Kevin Reeves

Last updated : 05 July 2013 By Tony Scholes

Date and Place of Birth

20th October 1957 - BURLEY

 

Transfers to and from Burnley

from MANCHESTER CITY - August 1983 (£100,000)

retired - August 1984

 

First and Last Burnley Games

HULL CITY (a) - 27th August 1983

 

OXFORD UNITED (a) - 11th January 1984

replaced by Steve Daley

 

Other Clubs

BOURNEMOUTH, NORWICH CITY, MANCHESTER CITY

 

 

Burnley Career Stats

 

Season League FA Cup League Cup Others Total
                     
  apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls
1983/84 20(1) 12 5 3 2 - - - 27(1) 15
                     
Total 20(1) 12 5 3 2 - - - 27(1) 15

 

Profile by Tony Scholes

 

Kevin Reeves made just 21 league appearances for Burnley, but many fans of the time will wonder just how different history might have been had he not suffered a career ending injury at the age of just 26.

Reeves, from Burley in Hampshire, started his career as an apprentice with Bournemouth. At the time he arrived at the club the manager was John Bond and when Bond moved on to Norwich in 1973 he remembered the young Reeves.

Having served his apprenticeship Reeves broke into the first team at Dean Court and was their leading goalscorer in his first full season. That was enough to persuade Bond to part with £50,000 to take him to Carrow Road.

He blossomed at his new club. He scored goals at the higher level and won a place in the England Under-21 squad for whom he won a total of ten caps. Then in 1979 the weather brought him his first full cap.

England were due to play Bulgaria but just over an hour before kick off the game was called off because of thick fog around Wembley. By kick off time it was clear but the decision had been made. The game was re-scheduled for the following night. That meant Kevin Keegan was out, he was needed back with his club Hamburg and Reeves stepped in for his debut.

It was one of just two caps and the second came after a million pound move to Manchester City. Many think it was Bond again who signed him, but that's not the case. Bond was still at Norwich and was the selling manager with Malcolm Allison at the other end of the deal. But Allison was soon gone from City and Bond moved in to again be re-united with Reeves.

He was leading scorer in successive seasons and netted in the FA Cup Final replay against Spurs from the penalty spot although finished on the losing team.

When Bond came to Burnley he somehow persuaded Reeves to drop down to the third division and somehow got him for £100,000. You didn't need to watch him for too long to know he was going to be a top player for us.

His link up with left winger Tommy Hutchison was vital in that team and Billy Hamilton benefited with his most prolific spell in front of goal. Even Brian Flynn was scoring regularly as he got through the huge gaps Reeves was creating for him.

That 1983/84 season was just really getting going. With so many new players it had taken time but now we were scoring goals at some rate. A real push for promotion looked on the cards, but at the beginning of 1984 Reeves suffered an injury that was to bring his career to a shuddering halt.

It was a hip injury but when he was substituted in the FA Cup replay at Oxford I don't think anyone knew it would be the last time he would play. Steve Daley came on for him as we bowed out, and the season really came to a standstill.

We'd lost his goals but Hamilton, who had fourteen league goals, added just another four and Flynn took his total from seven to just nine. The Reeves/Hamilton partnership was the best in the division by some distance. Both were scoring goals prolifically as we moved up the table.

Initially it wasn't believed to be as serious as it turned out, and there were suggestions he'd be fit for the start of the following season. Unfortunately he wasn't and for the rest of his time at Burnley he was involved with the coaching.

He joined Bond once more at Birmingham as a coach before moving to Wrexham to work with his former Burnley team mate Brian Flynn. He was Flynn's assistant over many years at the Racecourse and then the two of them joined Swansea.

Flynn's time at Swansea was short but Reeves remained and headed the scouting, assisting Roberto Martinez in bringing in players from a number of countries.

With Martinez' move to Wigan, Reeves followed and from July 2009 has taken up the same scouting role with the Premier League club. He spent four years at Wigan but in July 2013 followed Martinez to Everton where he took up the same role.

The question can never be answered, but the question will always be asked as to how Burnley would have fared had Reeves not been injured. Many judges firmly believe we would have been promoted in 1984 and that really would have rewritten our history.

 

Links

Ex-Clarets Caldwell and Reeves on the move (05/07/13)