Name: Michael Roger Channon
Country:
EnglandClub: Southampton F.C.
Number: 8
Position: *CF, SS, WF
Side: RF/BS
Age: 27-29 years (28/11/1948)
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Attack: 88
Defence: 48
Balance: 82
Stamina: 85
Top Speed: 83
Acceleration: 88
Response: 86
Agility: 85
Dribble Accuracy: 84
Dribble Speed: 85
Short Pass Accuracy: 79
Short Pass Speed: 76
Long Pass Accuracy: 75
Long Pass Speed: 76
Shot Accuracy: 86
Shot Power: 84
Shot Technique: 87
Free Kick Accuracy: 72
Curling: 74
Header: 84
Jump: 81
Technique: 85
Aggression: 92
Mentality: 85
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 88
Injury Tolerance: B
Condition/Fitness: 7
Weak Foot Accuracy: 6
Weak Foot Frequency: 6
Consistency: 7
Growth type: Standard/Lasting
CARDS:
P04 - Darting Run
P05 - Mazing Run
P10 - Incisive Run
P15 - Free Roaming
S01 - Marauding
S03 - 1 on 1 Finish
S04 - PK Taker
S15 - Shoulder Feint Skills
S18 - Turning Skills
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Dribbling - Reaction - 1-1 Scoring - Scoring - Penalties
Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack-Minded
INFO:
In any poll of who has been Southampton’s greatest player in living memory, he will invariably be in the top three. A a powerful and prolific striker, a centre forward of wit and modesty, Mick Channon's perennially superb form for the extremely unfashionable Southampton kept him in five years' worth of England squads through the barren 1970s, even though Saints spent a good deal of time away from English football's top flight and there were a number of bustling, skilled strikers who could easily have laid claim to Channon's crown. He would often be the lone front-man in what he describes as "the fantastic 1-9-1 system." Mick was always a team-player – even when it meant being stranded on his own, up-front. A marauding type of player, extremely mobile (could be found everywhere in the attack), with a great header and jump, he was a winger in his early years who would very often cut inside and destroy the opponents with his dazzling runs, before becoming the mobile predatory centre forward.
He was the part of Saints squad when they won the FA Cup in 1976. He played 510 games over two spells, scoring a total of 185 goals placing him top of the club’s list of all-time goalscorers. Channon played also for Manchester City and Norwich, where he won the League Cup in 1985. In 2002, fans voted Channon into the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame.
He represented the English national football team with 46 appearances and a 21 goals. England’s failure to qualify for the major international tournaments during his career, leaves him as the most-capped player never to have been named to a World Cup or European Championships squad. He debuted in a 1972 Wembley friendly against Yugoslavia, helping set up England's goal for Joe Royle in a 1-1 draw, and began to look like a really promising part of England's 1974 World Cup hopes over the course of the next 12 months. He scored his first goal for his country in the 5-0 destruction of Scotland at Hampden Park, and added a further goal in the summer when Wales were dispatched 3-0 in the summer Home Internationals. A triumvirate of real danger alongside Martin Chivers and Allan Clarke began to develop, and all contributed goals through the calendar year except when it really mattered; the 2-0 defeat in Poland which Channon crucially missed. England annihilated Austria 7-0 in September, with Channon scoring two - and so Alf Ramsey picked his favourite three strikers for the game which he hoped would take England to Germany the following summer. Channon was, arguably, the individual most denied by the heroics and madnesses of Poland keeper Jan Tomaszewski. Channon played in Ramsey's final game in charge in the spring of 1974, and was called up by temporary replacement Joe Mercer for the Home Internationals, starting and completing all three games without scoring. This brief spell of profligacy was quickly curtailed as Channon scored in three of the four summer friendlies and then, when Don Revie took over and the focus switched to the 1976 European Championships, maintained his place in the team for the opening qualifiers at the end of 1974. Channon opened the scoring against Czechoslovakia in a 3:0 win, but there was wastefulness from all branches of the England attack when Portugal came to Wembley a month later and got a goalless draw. Channon's facility to be really useful on a team front shone through in the Euro 76 qualifying games, as they did during the 1975 Home Internationals when he didn't score but made his contribution in a 2-2 draw with Wales and then the superb 5-1 win over Scotland. He returned to scoring form with the clincher in a 2-1 friendly win over Switzerland in September. Channon emerged with all England's share of credit - he scored both against Czechoslovakia and Portugal but England won neither and again the finals of a major tournament had eluded England. In the eventful Home International tournament - Channon scored twice against Northern Ireland at Wembley, then smacked home a diving header to give England the lead at Hampden, only for Scotland to fight back and win 2-1 - and a mini-tournament in the USA to celebrate the bi-centenary. Channon scored twice in a fine New York comeback against Italy from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and had essentially become England's most feared and liked striker, despite his lack of a glamorous club and often spending his time in a lower division. This was an indictment on the rest of England's footballing elite and the coaching thereof, and so the quest to get to the 1978 World Cup became all the more vital. Channon wouldn't see out the group, however - he scored in the opening win against Finland but was played too wide in a tactical purgatory against Italy in Rome and England lost 2-0. He put two away against Luxembourg in a 5-0 win which helped the group's goal difference and scored in two of the Home Internationals, but a move to Manchester City unsettled him both personally and form-wise, and he barely lasted beyond Revie's ill-fated tour of South America which saw the coach's controversial resignation. Ron Greenwood called Channon up for the friendly against Switzerland in September 1977 and then didn't ask him to return. Mick was not yet 30 and might have been useful, but his inability to transfer his glorious control of Southampton's goals table to Manchester City did for his international future.
The fact that he emerged as England's best player within their worst period says it all about how good he was, and how abject much of the others were.
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