Rodney Marsh

Playing career

Fulham Marsh began his career with First Division side Fulham, and made his debut against Aston Villa at Craven Cottage on 23 March 1963 after Johnny Haynes picked up an injury. He scored the winning goal on his debut with a volley from a George Cohen cross, prompting manager Bedford Jezzard to state that "No boy could have had a better first game". The incident left him with a permanent loss of hearing in his left ear.

Queens Park Rangers Marsh moved across West London to join Queens Park Rangers, then in the Third Division, after manager Alec Stock paid out a £15,000 fee in March 1966. QPR finished third at the end of the 1965–66 campaign, eight points outside promoted Millwall.

His first full season with Rangers was his most successful, as he formed an effective strike partnership with Les Allen, whilst Roger Morgan and Mark Lazarus delivered reliable service from the wings. Marsh scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 4–0 win over Middlesbrough. He scored 44 goals in 53 games as the club became Third Division champions; his 30 league goals made him the division's top-scorer. QPR also won the League Cup, with Marsh setting Rangers on their way with four goals during a 5–0 victory over Colchester United at Layer Road. Lazarus scored QPR's third goal six minutes later to win the game 3–2. A week after the final Tottenham Hotspur manager witnessed Marsh put in a strong performance against Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic and he offered to pay QPR £180,000 for Marsh and Morgan, but his offer was rejected by chairman Jim Gregory. By the time Marsh recovered from his injury manager Tommy Docherty's first 28-day spell in charge at Loftus Road had come and gone.

In summer 1969, Marsh was sent off in a friendly against Rangers after punching Kai Johansen in retaliation for a kick Johansen gave Marsh. In the 1969–70 season he and Barry Bridges shared 46 goals equally between them, as QPR finished in ninth position. They also reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, which was then the club's joint-best achievement in the competition.

Marsh again hit 23 goals in the 1970–71 campaign, as Rangers again finished in mid-table obscurity under the stewardship of Gordon Jago. However Marsh lost his captaincy to new signing Terry Venables.

He hit 20 goals in the 1971–72 season to finish as the club's top-scorer for the second successive season. Before the season began he signed a new contract on the understanding that he would leave the club if they could not achieve promotion by the end of the season. They won just three of their final eight games. Marsh wrote in his autobiography Priceless: My Autobiography, “Right, no beating about the bush. I have to hold my hands up – I cost Manchester City the 1972 league championship."

Marsh became City's top-scorer, scoring 19 goals in 1972–73. However the club entered into a decline when Allison resigned in March 1973; over the next year Johnny Hart, Tony Book and Ron Saunders all had spells as City manager. The "Sky Blues" finished 11th in 1972–73 and 14th in 1973–74. They did though reach the final of the League Cup in 1974, losing 2–1 to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Wembley. Marsh was so disappointed by the defeat he threw away his runners-up medal.

Tony Book started his second spell as City's manager in April 1974, and despite being club captain Marsh showed no respect for Book. City finished eighth in 1974–75 and 1975–76. Marsh was transfer-listed and sent to train with the reserves after chairman Peter Swales told Book the details of a private conversation the pair had held:

Marsh gave his own thoughts on this in his autobiography: "Peter Swales had called me into his office. 'Rodney' he said, 'as captain, I want your honest opinion about Tony Book and Ian McFarlane', so I told him. 'If you want my honest opinion, I'll give it. They're both fucking useless'. Just after the meeting, Tony Book called me into his office. 'If you think I'm effing useless' he said 'it's not going to work. Do you want to take it back?' 'No chance' I said. 'In fact, thinking about it more, you're not that good'. And that was the end of my Man City career. I was immediately transfer listed, ordered to train with the kids and injured players, and never pulled on a City shirt again."

Later career In the middle of 1975 Marsh played a handful of matches for Cork Hibernians for a fee of £600 a game. He later was flown to Los Angeles as a guest of Elton John, who was then chairman of the Los Angeles Aztecs in the NASL, but before he agreed to join the club he was approached in January 1976 by the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He was sold to the Rowdies in April 1976 for a £40,000 fee.

He played from 1976 to 1979 in the States, leading the Rowdies to the Soccer Bowl in his final two seasons. Both times they would come up short. Marsh was a NASL All-Star every year, making the first-team in 1976 and 1978, the second team in 1977 and as an Honorable Mention in his final season. Despite this success he suffered from depression and was drinking heavily for much of his time there. Head coach Eddie Firmani resigned from the club in 1977 after becoming frustrated with Marsh's ill-discipline; he was replaced by John Boyle. Marsh stopped his drinking after his doctor told him that alcohol was destroying his liver and seriously shortening his life expectancy. Marsh left the club after being forced out in 1979. He went off in another tantrum after being substituted with ten minutes to go of his competitive career by head coach Gordon Jago. While serving as Rowdies manager for the 1986–87 AISA season, the long-retired Marsh was pressed into service once again as a player, due to a rash of injuries on the squad.

He spent the winter of the 1976–77 season on loan at Fulham, now in the Second Division, after learning that George Best would also be playing at Craven Cottage. The "Cottagers" were then a fashionable club where celebrities would often be in attendance and players like Marsh and Best would spend much of their free time in London nightclubs; manager Alec Stock ensured that the partying off the pitch did not hamper progress on the pitch. Stock resigned and new boss Bobby Campbell took the club as high as fourth place before a run of nine defeats in 12 games saw Fulham slide down the table. The bleak wintery conditions eventually took their toll on Best and Marsh, who both returned to the US early in 1977.

International career Marsh made his England debut in a 1–1 draw with Switzerland at Wembley in November 1971, coming on as a substitute for Francis Lee. He won a total of nine caps, scoring one goal, which came in a 3–0 victory over Wales.

It has been reported that the England manager Alf Ramsey told him "I'll be watching you for the first 45 minutes and if you don't work harder I'll pull you off at half time," to which Marsh replied: "Crikey, Alf, at QPR all we get is an orange and a cup of tea." He would regularly retaliate against players who used foul play to stop his runs, and picked up numerous fines from the FA for fighting back against his aggressors. He resigned three months into his contract when the general manager insisted that he sign five Uruguayan refugees to the club against his wishes. In 1981, he was appointed head coach and CEO of the newly created Carolina Lightnin', and quickly assembled a team around star midfielder Don Tobin. He coached the team to the Freedom Conference title in 1981, and they went on to beat his former club New York United 2–1 in the championship final. In 1982 they lost at the semi-final stage to the Oklahoma City Slickers. He then hired Bobby Moore as a coach. At the end of a disappointing 1983 campaign the league folded and Marsh returned to the Tampa Bay Rowdies as head coach in October 1983. There he gave Roy Wegerle his debut as a professional player. After the 1984 season the North American Soccer League also disbanded.

Media career After ending his coaching career, Marsh undertook a three-year roadshow tour with George Best. He began his career in the media with Best, presenting football related videos, before he became a regular feature on television. In 1994, he spent a brief period as CEO of Queens Park Rangers.

Marsh worked as a pundit for Sky Sports for many years. Whilst there he was involved in long-running banter with Bradford City and its supporters in the 1999–2000 season, in which he flippantly dismissed their chances of survival in the Premier League. He offered to shave all of his hair off if the club stayed up, and honoured his bet and had his hair removed in the centre circle of Valley Parade. He was fired after he joked about the 2004 Asian tsunami during a live broadcast of You're On Sky Sports. He had said: "David Beckham has turned down a move to Newcastle United because of trouble with the 'Toon Army in Asia'." Subsequently, Marsh joined Talksport as a presenter, co-hosting the daily Drivetime show with Paul Breen-Turner. In 2006, Talksport received a number of complaints and the programme director issued an apology after Marsh made a newsreader laugh uncontrollably whilst she was reporting the death of a British soldier in Afghanistan. Marsh left the station in October 2006.

Since then Marsh attempted to rebuild his career with appearances on reality television. He appeared in the 2007 series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! where he was the fifth person to be voted off the show; Celebrity Come Dine with Me on Channel 4 in January 2009, in which he came in joint second place tied with Abi Titmuss; the first series of Celebrity Coach Trip on Channel 4 in November 2010, where he was partnered with Cheryl Baker; other notable appearances include Sing If You Can and Cash in the Attic. He is currently cohost of Grumpy Pundits on Sirius Radio.

Personal life He married Jean Barry in March 1967. The pair met a few years earlier at a jazz club in Manor Park.

He and his son Jonathan founded the Marsh Group, a property development company in Tampa, Florida, in 1996. After retiring as a player Marsh continued to support QPR and Manchester City. Today he is now a co-host for a radio show called Grumpy Pundits on SiriusXM.

Honours Queens Park Rangers League Cup: 1967 Football League Third Division: 1966–67 Football League Second Division runner-up: 1967–68

Manchester City FA Charity Shield: 1972 League Cup runner-up: 1974

Tampa Bay Rowdies NASL regular season premiership: 1976 NASL Atlantic Conference Eastern Division: 1976 NASL Indoor: 1976 NASL American Conference: 1978, 1979 Soccer Bowl runner-up: 1978, 1979

Carolina Lightnin' American Soccer League: 1981

England British Home Championship: 1971–72 (shared)

Individual NASL All-Star Selections: 1976 First Team (Best XI), 1977 Second Team, 1978 First Team (Best XI), 1979 Honorable Mention