It comes to something when your ghost-writer introduces your autobiography by declaring you to be a

“charismatic lunatic”,

a lunatic who wandered the length and breadth of the UK, keeping goal for 29 clubs, 15 of them in the Football League, for a total of 779 appearances. But such is the John Burridge story, a complex one which he has distilled into Budgie, his readable autobiography. Wanderers often blame managers who misjudged their ability or temperament – or maybe both. True, “Budgie” had problems at Aston Villa, where he found Ron Saunders “unapproachable”, but he has a variety of excuses for having kept on the move, including QPR’s abhorrent plastic pitch.  

He had arrived at Blackpool from Workington, his home-town basement-club, in April 1971, in time to participate in the final fling of their relegation from the First Division. Come the summer of 1975, he was offered a return to the top flight, when Villa outbid Manchester United for his services. Having left the “difficult” Saunders behind, he flourished at Palace as they topped Division II in 1979 and his manager, Terry Venables, was telling him that he would be capped if he played as well in Division I. John contends that his lack of inches denied him a cap: “I would have won more than 100 caps for England had I been a strapping six-footer.” Venables remained his champion, later signing him again for Palace and then failing in a third attempt.

After three more clubs and a loan-spell, Budgie made Southampton his 10th club in 1987. It was a “financially stupid” proposition, as Aberdeen were offering better terms, but he fancied playing First Division football under his former Villa team-mate, Chris Nicholl. Peter Shilton had just departed and the issue was whether Budgie would get the nod over Tim Flowers, the young ’keeper who had deputised a few times for Shilton, the previous season. Budgie, who had taken the 16-year-old Flowers “under my wing” at Molineux, had to wait until October when Everton’s Graeme Sharp put four past Tim at The Dell. Budgie was in for the rest of the season and for most of the next. But then he was gone – to the special disappointment, perhaps, of those fans who arrived early to watch his pre-match warm-ups, a practice that he claims to have introduced to the game, along with all-weather goalkeeper gloves.

He had a “fantastic” time with Southampton, despite “the number one interests” in the city being “yachting and sailing, closely followed by horse-riding and the country life.” He now spent the 1990s, playing and ultimately player-managing, across England and Scotland, in League and non-league. Then he asked the Scottish FA to help him obtain a coaching position, overseas. His third choice was Dubai, but Ian Porterfield, his former manager at Sheffield United, took him to neighbor Oman.

His managerial appointments would soon include two spells with the national team, sandwiching a stint with Al Ain in Dubai, where he also worked as a pundit for Ten Sports. Most recently he has coached in Kerala but lives full-time in Oman. He says he sometimes goes home to visit his sisters in Workington but it’s just too cold to stay for long.