'As a nine-year-old I was called all sorts' - West Bromwich Albion star Brendon Batson remembers role in magnificent Three Degrees
Brendon Batson, then of Cambridge United, thought the suggestion of interest from West Bromwich Albion was a wind-up.
Batson was wine-tasting at the time and he thought a little too much vino had gone to his head. It had not, as his former U's boss Ron Atkinson made the move to bring the right-back up from the third tier to the first in 1978 for a fee of £28,000.
While the interest and approach from 'Big Ron' turned out to be very genuine, the navigational skill of new team-mate and friend, the late Laurie Cunningham, left a lot to be desired.
"I had the call in midweek, I thought someone was taking the mickey and pulling a prank," Batson smiles as he recalls to the Express & Star. "I spoke to Ron and they'd done a deal with Cambridge, I couldn't help but be excited. I always felt I could play at the top level but you're never sure until you get the opportunity.
"It had a great amount to do with Ron. He had faith in me and I could fulfil it.
"I remember driving up to The Hawthorns on a Thursday with a great deal of excitement and a bit of trepidation. We were top of the third division, it was quite a leap, but you want to test yourself."
The start of his first training session with the Baggies did not go entirely to play, however.
"Laurie and Cyrille were great friends, we gravitated to each other," Batson adds. "They picked me up from the hotel for my first training session.
"Laurie being Laurie he got lost on the motorway from the hotel to The Hawthorns! So as a result I was late for my first training session because of Laurie!"
Batson, Cunningham and Cyrille Regis went on to become icons of English football - moreover English football's rise against racism which plagued the game as a relative normality up until that generation.
Cunningham departed for Real Madrid in 1979 for just shy of £1million but in Batson's four years at The Hawthorns, with Regis a figurehead leading the Baggies' line, Albion finished third, 10th and fourth in the First Division.
They are remembered, as are Albion generally, as trailblazers against racial abuse. Two lads from the Caribbean and a Londoner that became The Three Degrees. They are remembered by their own supporters as great players in a great side featuring many other Baggies heroes and legends.
