turn up. 

“Denis Law was another peculiar person. If he wasn’t playing he wasn’t even interested in watching the game”, Frank told O’Donovan.

A run of seven successive league defeats after the turn of 1972 dragged them down the table. 

In January and February 1972, United conceded 16 goals, including 5 at Elland Road. 

O'Farrell attempted to shore up the leaky defence with the signing of Martin Buchan from Aberdeen for a (then) club record fee of £125,000. United never recovered their early season form and they could only manage an eighth-place finish the same as the previous season.

The new season began with a nine match winless run. In those nine matches Bobby Charlton failed to register a score and eventually, Frank dropped Bobby for three games. which didn’t go down well with Busby. 

He rang Franks wife Anne, “Your husband’s a stubborn auld sod could you ever have a word with him about Bobby.”

Charlton’s Testimonial Dinner Dance, a glitzy affair, was held on Monday 18th December at the Midlands Hotel where punters were asked to fork out £5.50 to dine with footballs elite.

The night of the long knives!

Frank and his wife Ann attended as guests. 

Even though he was the manager, and as such Bobby Charlton’s boss he was not afforded a seat at the top table. 

Despite the on-field difficulties and insulting actions of the organisers, it provided some brief respite. 

O’Farrell schmoozed with his employers, drank and danced with them and the party lasted until the early hours. 

But, the next morning, O’Farrell was summoned to meet the board. He knew what was coming. 

It was a beautiful, sun-kissed journey from his home to Louis Edwards’ (United’s then-chairman) offices in Manchester. 

“A nice day for an execution”, he said, upon entering the room.

And that was it. Just hours after playing happy families, he was gone. 

On the same day, the club's directors also announced that the errant George Best would not be playing for them again.

It was 18 months since Frank was appointed to try and clean up the mess Busby had left behind. His first season had seen United finish 8th. 

The first half of his second, admittedly, had been a struggle. 

O’Farrell expected a decent pay-off and for both parties to shake hands and move on. Except that didn’t happen. 

He was forced to take the club to court to get what he was owed. It was a nine-month ordeal. 

It was embarrassing, humiliating. For a while, he was forced to sign on. At the age of 45 and months after being the manager of Manchester United, O’Farrell would go to his local labour exchange and walk in the back-door to avoid being spotted by the press. 

Eventually and to avoid the adverse publicity, United settled out of court. It is not the fact that he was sacked that rankles most with Frank. 

He was told it would take five years and he was only given a season and a half; that annoyed him. Tommy Docherty succeeded him and Manchester United were relegated in Docherty’s second season.

After the misery of Old Trafford he managed Cardiff City before jetting to foreign parts to guide Iran to glory in the Asian Games. 

They defeated Israel 1-0 in the decider played before 120,000 spectators in Tehran. Iran qualified for the Olympic games in 1976 and two years later reached the World Cup finals in Argentina. 

On his return from Iran he rejoined Torquay as consultant and General Manager, a position held until his retirement five years later.

He was voted the Texaco Soccer Sportstar of the Year in 1971 as well as becoming the first soccer personality to receive the Supreme Sportstar Award the same year. 

Twenty eight years later he was thrilled to be invited back to Leeside to receive the Cork Soccer Legend Award.

On 29 November 1976, O'Farrell returned to Torquay United as manager, replacing his friend and former assistant Malcolm Musgrove.

He remained with the club as consultant manager when until 1980 where he joined United Arab Emirati club Al-Shaab. 

Frank became Torquay manager again in May 1981, but once more relinquished the position the following year, this time in July 1982 on the appointment of Bruce Rioch. 

He worked as general manager until his retirement in 1983, aged 55.

After his retirement, O'Farrell continued to live in Torquay. 

In 1993, he worked as a scout for Everton and Bolton Wanderers.[11] In later life, he ran a nursing home in Devon with his wife, Ann. 

He had been active in church affairs and presided over the local Conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. 

In 2011, his autobiography All Change at Old Trafford was published.

May he rest in peace.