Who Is Ronnie Upchurch

I have been to the Kings Cross of all places and have never run into The Big Ronnie upchurch. For all the Big Ronnie for what he did to Ray Daniels this morning in the mid-season special, it would have been my pleasure to shake his hand. He is and has always been the joker by my side and that is why I have always had fun on his jokes, and one of my closest friends is also close to Ray at the Palace as well. So, if I had to pick a guy, I’d want to have a good laugh with Ronnie.

The night I met Ray, he had just been sent packing by his manager as he has been banned for his connection with the notorious Ronnie Burnell. But he was still upstanding and working in the game that he always wanted. Why did the opposition players in the Premier League not know about it? Yes, they caught fire, but they never had the opportunity to win a World Cup. I had just stepped into the job and was honest in my assessment of the players I saw. To the lads who were at the ground with me, I’ll always remember the talk that Ray had with me about his childhood. Ron had not run out to play games like this for whatever is so long later in his life. We didn’t talk football and I didn’t get involved or any of that crazy BS. Quite the opposite, the two of us never spoke except to say the same thing over and over. It’s why Ray was well-respected in the game. He was always one to talk when there was anything good going on. He had been at it longer than I had. It was another reason why I would want to be with him, his all-around great character.

In a game where it looked like as good as any I’d seen before and another like that, I wanted to stand on the turf and salute the big kid, Ronnie. If he was offered his position he would’ve been the first player to come over. He had that hunger on him because he felt this need to challenge the best players in the game. Had he been a different person I’d have loved to sit down and chat about some of the things Ray had ever put on the screen or TV.