Charlie Livesey
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Edward Livesey | ||
| Date of birth | 6 February 1938 | ||
| Place of birth | West Ham, England | ||
| Date of death | 26 February 2005 (aged 67) | ||
| Place of death | London, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Playing position | Centre forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| West Ham United | |||
| Custom House | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1956–1959 | Southampton | 25 | (14) |
| 1959–1961 | Chelsea | 39 | (17) |
| 1961–1962 | Gillingham | 47 | (17) |
| 1962–1964 | Watford | 64 | (26) |
| 1964–1965 | Northampton Town | 28 | (4) |
| 1965–1969 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 126 | (28) |
| 1969–1970 | Crawley Town | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
|||
Charles Edward Livesey (6 February 1938 – 26 February 2005) was a footballer who played for Chelsea in Football League Division 1 between 1959 and 1961, as well as appearing for various clubs in all four divisions of the Football League.
Livesey was born in West Ham, Essex and started out with the West Ham youth team, before an unsuccessful trial with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1955. He then turned out for Custom House in London where he was spotted by Chelsea scout Jimmy Thompson who recommended him to Southampton as a favour to Saints' president, Herbert Blagrave.
Shortly after a trial in March 1956, Livesey was signed by Third Division team Southampton and soon developed into a promising centre-forward with an eye for goal in Saints' reserve side, scoring 10 goals in 14 appearances in 1957–58.
A bit of a tearaway, Livesey nevertheless took his chance in the first team well when replacing Derek Reeves (who had broken a toe in the previous match) for his debut at The Dell against Swindon Town on 30 August 1958. In only his fourth appearance in the first team he scored 4 goals in a 6–1 demolition of Hull City, followed by a pair in the next game, a 5–0 victory over Halifax Town. By a strange quirk of fate, he too broke a toe in the Halifax match causing him to miss the next three matches, before returning on 1 October to be paired upfront with Reeves. In his solitary season in Saints' first team he made 29 appearances, scoring 15 goals, usually playing in tandem with Reeves, although both players never scored in the same match.
His sudden rise to fame attracted the attention of several First Division clubs. In February 1959, Birmingham City offered £15,000 for his services (to be turned down by the player himself) but a few months later, Chelsea, piqued that they had missed out on signing him earlier, offered cash and Cliff Huxford in a deal that valued Livesey at £20,000. It was a controversial transfer which prompted the resignation of Mr. Stranger from the board of directors.
...
Wikipedia