Burn Budgie Byrne

Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne played for
Crystal Palace, Fulham and England,
as well as several clubs in South
Africa, but he is most associated with
West Ham, where he delighted the
fans as he made goals, scored goals
and put in fearless tackles. In the
heady days of the 1960s he was on a
par with the greats: Bobby Moore,
Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and
Johnny Sissons. But Budgie was left
out of the squad for the 1962 World
Cup in Chile, so in some ways he
never completely fulfilled his
enormous potential.
It was during Johnny Byrne’s time
at West Ham that the club really built
its reputation for quality football.
Loved by the fans, hated by the
opposition, he is widely thought to be
one of the finest players ever to have
pulled on a claret and blue West Ham
shirt.
In this fascinating new biography
Brian Belton tells the story of
Budgie’s life and career, focussing on
the football and resisting the
temptation to cast Johnny as a
‘loveable rogue’ in the manner that
others have written about such
famous subjects as Alex Higgins and
George Best. There was much more to
Budgie than his life off the pitch, and
this is a book about a football hero
who played like a demon and was
adored by the fans.