FAREWELL TO THE DOOG

25-06-2007

Footballer, trade unionist, politician…the death of Derek Dougan sees the departure of one of the West Midlands most colourful sporting characters.

Although the Northern Ireland international played for several clubs, including Villa, “The Doog” will be remembered first and foremost as a hero at the Wolves.

A bucaneering centre-forward, he bagged 123 goals in 323 appearances for the club between 1967 and 1976 - most of them in the top division. His partnership with John Richards was especially prolific.

He helped Wanderers to promotion, won a League Cup winners medal in 1974, and also played in the UEFA Cup Final defeat against Spurs in 1972.

With a moustache that wouldn’t have been out of place in a Village People video, Dougan always seemed a larger than life character, and his outspoken talents served him well after retirement.

He was a telly pundit, and as a combative chairman of the players union the PFA wasinstrumental in securing the right of players to transfer to a new employer once their contracts were over - incredibly, clubs used to hold onto a player’s registration even when they were no longer paying him.

Always ready with an opinion, Dougan even entered the political arena for a time in the 1980s, once appearing on the BBC1 Question Time as a spokesman for UKIP.

Sadly he didn’t always keep his eye on the ball off the field as well as he did on it; as chairman and chief executive of Wolves he was the front man for the Bhatti brothers whose disastrous takeover heralded the club's declineto the old Fourth Division.

For all that, The Doog’s goal-scoring exploits ensured that he will always be remembered with fondnessby the Molineux faithful.

Charles Ross, editor of the Wolves fanzine A Load Of Bull paid this tribute: “Despite his later association with the hated Bhattis, it is as a player that The Doog will remembered.

“If nothing else he was unlike today’s anodyone Premiershit clones - a true character.

“His name will live on; not as Derek Dougan but as, simply, The Doog. It has always been on my 1970s school pencil tin.”