He are the known details of Barry Silkman's playing career as well as some interesting snippets and opinions:
Fee Club Terms Date Apps. Sub. Goals - Fulham Amat - Wycombe Amat - Wimbledon Amat - Barnet Cont - Hereford Utd Cont 08/74 18 19 2 - Crystal Pal. Cont 08/76 40 8 7 £53,000 Plymouth Arg. Cont 10/78 14 0 2 - Luton Town Loan 02/79 3 0 0 £75,000 Man City Cont 03/79 see below - Macc. Tel Aviv Loan 01/80 0 0 0 £5,000 Brentford Cont 07/80 14 0 1 £20,000 QPR Cont 10/80 22 1 2 - Grays Athletic Loan - £15,000 Leyton Orient Cont 09/81 133 7 14 - Southend Utd Cont 07/85 38 2 1 - Crewe Alex. Non-C 09/86 1 1 0 - Staines Town - Wingate and Finchley
City career:
Début: 31/03/79 vs. Ipswich Town away
Appearances Sub. Goals League 19 - 3 FA Cup - - - League Cup 2 - - Europe - - - Reserves 13 - 1 LSC - - - MSC - - - Other 2 - -
Silkman was groomed by Malcolm Allison at Plymouth Argyle; MCFC paid for him in instalments as he had a knee injury. He scored on his début, a game which also saw the début of Nicky Reid. Barry did a lot of running around in forward positions but little else. He went to Israel on loan but jetted back as soon as he learned that he was eligible to be called up into the Israeli Army!
At City he was a racehorse owner and by the late 1980's he had become a successful greyhound trainer. He is also a players' agent and plays in charity games.
Note that Silkman does not get
a mention in the recently published "Manchester City A-Z", which
probably sums up his career at the Academy. The sad
thing is he would probably make the team these days. City signed him
in 1979 and he lasted for just under a season.
He started the 79/80 season in the team that read:
Corrigan, Ranson, Stepanovic, Caton, Booth, Power, MacKenzie, Silkman,
Robinson, Deyna, Henry. Sub: Viljoen
Silkman lasted a handful of games before the truth was realized and he went somewhere else. That was a grim team... even grimmer when you realise that his replacement was Steve Daley. From this you will have gathered that he was one of the great players brought in by Allison to replace the crap we had: Owen, Barnes, Tueart, Kidd etc. 8-(
Silkman was definitely a star, in the maverick mould, and was something of a Rodney Marsh play-a-like (socks down to his ankles, smile on his face, flamboyant etc.), and maybe City signed him after MacFarlane the clown (and his wimpy sidekick Book) hounded one of the best players (if not the best) we ever had, out of Maine Road. He did have some fantastic skills, a desire to please the crowd (something the present incumbents of the holy sky blue shirts wouldn't know anything about), and a tremendous `Jimi Hendrix' Afro.