The complete centre forward

Jim Lawton and his grandson had stormed out of Bolton Wanderers weeks before, feeling their offer was not good enough.

Jim's grandiose opinions of his grandson turned out to be well-founded. Tommy Lawton became one of the best footballers England had ever produced.

The life of the England striker, who died in 1996 aged 77, has been immortalised in a new book, appropriately titled "The Complete Centre-Forward".

And the book describes the Clarets' role in the development of the precocious talent.

Back then, despite the lad's obvious talent, it seemed nobody else in the area wanted to take a chance on him, including Blackburn Rovers.

So he went to Rossendale United in the Lancashire Combination -- scoring a hat-trick against rivals Bacup Borough in a 9-1 win -- but boss Mick Tollman refused to take him on because he was so young. He said: "It's not fair to the lad. If he was 17, I would sign him and make thousands on a transfer."

Burnley, it seemed, had similar ideas. They signed him as an amateur at 16, professional at 17, and sold him to the highest bidder just a year later.

Tommy became a star at Burnley, even though he played just 25 games, scoring 16 goals.

He was recognised in the street, praised by the Press and had big clubs watching him from an early stage in his Turf Moor career.

He moved to Everton for a massive £6,500 just a year after signing professional forms at 17.

David McVay and Andy Smith's book tells of the tips Lawton took from senior Burnley pros like captain Alick Robinson and goalkeeper Tommy Hetherington. When he made his first-team debut at the age of 16 years and 174 days -- at the time he was the youngest person ever to play league football -- the first person to congratulate him was Ces Smith, who had been dropped to make way.

The match pulled in an above-average crowd of 12,350. Burnley drew 1-1 and Tommy was extremely disappointed not to score.

He told the book's authors: "I didn't play very well. I was overawed. I thought I'd let everyone down. I cried myself to sleep that night and thought I's be better off giving up the game, there was no future for me."

Luckily the Burnley directors thought otherwise and he was selected for the next game at Swansea Town.

He scored two in a 3-1 win but was taught another lesson. He went to buy a newspaper that evening but captain Alick Robinson stopped him.

He told him: "Don't think too much of yourself. You've a long way to go and a lot to learn."

No one would let him see a newspaper, and it kept his feet firmly on the floor.

Lawton went on to play for Everton, Chelsea, Notts County, Arsenal and of course England but the Second World War took a big chunk out of his career.

He even found the time to score 369 runs for Burnley in the Lancashire League in 1936, against teams boasting some of the best players in the world.

It was through watching the likes of West Indians Learie Constantine and Manny Martindale -- "the first black men we'd ever seen" -- and Australian Syd Hird that Tommy learned how he could control a ball.

He explained: "I thought if they could do it with their hands then maybe I could do it with my head. I did learn how to do it eventually. In the end I could have such control over the ball that I could put top spin or back spin on it.

"When it came off in a match there were centre halves who said 'You jammy so and so!' But I worked on it, it wasn't luck."

Tommy Lawton didn't earn near the amounts of Michael Owen and Alan Shearer, but to many he will remain the only 'complete centre-forward'.

"The Complete Centre Forward" is written by David McVay and Andy Smith and is published by SportsBooks.