‘I’ve had my dog days,’ he says. ‘You’ve just got to give 110 per cent, haven’t you? I’ve never been brilliant in business. If you have an artistic bent you’re never going to be good at the logistics of business. I’ve no time for all that. I’m the man who ran Shit Travel, what a great venture that was!’ He is referring to Stuart Hall International Travel, the acronym from hell.
During his shoplifting court case, a procession of Safeway staff – who might have been expected to follow the company line – spoke of their fondness for Hall. He had a smile and a word for everyone, he brightened up their day. ‘The girls were lovely for speaking up for me,’ he told reporters afterwards. Hall has maintained the common touch. When he visits Bolton Wanderers, for instance, he cherishes his reunion with the club’s octogenarian tea ladies. ‘They always say to me, “Oh, you look lovely today.” I say, “I know.” “Who got you ready?” they ask. “Me mam,” I tell them.’ He laughs, and laughs some more.
He is still giggling when we hit the street. A City fan passes him by on crutches. ‘Alright, lad?’ shouts Hall. ‘Not bad,’ he replies. ‘Yes you are, you’re on crutches!’ They both laugh. It feels momentarily like a politician’s walk-about, except there are no votes to be had: our protagonist is doing it just for fun. ‘Why are you so popular, Stuart?’ I ask. ‘I don’t know, I really don’t know.’
Saturday, 24 April 1999
Manchester City 1 Wycombe Wanderers 2
A crowd of almost 30,000 were left in disbelief as the struggling visitors raced to a 2–0 lead inside the opening 30 minutes with goals from Andrew Baird and Sean Devine.
Shaun Goater’s nineteenth goal of the season brought City back into the game just before half-time. After the break, City laid siege to the Wycombe goal without finding an equaliser. ‘We started sloppily and from then on it was one-way traffic, but it just wouldn’t come,’ said Joe Royle. ‘I can’t be too critical of the lads. After all, it’s only our second defeat in 22 games. I’m almost conceding that we can’t now go up automatically but football is a strange game and we now have to go to Bristol Rovers and lift ourselves again.’
Sunday, 25 April 1999
David Ginola was named the PFA’s player-of-the-year. There was consternation at City when they learned that none of their players had made the divisional team.
Ten
The Road to Wigan Pier
STEPNEY NOW A CITY MAN FOR KEEPS
(The Times, Saturday, 1 May 1999)
The sigh is just about audible. It turns into words. Alex Stepney has said them before, many times. ‘I finished at United in 1979 and I’ve never worked for them since.’ But, Alex, you played 433 times for Manchester United over a 12-year period. You were the solid, dependable goalkeeper behind the expansive out-field flair of Best, Charlton, Law and others. You were a member of the European Cup-winning team of 1968. That great save at the feet of Eusebio. Admit it, you’re a red. He shakes his head, exasperated.
Alex Stepney, and don’t even question this, is now in the blue corner of Manchester. He has been City’s specialist goalkeeping coach for almost four years. He is not the only goalkeeper around these parts to swap colours. Tony Coton (162 games for City) is now the coach at United, while Joe Corrigan (476 games for City) is at Liverpool. The trend appears to be: gather lots of experience and know-how with one club, and pass it on to a local rival.
Stepney takes issue with the word ‘rival’. ‘I like to see both Manchester clubs doing well. I want to see City back in the Premiership with United. It is where this club belongs.’ I tell him that two of my City-supporting friends, both of them equitable and intelligent, are uneasy about his defection. They noted his terminology when he visited a recent supporters’ club meeting. He was, everyone agreed, likeable enough but, oh dear, whenever he referred to City it was ‘they’ and not ‘we’. Stepney, though he does not say so, clearly believes that their level of partisanship is small-minded and peevish. Likewise, at its most crude, they – and other City fans – counter that Stepney, and the others who have crossed the blue-red divide, are mercenaries; the wage packet will govern the shirt.
Among the staff at Maine Road there is no such cynicism. Alex Stepney is one of them. They have seen the hours and effort he has put in for the blue cause. The football community of City, like that of all clubs, lives for the moment: are you good at your job? Do you talk sense? Can you take a joke? Are you someone to be respected? They don’t ask about former clubs, or cup finals from 31 years ago. The past is for supporters and journalists.
Stepney is glad to be among a football community once more. He spent many years out of the game. After a period coaching in the United States he worked as a transport manager and then became a pub landlord. In the early 1980s, two regular visitors to the Navigation Inn in Stockport were Alex Williams and Gary Bailey, goalkeepers who were then in the first teams of Manchester City and Manchester United respectively. Stepney would take them to a nearby field where they practised the art of goalkeeping. ‘I don’t know what people would have thought, seeing the two goalkeepers from City and United diving around on a rugby pitch,’ says Stepney.
Back then there was little emphasis on goalkeeping and Stepney believes the legacy of this indifference has been a shortage of home-grown talent and a necessity to bring in foreign players between the posts. ‘We always had the attitude that foreign keepers were poor at coming for crosses, a bit eccentric and everything, but they worked at their game while we stood still. It is only in recent years that clubs have seen the importance of specialised coaching. It will be a few years yet before we really see the English lads coming through.’
His own protégé is Nicky Weaver, City’s 20-year-old goalkeeper. Weaver played for Mansfield Town against City in a reserves match two years ago. Stepney was impressed by his natural ability and set about researching his background. ‘It is important to go into a lad’s temperament and attitude. He’s not got to be someone who lets mistakes worry him. An out-field player is allowed them, but a goalkeeper gets crucified.’
Although he cost the comparatively low fee of £100,000, Weaver was still something of a gamble. He had played just one first-team match for Mansfield and the reserves had lost 23 of their previous 24 games. In his final appearance for them, they lost 9–0. ‘I saw that he had confidence and a good command of his area. I said to Nicky that in two years’ time he could be in the first team if he worked hard at his game.’ In fact, he made the first-team after just one season when Joe Royle elevated him from third choice to first. He has since been put on stand-by for the England Under-21s squad.
City, not slow to recognise a player of cult status, have issued special Nicky Weaver T-shirts which are selling well, especially to his female admirers. The club’s claim that he is ‘City’s David Beckham’ is a bit rich, but Weaver, shaggy hair and cherubic features, does have the look of a pin-up-to-be.
Stepney goes looking for him at City’s training complex so they can be photographed together. ‘Weaver, are you in there, Weaver?’ he shouts into the gym. Weaver untangles himself from a weights machine and lolls towards Stepney. Loose-limbed and cheerful, he is like an escapee from Home and Away. At 6ft 3ins, he towers over Stepney. The two keepers make a good contrast; young and old, blond and dark, large and small, pupil and teacher, two goalies united. United, who mentioned United?
Saturday, 1 May 1999
Bristol Rovers 2 Manchester City 2
The game was put back to 6 p.m. to accommodate Sky TV’s pay-per-view coverage and this made the encounter largely meaningless. Walsall had beaten Oldham Athletic earlier in the day to clinch the second automatic promotion place behind Fulham.
City were 2–0 in front by half-time with goals from Shaun Goater and Terry Cooke. A late rally by Bristol Rovers salvaged a draw for the home side. The point at least guaranteed City a play-off spot.
Monday, 3 May 1999
Andy Morrison, who had picked up his fourteenth booking of the season against Bristol Rove
rs, was told he would once more have to appear before an FA disciplinary commission.
Wednesday, 5 May 1999
City’s shirt sponsor, Brother, announced that it did not plan to renew its contract with City for the 1999–2000 season.
CITY PREPARE TO UNDERGO TORMENT OF PLAY-OFFS
(The Times, Saturday, 8 May 1999)
Moss Side in the early-morning May sunshine has its own kind of sullen beauty. The sun flushes away the dread and unease of the inner-city night before and bathes the streets in light. Students from the nearby university campus amble by, milk bottles in hand. The old-boy walks his dog on an overgrown football pitch, stretching and yawning. A small queue develops at the bus stop.
In a few hours Moss Side will change again. Mike Corbett, Manchester City’s commissionaire, will bid farewell to the night security staff and hunt out his first cup of tea of the day. ‘That’s better,’ he’ll sigh, and push open the metal gates that separate Manchester City from the world. Thereafter, Maine Road will become a magnet for an itinerant population. The ground staff will arrive, the kitchen staff, stewards, police, players and, finally, the fans.
Despite City’s current league status, Maine Road is still a special place on a Saturday afternoon. It will be even more so today, the last day of the regular Nationwide League season when York City are the visitors. A sell-out crowd of more than 32,000 is expected, which will mirror the attendance of the opening game of the season against Blackpool.
August to May, Blackpool to York City, has been a long nine months in the history of the club. While they have qualified for the promotion play-offs, it has largely been a season of phlegmatic endeavour rather than joyous rejuvenation. Rarely have they looked anything greater than the solid but inconsistent outfit that – Fulham aside – typifies the division in which they play.
During the first half of the season, City were more than disappointing. Their nadir came just before Christmas when a defeat at York City left them in twelfth position. They were collecting more sendings off than points and Joe Royle’s habitual after-match utterance of lambasting the referee or whining that it was ‘their cup final’ was beginning to grate.
After the York defeat, City embarked upon a run which Royle had forecast for some time, though fans had started to question this assertion. They lost just once in 21 games and propelled themselves defiantly into the promotion play-offs. Supporters were pleased to witness this recovery, though a play-off place is more an appeasement than a cause for celebration.
The arrival of two players of contrasting talents are widely seen as the galvanising force behind a team that hitherto held a neurosis about its own ability. Andy Morrison is your man in a crisis. He looks like something assembled from debris left on a construction site – thighs like oil drums, chest built from breeze-blocks, neck as wide as an industrial drain. A stalwart of the lower divisions, he has supplied the studs-and-thuds ruthlessness essential for any defence in lower league football.
Terry Cooke, a signing from Manchester United, is Joe Royle’s compromise to class. He has that celebrated air of confidence that almost a decade spent at Old Trafford bestows upon a player. He holds the ball when all around him is hurly-burly and will tease a defender into a heedless lunge. He is impish, exciting and plays the game with a chuckle in his boots.
Many observers believe City’s progress through the play-offs is a formality. They feel the sheer weight of support from the stands will propel them to victory in these death-or-glory matches. History would suggest otherwise, for City are not good under pressure. Their supporters invariably out-number and out-sing their counterparts but this has often served only to make players edgy and afraid. They have lost the same number of times at home as they have away this season, so who does their fanatical support inspire most – themselves or their opponents?
Preston North End have already secured their play-off spot while the other two places are between Gillingham, Bournemouth and Wigan Athletic. Of these, only Bournemouth, like City, are new to the breathless madness that is play-off football. In basic terms, then, City have only a one-in-four chance of securing the promotion spot.
Of course, City supporters, with their enigmatic mixture of optimism and fatalism, will argue that theirs is the team currently in best form. They have lost just twice in the league in nearly five months but, worry-worry, their last three games have been a win, a defeat and a draw. No fear, at least the current issue of the City fanzine, King of the Kippax provides solace. It contains a spoof advert marketing City as a cure for low blood pressure: ‘as proven over the last 30 years’ is the claim.
Saturday, 8 May 1999
Manchester City 4 York City 0
Without hitting top form, City brushed aside York City who were relegated because of the defeat and results elsewhere. The City scorers were Paul Dickov, Jeff Whitley, Kevin Horlock and Danny Allsopp. The win meant City finished the regular season in third place, six points ahead of Wigan in seventh spot.
Before the game, City players unfurled a banner on the pitch carrying the message: ‘You’re the Best and You Know You Are! Thanks for Your Support.’ A rainbow also appeared behind the Platt Lane Stand. At the final whistle, City learned they would meet Wigan Athletic in the semi-final of the promotion play-offs.
The attendance was 32,471, the highest at Maine Road for five years. City’s average league home attendance for the season was 28,261. This was more than double the next best average for the division, Stoke City. Only one team surpassed the average in Division One, Sunderland, and it was greater than nine clubs in the FA Carling Premiership.
In keeping a clean-sheet, Nicky Weaver surpassed Alex Williams’s record of 21 during a season, though Weaver had played in four extra matches.
Monday, 11 May 1999
Gerard Wiekens was voted the club’s player-of-the-season, with Nicky Weaver runner-up and Andy Morrison in third place. Shaun Wright-Phillips, although still to make his first-team début, won the young-player-of-the-year prize.
Wednesday, 13 May 1999
Tickets went on sale for the away leg at Springfield Park, Wigan. Only 1,400 were available to City supporters and they were allocated to season-ticket holders who could produce ticket stubs from at least five away matches.
Fans began queuing at 4 a.m., even though tickets did not go on sale until 5.30 p.m. The queue stretched half way along Maine Road and there was consternation when many missed out. Their anger was intensified when they were given raffle tickets as proof of their position in the queue – they wrongly believed that these guaranteed them a match ticket.
City announced they would install a huge screen at Maine Road and beam the match live.
PSYCHOLOGIST GETS EMOTIONAL ABOUT CITY’S MIND GAMES
(The Times, Saturday, 15 May 1999)
Suddenly, my first name trebles in length. ‘Maaark, nice to meet ya.’ The smile complements the rainbow sweater. It dazzles, it glows, it sings happiness and a sunny morning to the world. ‘Hey, you know what, when I’m on TV they sometimes call me the sweater psychologist. It’s kinda my image I suppose,’ says the Mancunian from California.
Professor Cary Cooper, the man with stretch-limo vowels, is a leading expert in the study of stress. Tense, nervous headache? A two-minute spot at the end of the news that needs filling with some animated, user-friendly psycho-babble? Cooper’s your man, a Technicolor, made-for-TV psychologist. Jeeez, he was even named after Cary Grant, and has the look of a wiry, up-for-it Richard Dreyfuss.
Lamentably, this savant of stress holds a dark, dark secret. A great deal of his own life has been lived out against a backdrop of unremitting anxiety. He is, and always will be, a supporter of Manchester City. ‘Hey! I’m a psychologist. I’m allowed to have at least one obsession, aren’t I?’ Perhaps he has plotted a rationale to counter City-induced tension, for Cooper is 59, with the skin of a 40-year-old, and the incandescence of a teenager.
He fidgets in his chair, asks too many questions. In his attempt to draw cl
oser, to communicate, he bangs his chair against the table. ‘That’s another reason why I like football, people show their emotions and open up. As a psychologist, I’m always trying to make them do that,’ he says.
He is already known to the club and has offered his counsel in their hour of need – their first encounter with the promotion play-offs. They play at Wigan Athletic today in the first-leg of the semi-final. ‘I think it is important that whatever they do over the next few days, they do it as a team. It really is team stuff now,’ he says. ‘They should spend time together, play a game of golf, maybe go for a walk in the countryside. The players should know that, whatever happens, the fans are going to be there for them. City fans will back them, win or lose, as long as they give it their best goddam effort.’
Cooper is the pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. It was his idea for the university to bestow an honorary degree on Mick Hucknall of Simply Red. Showbiz and academia, round-rimmed glasses and multi-coloured sweaters, Cooper makes them a comfortable fit.
Unsurprisingly, he is a good friend of the television presenter and fellow City supporter, Stuart Hall. He even spoke up for him during the court case when Hall was acquitted of a shoplifting charge. They are both sunshine on legs, people so in love with life they make others sceptical, resentful even.
‘You know, I can’t understand that. It’s one of the few British characteristics that I don’t really like,’ he says. Otherwise, Cooper is the ultimate Anglophile. ‘My best friend in the States had lived for a long while in England. He told me about things like ‘The Goons’ and the ‘Carry On’ series. It all seemed so off-the-wall and eccentric.’
In 1964 he left the University of California to continue his studies in England, at Leeds University. Within weeks he had attended his first football match, watching Leeds United at Elland Road. ‘I liked it straight away. It was fast and constant. I was used to all the razzmatazz of American sport. With soccer it was, “what you see is what you get”, without any of that cheer-leaders garbage. It wasn’t about peanuts or hot dogs, they just got right down to it.’
Blue Moon: Down Among The Dead Men With Manchester City Page 18