527: Ben Thatcher, Wimbledon, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection

This week Emlyn Jones brings us a look at a former Welsh international who made good use of the skills he picked up in his formative years at Millwall and Wimbledon. The short bio provided by the good people at Merlin describe him as “reading the game well” which might be disputed by some of his victims. Over to Emlyn.

Some teams, for various reasons, get a reputation as playing on the line between fair and foul play. The Leeds United teams of Don Revie were the origin of the 'Dirty Leeds' title, while Arsène Wenger's Arsenal sides were regularly reprimanded by the officials, resulting in an impressive 118 red cards during his reign as manager. The focus of this article started his career playing for two other sides famed for playing hard football, Millwall and Wimbledon, however would find his greatest controversy later in his career. He was also described by Rich in the blog WhatsApp group as looking "like he belonged in the bottom set of every GCSE maths class across the country".

Ben Thatcher debuted for Millwall aged 18 having graduated from the FA's School of Excellence, and he notched up over a hundred appearances for the club over three seasons at left back. His final campaign saw him named Player of the Season, and then-Premier League Wimbledon splashed out over a million pounds on a player for the first time in their existence to bring Thatcher to the club.

It was a slow start for Thatcher at Wimbledon, however, by his second season he had become a regular in the left back berth. Wimbledon tended to comfortably avoid relegation, while retaining the 'Crazy Gang' ethos that had served them so well. However, in the 1999/2000 season, the club struggled for wins, and Thatcher contributed to the difficulties with a two match ban for elbowing Sunderland's Nicky Summerbee in the head in January. The image was fairly grim, and Wimbledon were not able to rescue their season and were relegated. Tottenham swooped for Thatcher, offering £5m for a player manager George Graham had long admired. Sadly for Thatcher, Graham was sacked in the March following his arrival for breach of contract, and new boss Glenn Hoddle preferred Mauricio Taricco at left back, reducing his game time. Following a £300,000 move to Leicester City, Thatcher openly criticised Hoddle for the style of his management.

His time at Leicester was fairly unsuccessful, a solitary season ending in relegation, however, it was during this period that he debuted for the Wales national team. He had previously played for England at under-21 level, but elected to play for the nation of his grandmother's birth. Within six months, he had already racked up seven appearances, however, injuries and suspensions meant that he didn't play another game under new boss John Toshack. The last instance of this was in September 2005, pulling out of the squad for a qualifying game against England. However, he played for his club side Manchester City just three days later, and an unimpressed Toshack never selected him again. Thatcher wasn't alone in missing games, with seven players having retired from international football within months of Toshack's appointment, and he was equally unpopular with fans. Including me.

Thatcher had signed for Man City for around £100,000 after Leicester's relegation, and he was featured fairly regularly in rotation with Stephen Jordan. He was part of a solidly performing side under coach Stuart Pearce, however, in an early season game in 2006/07 a particularly unsavoury event occurred. For the second time in his career, Thatcher was embroiled in an elbowing controversy. Running for one of the most lost causes ever seen, Thatcher led with his elbow into Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes' head. The Portuguese crumpled into the advertising hoardings, and required oxygen, also suffering a seizure on his way away from the stadium. Referee Dermot Gallagher deemed the offence worthy of only a yellow card, unthinkable in the VAR era when he probably would have escaped punishment altogether owing to an errant shoelace or something. Thatcher received an eight game ban from the FA, and scarcely played again for the club. In the aftermath of the incident, former Blackburn Rovers player Ralph Welch accused Thatcher of having elbowed him in a reserve game six months prior, and the incident was investigated by the police – an unusual occurrence rarely seen, though fellow former Wimbledon player Gary Blissett had also suffered the indignity.

Thatcher never really re-established himself at City, and moved on to Charlton Athletic at the end of the season. The club were relegated to the Championship, however, he remained and played another season before moving on. He then signed for Ipswich Town, however, following a successful first season, manager Roy Keane asked Thatcher to move closer to the club, and when he refused, he was sacked. He was unable to find another club, and retired. Thatcher has been fairly low profile since his retirement, and any searches for what he's been up to lately led instead to a lot of information on the drummer for British rockers Royal Blood. He did give an interview in 2014 expressing his remorse for the Mendes incident, explaining he still receives hate mail. It's unfortunate for Thatcher that he'll always be best remembered for the elbowing controversies, but a reminder that players have progressively been under greater scrutiny as time has progressed. He can at least look back on 180 games in the Premier League and his seven Wales caps as a reminder that he was slightly more than just the headlines.