Arriving at Old Trafford fresh from school in Glasgow, Francis Burns was converted by Jimmy Murphy from midfield to left-back. In the autumn of 1969, he was capped by Scotland, having recently been a rare success in Manchester United’s 4-1 home defeat by Southampton, in that he kept Terry Paine quiet, while John Sydenham caused mayhem on the other flank.

In 1972, he joined Southampton, after the club found £50,000 and their doctor found Franny’s knees passable, despite three cartilage operations (the focus of one of Ron Davies’s cartoons).

He duly featured in half of the Saints’ First Division engagements, notwithstanding a fourth knee-operation. After which, it suited all parties for him to return to Lancashire: an up-and-coming Steve Mills had finished the season in possession; Franny’s Mancunian wife had never settled in Chandlers Ford; and Bobby Charlton had arrived to manage third-tier Preston, whose doctor certified that the Burns’s knees were good for two seasons. Wrong!

They lasted nine, during which North End was promoted. After this, Franny would fly to Dublin “for the odd game” – including a losing League Cup Final – with Johnny Giles’s Shamrock Rovers. His final football assignments would be in Western Australia. On the recommendation of his Perth-based brother-in-law, he tried out locally and his family soon elected to emigrate. He coached in Perth, where he went into business with said brother-in-law, before becoming a sales agent there, in his late forties, for Whirlpool, the US white-goods giant.