Go back a few years and we had Benarbia and Berkovic and go back even further than that and you can cite Georgi Kinkladze as having been cast in that mould. Israel, Georgia, Spain, Argentina, France and Algeria boast these products but at City we had one that was actually born with in Manchesters own borders. That man was Paul Lake and he was born on this day in 1968.
Paul signed for City in 1986 and was a member of our Youth FA Cup winning side of that year and would go on to make his debut for the first team on the 24th January 1987, in a goalless draw away to the 'Crazy Gang'. He would play again away to Norwich before his home debut against Luton, in which he scored. At this point he was 19 years of age, but that would be all the action for the first team for that season as City struggled for survival and ultimately relegation, Paul could do nothing but watch from the outside.
He would play thirty games in the League the next season but wore the number four or five shirt, limiting his goals to just the three. After failing to clinch promotion it was more of the same for Lake in the next season. Again he played the majority of games but again was given the number 2 shirt in more than half of those.
1989 was certainly a mix of emotions for Lake as City lost only once in the nine games from the start of year until that game against Leicester. While defending a corner Lake was involved in a clash of heads incident, totally accidental, but almost tragic with Leicester player, Ramsey. Lake fell to the floor and starting to convulse. Certainly if it wasn't for the quick reactions of the Physio then it would have been pretty clear that Lake would have died on that pitch that day. Lake had also swallowed his tongue in the incident so the quick, decisive intervention was critical. He would only miss the next game, three days later, before returning to action. Missing only one game in the run in he helped City achieve promotion that very season.
That promotion set up a fixture in the next season, September 23rd 1989 in which Lake was part of the City side to beat United 5-1 in what now has become known as the Maine Road Massacre!
Tragedy would strike again though when City were hosting Aston Villa in the third game of the League campaign. A knee injury picked up in a challenge with Villa's striker Tony Cascarino put him to the sidelines.
What seemed at the time to be a minor injury eventually kept the player out for two years. This was a particularly crucial time as Howard Kendall had only recently made Lake Captain. Kendall left, Reid arrived and City finished 5th and yet again Lake had to watch from the sidelines. Two operations later Lake stepped back on the pitch for the start of the 1992/93 but in the second game, Lake collapsed again. There were only a few minutes on the clock but that would signal the end of a very promising but never fulfilled career.
The injury was worse this time and after numerous operations he made one last appearance in City colors. It was a quick showing to kick off in his testimonial game in 1997 against United. However Lake had already officially retired the year before and both City and England got to miss out on potentially a golden player.
Lake faced long years of lonely recovery and struggling with multiple operations all to no avail. The positive for Paul is through all this he got an enormous amount of knowledge about sports injuries and the workings of the body. Studying physiotherapy he worked with players at Burnley, Altrincham, Oldham and Macclesfield before joining Bolton. He stayed there for a year and then started his own practice in Manchester. Eighteen years after he signed for City he was being inducted in the Hall Of Fame.
Happy 43rd Birthday Blue!
Written By: PA Cityboy
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