Kenny Burns
Born Glasgow, September 23, 1953
It is not often that a player owes his claim to greatness to exceptional ugliness but, according to Brian Clough, his manager at Nottingham Forest, that is the case with Kenny Burns.
When Clough was looking to build a side capable of prospering in the First Division after Forest’s promotion the previous season he decided to find the two ugliest centre halves around in order, apparently, to make opposing forwards wary of crossing their paths.
The two he decided on were Burns and Larry Lloyd, neither of them oil paintings, and the plan worked to perfection as Notts Forest embarked on an incredible run of success over the following few seasons.
Not only were Burns and Lloyd both ugly, they shared the same aggressive tendancies in the tackle and in the air and they formed a formidable barrier. Of course the signing of Peter Shilton in goal, based purely on ability, was also an important move on Clough’s part.
Of his centre halves Burns was undoubtedly the more inspired signing of the two. Appreciably quicker than Lloyd, Burns was also more than competent when in possession of the ball.He was also, according to Clough, king in the appearance stakes. Towards the end of his wonderful career as manager the plain speaking Clough fondly remembered Burns as “the ugliest player I ever signed.” Praise indeed!
Burns began his career with Birmingham City FC and played a handful of games as the club were promoted to the first division in 1972.
It would be a couple of years before he could establish himself as a first team regular at St Andrews and when he did it was mainly as a centre forward, taking over from Everton bound Bob Latchford.
The versatility of Burns was already evident as he had also performed capably in defence and even, on occassions, in midfield.
In all these roles Burns went about his business in an unflinchingly aggressive manner. There were very few frills involved in his play but he was consistently effective.
Life with Birmingham in the first division was generally one spent struggling against relegation. There was one wonderful chance to grab some glory in the FA Cup of 1975 when the Blues reached the semi finals and had to face second division Fulham for a place at Wembley. It was Fulham who prevailed, however, winning through by a single goal after a replay.
The following season was a personal triumph for Burns as his nineteen goals helped City to the unaccustomed heights of thirteenth in the table. Despite this, however, all was not well in the camp at St Andrews and Burns, inparticular, did not seem the most popular man at the club.
His reputation as a wildman stretched beyond Birmingham as well and despite his fine record with the club and the fact that he was a full Scottish international there was little interest in him when the club decided to sell in the summer of 1977.
Not surprisingly, however, Brian Clough was not going to be put off by reputation and when he wanted someone big and ugly he looked no further than Burns, gaining his services for a bargain £150,000. The move was inspired by Clough and inspiring for Burns. Despite now becoming a full time centre half Burns rose to the challenge magnificently as Forest took the first division by storm.
That season would see Forest race away with the League Championship and also claim the League Cup after a replay win over Liverpool.
The remarkable transformation in Burns’ personal standing was also highlighted by the fact that it was he who lifted the League Cup, standing in as skipper for the injured John McGovern, and by the Footballer of the Year award granted to him by the football writers.
Incredibly the Forest bandwagon rolled on for two more seasons and saw the club capture two successive European Cups and also complete a hat trick of appearances in the League Cup final. Burns missed the victory over Southampton in 1979 due to injury but played a massive part in both European successes.
In the 1980 triumph over SV Hamburg Burns was especially immense, comprehensively subduing Kevin Keegan, a man at the height of his powers. This game provided the pinacle of Forest’s history and Burns’ career, although the club retained their standing far longer than the player.
Increasingly hampered by injury, hardly surprising given the way he played the game, Forest saw fit to transfer Burns to Leeds United in October 1981 for £400,000. This was a bad time to be joining the Yorkshire club who were in serious decline after over a decade at the top of the English game.
By the end of his first season with them the club had been relegated into the second division and Burns went with them to struggle again in the lower standard. Burns was farmed out on loan to Derby County at one stage, also in the second division, and in February 1984 he joined the club on a permanent basis.
Derby had fallen even further from grace than Leeds by this time, however, and within a few months of arriving Burns was contemplating life in the third division after seeing his new club relegated.
Now into his thirties the years and injuries were certainly catching up with Burns and after a brief loan spell at Notts County and a farewell with Barnsley his league career was over.
On the international front Burns won twenty caps for Scotland over a seven year period, starting as a centre forward but making the majority of his appearances at centre half.The highlight of this time should have been the World Cup finals of 1978 to which Scotland travelled with such high hopes.
Disaster followed with defeat to Peru and a draw with Iran and Burns found himself dropped for the famous victory over Holland which restored some pride but failed to see them qualify.
So Burns was left with a decent clutch of medals and the dubious distinction bestowed on him by Brian Clough to show for his highly distinctive career and he will certainly be remembered by the fans who saw him play and by the opponents brave enough to get within eye contact range.
Kenny Burns Career Stats
CLUB GAMES GOALS
Birmingham City FC 170 45
Nottingham Forest FC 137 13
Leeds United 56 2
Derby County FC (loan) 7 1
Derby County FC 31 1
Notts County FC(loan) 2 0
Barnsley FC 21 0
Scotland 20 1
Total 444 63