HAD his school had their way Brian Flynn could have ended up playing scrum-half for Wales.

Instead he forged such a successful football career for himself that his school had to change the curriculum to allow people to play both sports.

The story is an example of Flynn’s indefatigability.

Four years after giving up on a promising rugby career he was leaving Sandfields Comprehensive School, near Port Talbot, at the age of 15, two months before his exams, to move 250 miles from home to chase his dream of a becoming a professional footballer.

Flynn had appeared on Burnley’s radar as a Welsh schoolboy international and the Clarets were so keen to sign him they rushed the deal through in unusual circumstances.

“I signed in a back street in the back of Burnley chief scouts’ Dave Blakey’s car in Edinburgh,” said Flynn.

“I was playing for Wales against Scotland school boys and in those days you could leave school at 15. One of the biggest regrets I had is that in my last year at school I threw the towel in, I chucked it educationally.

“Forget this I thought, I’m going, Easter is coming and I’m off, I said ‘I’m not doing any exams.’ My last official day in school was after the Scotland game.”

At 15, Flynn packed his stuff and left for Turf Moor, immediately finding Burnley a home from home, settling down on Parkinson Road and marrying a local girl, Liz.

“I automatically liked Burnley as a place,” said Flynn. “I went up to Pike Hill to stay at first, but I never settled up there then I went to live in digs in Parkinson Street, which is now demolished, and they were fantastic digs. I was there for four years and I got married from there.”

Two years after arriving he signed his first professional contract with the club, making his debut as a 19-year-old at Highbury, and he went on to make 120 appearances in his first spell at the club.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are out on that pitch there is no sympathy out there,” he added.

“I made my debut against Arsenal and I was playing against my boyhood idol, who was Alan Ball. Colin Waldron said to me: ‘Alan will try to disturb you, disrupt you, there may be verbal abuse Brian, so expect it’.”

Flynn quickly established himself as a regular in Jimmy Adamson’s side, and Adamson would become the biggest influence on Flynn the manager.

He said: “He was a massive influence, the best manager I ever worked for. His coaching ability and his man-management skills were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. He was the best I’ve ever known.

“Gawthorpe was the first training ground in the country, people used to train on the pitches, that’s why the pitches were rubbish.

“We had a purpose built training ground, we were leaders at the time, it was a great environment to learn and to train.”

Adamson was known as one of the game’s great innovators and Flynn credits him with a significant tactical breakthrough in English football.

“He invented the 4-3-3 system, I’m certain of it,” Flynn said. “I don’t think anybody had played that system before, not in this country.

“You had three midfield players, one holding midfielder and two attackers, Leighton James on the left, Frank Casper and Paul Fletcher up front, no right hand side wide player, let the full-back have it, he’s our spare man now.

“That sort of tactical thinking was unheard of, they didn’t know what to do because we kept the ball so well, because we had an extra man in midfield, it was three against two and the three in midfield were that comfortable with it.

“That’s why we were a top team, the opposition couldn’t handle us, they tried to play that way and put a winger inside but we could still work it out and get the better of them.

“Players trusted him and you can’t beat that, there is no better thing, if a player trusts the manager then that is perfect, but then that goes both ways.”

In Flynn’s debut season in 1974 the Clarets finished sixth, they were 10th the year after but in 1975/76 they were relegated back to the Second Division.

Flynn explained: “We had sold Martin Dobson in the summer and Martin was a big player for us,.

“Frank (Casper) had a problem with his knee, Fletch (Paul Fletcher) had a problem as well, so our two main strikers were struggling and we missed them badly because they were a good combination.”

Selling players was something that the Burnley squad were used to and it would be Flynn’s turn in November 1977 when he was sold to top-flight side Leeds for £175,000.

“It was common practice here that one player was sold a season,” said Flynn. “It was part of the fabric, we all knew.

“You knew it was your year, if you’d had a half decent season you knew you’d be on the way, that’s the way it was, even the senior players accepted that.”