Luther Loide Blissett

Unsurpassed in popularity, Luther Blissett epitomised Graham Taylor’s Watford with a combination of attacking flair and athleticism which brought the club’s first England honour at senior level (he went on to win 14 caps) and a major transfer to Italy. That one-season foray into continental football produced a return of only six goals from a total of 48 appearances, his strengths proving incompatible with the AC Milan style of play, an outcome which ought to have been foreseen. He came to England at the age of six, and played his early football in the Willesden area. Although not always used as an outright striker, he was the top flight’s leading scorer in his first season at that level, and set a string of Watford goalscoring and appearance records. AFC Bournemouth, for whom he scored four times on his home début, benefited to the tune of 56 League goals in 121 appearances, which helped to boost his career total to 207 goals in the competition, 27 of them in Watford’s first-ever top-flight campaign – the highest tally that season in the entire Football League. A season in Norfolk with Fakenham Town at the age of 36 brought him selection for the county and a winner’s medal in the Norfolk Senior Cup. In 2022 Blissett was awarded an OBE for services to football and charity in the Queen's Platinum jubilee honours list.

West Herts / Watford Career