Ray Wilkie Statue

[Mancbluebird]

The raiders have willie horne and we have nothing to immortalise the god off Barrow AFC the man that give us our DNA thoughts?

[Hadrian]

Colin Cowperthwaite?

[Mancbluebird]

Colin Cowperthwaite?

Wilkie>cowps the end

[liverpoolann]

Good idea but for sometime down the line.Owners and trust have enough money to find/raise to get the mandatory improvements done to ground first.Then we can argue about who the subject is and best location.Will be a long thread I think lol.

[Jim]

Colin Cowperthwaite?

Wilkie>cowps the end

Statues are normally commissioned to commemorate deceased, so I am sure Cowps would be happy to wait.

[Jim]

Mention of Ray Wilkie reminded me about this article from the Northern Echo:

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/ ... -auckland/

[pjdaly]

A statue? This is of course highly hypothetical unless a generous benefactor has countless thousands to splash but it's a bit of harmless fun so here goes . . . . .

Like you, Manc Bluebird, I thought the world of Ray Wilkie and he remains my favourite Barrow manager. There have been other managers, notably Don McEvoy, Colin Appleton, Vic Halom, Daz & Dave, and Ian Evatt who have overseen massively successful moments in the club's history. However, you sense Wilkie was different because you feel he went above and beyond the execution of his salaried job in so far as he seemed to really "get" the club and had a genuine love for it. (I think Dave Bayliss had a fair bit of that also.) So, if a manager was to be chosen for such an accolade then, yes, Ray would definitely get my vote.

However – and it's a big however – if we imagined a statue being sculpted then number one above all others for the nomination would be Brian Arrowsmith. I hear people cry "but Brian's already got a stand named after him". Well, I suppose you could say Ray's got a stand AND a road named after him.

Of course there are a number of figures who have given great service to the club whilst not achieving the heights as either a player or a manager that all those named above did. We shouldn't forget great contributors to the club across many decades like Wilf Livingstone and Neil McDonald. There will be countless others in a behind-the-scenes voluntary capacity as well (too many to mention for fear of failing to mention . . .)

But when my arm is twisted behind my back then, for me, without question, it would be Arrowsmith onto the armature ahead of all others. It would be appropriate "twinning" as well in that Willie is the RL's ultimate playing icon and Brian is AFC's.