Why "The General" Paul Franks...

In the latest of Luke Fletcher podcasts, guest Paul Franks said they he didn't know why, "back in the day", the name "The General" was yelled from the old West Wing, in his direction. Why The General?, he pondered again over the mic.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Over the decades the affectionate nickname has stuck and here is the explanation straight from the "one of the lads sitting in the stand's" mouth:

It's not from, General Frederick Franks jnr, veteran of the Vietnam War and Gulf War.

It could have been from, General Tommy Franks, veteran of the Iraq War, a general that would have been in the news during Paul's playing career, searching for those elusive "weapons of mass destruction"; but it's not from this guy either that Paul gets the name The General from, I am categorically told.

The General's nickname is derived from a more famous figure from history: Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde, better know as General Franco, head of state and military leader in Spain following their civil war, from 1939 until his death in 1975, a nationalist, a fascist and a dictator - probably.

So not the most lovable of characters to be named after, but then again, when did a soldier get to be a general by being a nice guy? I suspect there was and still is a healthy tinge of irony with the nickname eh! 

Paul always was and still is, a great bloke.


However, the small scoreboard possee have argued that it was they who named him and named him after no one, just "simple inspiration". Whatever the etymology, the name The General stuck and has been stuck for many, many years.

Those too young can check out Francisco's "career stats" on Google. Dave