Thursday 14 June 2012

34. Mark Bosnich

Signed from: Non-contract player (June 1989)
Debut: 0-0 draw vs Wimbledon, April 30th 1990
League Record: 3 games
Sold to: Left due to work permit problems (June 1991)

You wait ages for another goalie, then two come along at once… I’m not sure if Leighton had fitness problems leading up to the 1990 FA Cup final, whether he was just being rested or whether Fergie was finally having doubts that would become justified in the first game against Crystal Palace.

Like Les Sealey, Mark Bosnich had two spells with the club. He is, however, the first player who’ll appear more than once as I’ve decided to have different entries for both his spells at the club to avoid talking too much here about events ten years down the line.

There’s not too much to say about his initial period with us. He was a young student from Australia at the time, and I’m not aware of the circumstances that saw him get a small handful of games over 1990/91. It seems he did a decent enough job (two draws and a win) and we may have been keen on signing him to a contract – he was essentially playing as an amateur, I believe. But problems obtaining a work permit got in the way and he went back home. He’d return soon after by marrying a girl from Manchester, which enabled him to sign for Aston Villa and begin a career that’ll bring him back around come entry #88.

(Also, I can't find a picture of him from around the time of his first spell at the club and the fact Garth Dykes' The United Alphabet book uses one of him in a Villa kit for the entry would perhaps suggest there aren't any.)

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