Ray Ray Ray Ray Kennedy

[Elvoz]

The Ray of Hope Appeal has made arrangements for Ray Kennedy to attend tomorrow night's match against Arsenal at Anfield. Ray's health permitting on the day, Ray is keen to come along and is really looking forward to the game. There will be twin mosaics held up in the Kop and in the visitors section of the Anfield Road prior to kick off to celebrate Ray's careers with Liverpool and Arsenal and we hope that all fans attending will acknowledge and celebrate a player who was a giant of both clubs. Let's give a truly great man the reception he deserves and a night to remember.

In the words of the Chairman of his first club "He was a hell of a player."

what a guy one of my all times favourites

[einar]

[southern red]

wonderful player and so sad to see him now. Let's hope that Sky have some sort of tribute to him as well, and let those of us who are unable to get to the match, see what both sets of supporters think of him

[Will]

The Ray of Hope Appeal has made arrangements for Ray Kennedy to attend tomorrow night's match against Arsenal at Anfield. Ray's health permitting on the day, Ray is keen to come along and is really looking forward to the game. There will be twin mosaics held up in the Kop and in the visitors section of the Anfield Road prior to kick off to celebrate Ray's careers with Liverpool and Arsenal and we hope that all fans attending will acknowledge and celebrate a player who was a giant of both clubs. Let's give a truly great man the reception he deserves and a night to remember.

In the words of the Chairman of his first club "He was a hell of a player."

what a guy one of my all times favourites

Cudnt agree with you more. Well said. He seemed to be somewhat of a giant of a winger, one of Paisley's best signings perticualy as he moulded him into a winger, and a damn good one at that.

[zimbo]

Nice to see this getting coverage in The Guardian:

Fans unite to aid forgotten Liverpool and Arsenal great Ray Kennedy
The remarkable campaign to rescue the Parkinson's-afflicted legend will culminate in a tribute at Anfield this evening

Tonight Anfield will shine a light for a unique two-club icon. Fans of Liverpool and Arsenal are to prelude their clubs' Premier League clash by displaying corresponding mosaics in honour of 1970s and 80s hero Ray Kennedy – a man who, until the launch of a fledgling campaign last year, was languishing in unthinkable hardship and obscurity.

On a simple red background, Kennedy's white No5 will adorn the Kop, while the visitors' enclosure will show a blue No10 on yellow – mirroring the shirt the mercurial forward wore during Arsenal's Double-winning Wembley victory against Liverpool in 1971. The gesture, and what it signifies, should be savoured by fans of every club in the land.

Struck down by Parkinson's disease at the unusually early age of 35, Kennedy's long battle against the debilitating neurological condition has left him housebound, reliant on daily care and, on bad days, barely able to walk or talk. A private individual, he slid from view after a special testimonial in 1991, living alone in his native north-east. With no regular income, the player who won six league titles and three European Cups in a glittering 16-year career was forced to sell his collection of medals and international caps in 1993. Despite struggling to make ends meet, even badly injuring himself in a bathroom ill-equipped for his needs, this most selfless of champions has never asked for help.

Thankfully, two years ago, 40-year-old Karl Coppack, an events sales manager and lifelong Liverpool fan, decided to do the asking for him. Devised diligently with friends and fellow trustees Matthew Anton, Steve Hinds, Andy Campbell and Robbie Ashcroft, Coppack's Ray of Hope Appeal has collected over £40,000 from fans across the globe for essential equipment and services for Kennedy – and for the Parkinson's Disease Society, to whom 10% of proceeds are sent each month.

Fans' matches, shirt auctions, sponsored motorcycle rides to the Bernabeu, even an epic "92-club Dash" to request memorabilia from every league ground in the country (carried out by Coppack and pals in nine frenetic days in April 2008) – the Appeal has garnered support and well-wishers from Tokyo to New York. In February this year, with the added bonus of a donation from the PFA, the bathroom of Kennedy's Whitley Bay bungalow was equipped with a new shower, handrails and other fittings to enable him to navigate the room safely.

Further projects addressing Kennedy's substantial needs will be undertaken but, as Coppack is keen to stress, much like tonight's celebratory tribute at Anfield the Appeal is far from just another testimonial. "It's great that Ray finally has a new bathroom, but the point is that the support and the money are there forever – to help him and his family when things are perhaps not so easy in the future."

The event-organising, painstaking letter-writing and gentle haranguing carried out by the Appeal reveals much about the attitude of British clubs to the plight of former players. "Some clubs were more receptive than others," Coppack chuckles diplomatically. "But the money is still flooding in from fans everywhere - I have just received a cheque from the Newcastle United Supporters Club. It's truly been a fans' effort."

Coppack's personal story is not short on trauma. After first interviewing Kennedy, his boyhood idol, for the Liverpool fanzine Through the Wind and Rain in 2005, he suffered a brain haemorrhage the following year. It was July 2007 before he was able to work again. As he began returning to normal life, Coppack was moved to act. "I hated the sense that, given the fact Ray had a testimonial organised for him in 1991, 'that's that.' As well as being one quarter of Liverpool's greatest-ever midfield, this was a dignified human who spent the summer at home with his family rather than cavorting around the Costa like other footballers did in his era. I wanted people not to forget."

The sublime Kennedy's contribution will stand for all time. Arrowing home a tie-winning late strike at Munich's Olympic Stadium in Liverpool's 1981 European Cup semi-final; meeting George Armstrong's 88th-minute cross at White Hart Lane in 1971 to clinch Arsenal's first league championship in 18 years. Those supple feet and cultured brain turned dreams into blissful realities.

Yet the career of one of football's most decorated players began, much like it ended, in bitter adversity. Rejected as a Port Vale apprentice by Sir Stanley Matthews himself, Kennedy was working in a boiled sweet factory when he was dramatically signed by the Gunners in 1968. The club's first-ever European trophy soon followed, the teenage Ray scoring a crucial late goal against Anderlecht to help snatch the Fairs Cup in 1970.

The following season, 1970-71, is now the stuff of legend. Drafted into the side only because of injury to more experienced players, the 19-year-old Kennedy shone with uncommon brilliance, going on to become the league's 27-goal top scorer and a national phenomenon. Described by Jimmy Greaves as "the player of the 70s", Arsenal's bustling, match-winning centre-forward subsequently became Liverpool's visionary left-sided midfielder under Bob Paisley – a seamlessly successful switch of Wengerian proportions.

Eight majestic years at Anfield saw five league titles and that trio of European Cups, Kennedy netting 51 goals and numerous entries in Liverpool folklore in the process. His thrown-in for Alan Kennedy, sole scorer in the European Cup final of Paris 1981 against Real Madrid, is heralded as the most important in the club's history. But it was on being transferred to Swansea in 1982 that the first signs of Parkinson's began to show. Increasingly unable to perform, the stricken player ended his career at Hartlepool in 1984 and was subsequently diagnosed.

His humility as undimmed today as it ever was, Kennedy is delighted at the help he has received from the Appeal. But true to form, he remains genuinely surprised at how fondly his playing days are remembered. "Both sets of fans have been great to me and it's an honour to have played for both clubs. I hope this season Liverpool do well domestically, and that Arsenal triumph in Europe!"

Coppack, meanwhile (who is still as enraptured as an eight-year-old during any conversation in which Kennedy's name is mentioned), has every reason to feel proud. The curious union of this self-effacing supporter and his footballing idol was born of a heartfelt pragmatism rendered wholly anachronistic by the fiscal might of the modern game. It is hard to imagine any young fan sitting, 30 years from now, on the sofa of a grateful Fernando Torres, watching Football Focus and chewing the fat of golden former days.

Yet it is on the foundations laid by such graceful champions as Kennedy that today's globe-swallowing clubs are built. Tonight's tribute will sound a rare and inspiring note of humanity to those fans who have witnessed all that came before and after the Murdoch-inspired hubris of the 1990s – the violent puberty from which football has now slunk, troubled and bloated, into uncertain adulthood.

In the era of boardroom billionaires and bad debts, rarely has a piece of off-pitch news read sweeter. And the fans of two of England's greatest footballing dynasties – dynasties for whom Kennedy was there at the most crucial of moments – will tonight concur most warmly.

Paypal donations can be made to [email protected]; direct contributions can be sent to the Ray of Hope Appeal c/o HSBC account 21817299, sort code 40-03-27

[BFG]

So sad what's happening to him. Ray Kennedy = legend.

[Deano]

Cudnt agree with you more. Well said. He seemed to be somewhat of a giant of a winger, one of Paisley's best signings perticualy as he moulded him into a winger, and a damn good one at that.

Shanks last signing actually

Shanks quit in a press conference and then Liverpool announced the signing of Ray Kennedy

[Ben_Itez]

Legend

[S-RED]

RIP Ray, what a player

He made 393 appearances for the Reds, scoring 72 goals and winning 11 major trophies.

5 League Titles, 3 European Cups, 1 UEFA Cup, a Super Cup and League Cup

[baitman]

One of the best attacking midfielders i have ever seen

[Shaggy]

Very sad, and sad that he had to suffer that wretched disease for so long. RIP Ray.

[Fierce]

Ah ****, RIP Ray

[Angryred]

Gutted to hear that but at least, he's not suffering anymore.
I say Shankly will be glad to have him back!

[timmokay]

Loved watching him, a truly great player

RIP Ray, thanks for all the great memories.

[Montana]

One of the best to pull on Red shirt. Great player, so consistent and tough too. RIP Ray