Luther Loide Blissett (born 1 February 1958) is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the England national football team during the 1980s. Born in Jamaica, Blissett played as a forward, and is best known for his time at Watford, whom he helped win promotion from the Fourth Division to the First Division. Blissett set Watford's records for appearances and goals, having played 503 games and scored 186 goals, and was the top goalscorer in the 1982–83 Football League First Division as he led Watford to second-place. He was also one of the first black players to represent England. Blissett was capped 14 times by England, scoring a hat-trick on his debut. After retiring from playing, Blissett turned to coaching, initially under the management of Graham Taylor at Watford, and managed Chesham United from 2006 until 2007.
Blissett's other clubs included Milan, who paid £1 million for him in 1983 before selling him back to Watford for £550,000 in 1984, and Bournemouth, for whom he had a goals-to-games ratio of nearly one goal in every two appearances. After his disappointing season at Milan, he returned to Watford, where he remained until 1988, before moving to Bournemouth for the next three seasons, which were more successful. In 1991, he returned to Watford and the following year moved to West Bromwich Albion, where he played three games. He ended his professional career at the end of the 1993–94 season, playing for Bury in the Third Division, before continuing for a few years in the amateur divisions until his final retirement in 1996.
Although born in Jamaica, Blissett chose to represent England at the international level, earning 14 caps and scoring three goals between 1982 and 1984. Blissett scored all of his goals on 15 December 1982 in a UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying match against Luxembourg, contributing a hat-trick to England's resounding 9–0 victory. After embarking on a coaching career, he was part of the Watford coaching staff from 1996 to 2001; he subsequently served as coach of several smaller English teams, including York City and Chesham United. In 2007, he founded a racing team, Team 48 Motorsport. Since the mid-1990s, "Luther Blissett" has frequently been used as a pseudonym, most notably by members of the Luther Blissett Project.
Early life Blissett was born in Falmouth, Jamaica, at that time still part of the British Empire as Colony of Jamaica, on 1 February 1958. He was given Luther as first name and Loide as middle name. In 2017, Blissett recalled his first meeting with Graham Taylor, who said his full name three times, before adding: "Well son, with a name like that you are going to have to be a star, aren't you!" Blissett moved to London, aged 5 or 6, and was brought up in the North London area of Willesden. In the summer of 1974, Blissett left Willesden High School to begin his career with Watford as an apprentice.
Club career Watford Blisset began his career at Kingfisher Youth of the Brent Sunday League. He was spotted and later signed by Watford in July 1975. At 17, Blissett turned professional for the 1975–76 season, making three appearances in the Football League Fourth Division and scoring one goal. His debut came on 3 April 1975 as a substitute in a 1–0 win at home to Barnsley. Four goalless appearances came in the 1976–77 season, the second season with Elton John as chairman, before he broke into the first team under new manager Graham Taylor in the 1977–78 season; his six goals in 33 games helped Watford win promotion to the Football League Third Division. 21 goals the following campaign played a big part in a second successive promotion, which took them into the Football League Second Division.
Blissett remained among the club's top goalscorers over the next three seasons as Watford consolidated in the Second Division and finally reached the Football League First Division for the first time in their history in 1982. At the end of the 1978–79 season, he was part of the PFA Team of the Year for the Football League Third Division. In the 1981–82 season, he scored 19 league goals, showcasing his scoring ability. Blissett and his teammates made the headlines during the 1982–83 season as they surprised many by proving successful in the First Division. Watford briefly led the league in the autumn, before finishing second to Liverpool, and qualified for the UEFA Cup. In Watford's first ever First Division season, Blissett was the division's top goalscorer that season with 27 goals, including 4 in a single game (8–0 against Sunderland, establishing a club record), and 33 goals across all competitions that season. Overall, Blissett scored 95 goals in 246 appearances.
Milan After the good 1982–83 season, Blissett subsequently moved to Milan. In the summer, he was bought by Milan, an Italian club with a successful domestic and continental tradition; however, after being relegated to Serie B the second time in three years, the club had just been promoted back to Serie A (the top division of the Italian football league system). While the first time it was due to the club's involvement in the 1980 match-fixing scandal (Totonero), this time was on merit. As part of the club's rebuilding efforts, Blissett was bought in June 1983 for £1 million. He was not as successful as he had been in England, scoring five goals in 30 league appearances, as Milan finished in a disappointing sixth place. He was also subjected to racist abuse.
In the 1983–84 season, Blissett scored six goals in 39 appearances, and was best remembered for numerous disappointing performances that did not allow him to gain the sympathy of the Milan tifosi. In particular, the many and often glaring errors in front of goal led the journalist Gianni Brera to irreverently nickname him "Callonissett", in assonance with another former Milanese centre forward Egidio Calloni, who was famous for his missed goals. He was also known as "Luther Miss It" due to his poor scoring streak. As a result, he was considered a bidone, an Italian football term (literally referring to a rubbish bin) used to describe a transfer failure, becoming known as one of the best bidoni.
Return to Watford After one season with Milan, Blissett was sold back to Watford for £550,000. In his absence, Watford had reached their first FA Cup final but lost to Everton, while new signing Mo Johnston was top scorer with 20 goals in the First Division. On Blissett's return, Watford failed to achieve their successes of the previous two seasons but survived another four seasons in the First Division. Blissett scored 21 goals in his first season back in the First Division, although they could only manage a mid-table finish. He also helped them reach the FA Cup semi finals in the 1986–87 season but a year later were relegated. With Blissett scoring four times in the league. He remained with the club until November 1988, when he signed for Bournemouth. During his return at Watford, Blissett scored 44 goals in 127 appearances.
Bournemouth Blissett was successful at Dean Court, scoring 19 times from 30 league games in the 1988–89 season, as they finished 10th in the Second Division after emerging as surprise promotion contenders in only their second season at that level. He scored 18 goals in the 1989–90 season, although a slump in the second half dragged the Cherries down the table and on the last day they were beaten at home by Leeds United in a result that gave Leeds United the promotion as Second Division champions and relegated Bournemouth to the Third Division. Undeterred, Blissett continued his fine form for Harry Redknapp's team, scoring 19 goals, although it was not enough to earn promotion at the end of the 1990–91 season. In 121 appearances for Bournemouth, he scored 56 goals.
Third spell at Watford Blissett returned to Watford for a third spell at the start of the 1991–92 season. They were still in the Second Division, and his 10 goals in the league that season were not enough for Watford to look like promotion contenders, meaning that they would be founder members of the rebranded Division One (rather than the new FA Premier League) for the 1992–93 season. Blissett never played a first-team game for Watford again, his only action in 1992–93 coming in the shape of a three-match loan spell at West Bromwich Albion, which resulted in one Division Two goal. Blissett's third spell at Watford saw 9 goals scored in 42 appearances. Overall, he scored a record of 186 goals in 503 appearances across all competitions (148 goals in 415 appearances in the First Division), setting a club record that he continued to hold in subsequent decades.
Lower leagues Blissett ended his English league career in late 1993 with a five-match spell with Division Three club Mansfield Town, where he scored once. This had followed 10 games at Bury and a five-match spell in the Football Conference at Southport, producing two goals, and four games and a goal for Derry City in the League of Ireland, before he finally retired from playing in 1995 after a season playing for Fakenham Town in the Eastern Counties Football League. Blissett ended his career with 213 goals in 513 appearances.
International and coaching career Although born in Jamaica, Blissett chose to for England, having been eligible to play as he moved to the country at a young age. After making four appearances for England under-21s, Blissett became one of the first black footballers to play for the senior team. Aged 24 years 254 days, he made his debut at Wembley Stadium in a 1–2 friendly loss to West Germany on 13 October 1982. Blissett scored a hat-trick on his full international debut, which was a 9–0 win over Luxembourg, in doing so becoming the first black player ever to score for England. He never scored in any other international despite playing for England a further 13 times. In 1984, he made an appearance for England B. His last match was at 26 years 122 days on 2 June 1984, a friendly at Wembley Stadium between England and the Soviet Union, which ended 0–2. Between October 1983 and October 1984, he was the black English player with most appearances.
Coming in with returning manager Graham Taylor, Blissett rejoined Watford as head coach in February 1996. He left the club in June 2001, following the appointment of Gianluca Vialli as manager. Vialli wanted to appoint his own backroom staff, and Blissett was among those deemed surplus to requirements. Taylor was publicly critical of the decision not to retain long-serving members of staff such as Blissett and Kenny Jackett. In May 2002, Blissett moved to York City to carry out a coaching role. He later left that post and on 15 February 2006 was appointed manager of Southern League team Chesham United, which he even made two appearances for as a substitute. In April 2007, it was announced that Blissett would leave Chesham at the end of the season to concentrate on his involvement with the Windrush Motorsport project, which aimed to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On 27 March 2010, it was confirmed that Blissett had signed to Hemel Hempstead Town as a coach. In the summer of 2016, Blissett was appointed Director of Football at Burnham, briefly serving as caretaker after the departures of both Dave Tuttle and Gifton Noel-Williams.
Legacy Assessment and player style