Red Machine

by Simon Hughes

  As the youngest player in the squad, Staunton came in for some stick.

  ‘I had to stand up for myself,’ he grimaces. ‘I quickly learnt that I couldn’t hover in the background and hide. It’s like that in any working environment. If you let people get the better of you, you’re done for. For a time, I was the butt of all the jokes, being a young Irish lad with a strong accent. It changed for me when I was away on international duty with Ireland in Dublin and I fronted up to Liam Brady. He was one of my heroes. Liam was sitting there playing cards with Aldo, Cas [Tony Cascarino] and a few of the other boys. It was late at night and they were all having a laugh and a joke. It was the day before a game and I was doing what I was told by going to bed and getting the rest. They woke me up, so I went to see what was going on. I walked into the room and Liam tries to belittle me, “Stan, make us all a cup of tea … and bring those biscuits over while you’re there.”

  ‘“Fuck off, you cunt,” I told him.

  ‘The boys sat there speechless and all started laughing. I was 18 and Liam was one of the best players Ireland had ever produced. He’d played in Italy with Juventus. But I didn’t give a shit – not that I meant it in a nasty way. I just wanted them all to know that I’d stand my ground. From then on, I had the balls to stand up to everyone. But it didn’t stop Aldo trying it on.’

  In August ’88, Staunton was on the bench when Liverpool beat Wimbledon in the Charity Shield alongside fellow reserve-team player Charlie Boyd (Alex Watson, brother of Dave, started the match). By the middle of September, he’d made his first-team debut.

  ‘We were playing Spurs at Anfield and Jan Mølby had a problem and was signalling to come off. I was on the bench with John Durnin, and Kenny sent me out down the line for a quick warm-up. When I got back to the dugout, he goes to me, “Now, Stan, where do you fancy playing?” Kenny knew I could play left side of centre-back, left-back or left-midfield. I couldn’t believe what he was asking me, but I had a think about it and thought, “Left side of centre-back – I’d be up against Paul Walsh”, and he was on fire. I didn’t fancy that for my debut. So I ended up chickening out and playing left-hand side of midfield. I put my first three crosses in the Kop. It wasn’t the best of debuts.’

  With Barry Venison, Jim Beglin and Gary Ablett in front him, Staunton believed his path towards a regular position in the first team would be at left-back.

  ‘David Burrows also came in around the October time, but I could see it was an area of the team Kenny wasn’t settled on. Barry and Jim were good pros but players I felt I could put under pressure. Compared to other parts of the park, the competition at left-back wasn’t quite as strong.’

  Dalglish, though, had other ideas.

  ‘Kenny thought I could play centre-forward. God knows why. On the pre-season tour of Norway, I’d come off the bench a few times and in one of them I came on for Rushy and scored a hat-trick. That backed up Kenny’s argument, but after a few years I think he realised that I was better at running onto things than with my back to goal. Everybody knew that my position was left-back, but I ended up playing in nearly every position for Liverpool. I played everywhere down the left, everywhere down the middle, even right-back for five minutes when a player was receiving treatment. Then, when I later came back from the club from Villa, I played in goal against Everton in the derby after Sander Westerveld got sent off. I must have gone through every single shirt number.

  ‘It was important for my development, and I think that’s why I played for so long [Staunton finished his career at centre-back]. There is a tendency now for players to get stuck with a position from an early age. They get in the comfort zone. That wasn’t allowed to happen at Liverpool.’

  Wearing the number 10 shirt, Staunton scored on his full debut against Arsenal in the Centenary Shield (a competition devised to compensate top English clubs for lost revenue following Heysel and the European ban that followed). After starting in a surprising one-goal defeat at home to Newcastle, who were eventually relegated, Staunton didn’t appear again for a month in the league. Then, returning for a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Wimbledon, he was virtually ever-present as Liverpool gave themselves a chance of a league and cup double. If Staunton, who finished the campaign having played 29 games, believed that April and May would mark a glorious culmination to a debut season, he was wrong. Hillsborough happened.

  ‘I was naive to the whole situation. Because I was so young, I couldn’t really take in what was going on, particularly on the day. I couldn’t quite comprehend what I was seeing. Because I was left-back, I was in the corner of the pitch where the worst crush happened. I could see everything … hear everything.

  ‘When Peter Beardsley had the shot that hit the bar after a few minutes, there was a big surge in the crowd and seconds later I could hear screams. You don’t expect such a thing to happen at a football match, so I was trying to focus on what was going on on the pitch. I went to take a throw-in and people started climbing over the fence. I could see in their faces that something bad – something out of their control – had happened.

  ‘In the weeks and months after, I was ringing home all the time. I had a breakdown, and my mother was a big help. Without her, God knows what I’d have done. It was probably after the season had finished when I went through the worst of it. Physically and mentally, I was a wreck for a few days. I was crying all the time, like shell shock. It hit me like a steam train. The memories are still with me. They are vivid. I think about it most days.’

  Staunton was not selected for the Hillsborough memorial match at Parkhead against Celtic.

  ‘Kenny pinned the team on the board and I wasn’t in it. He knew I was a young boy and that’s probably why he played the older ones. It wasn’t easy for anyone at that time, but it was just his way of protecting me – like he did for everyone.’

  Liverpool returned to competitive first-team action three weeks after the disaster, against Everton in a league match at Goodison Park.

  ‘The families got us back playing,’ he maintains. ‘I think a lot of the boys wanted to finish the season there and then. There were some discussions and a lot of the lads thought it wasn’t right that we continue. We were going for a league and cup double, something few teams had achieved. But the morale was so low; nobody cared. The FA Cup became more important than the league, because we wanted to win it for the fans after what had happened in the semi-final. We weren’t really focusing on the league but somehow managed to claw it back after being a dozen or so points behind. Arsenal were going for the title and on a really bad run, so they went away on holiday to Ibiza and only started winning when they came back. After Hillsborough, we had a load of games in hand again and it was a bit too much for us. Everybody knows that the season went until the final minute. I think our legs and minds had gone by then.’

  Defeat to Michael Thomas and Arsenal came after a 3–2 victory over Everton in the FA Cup final.

  Still in his teens, Staunton believes he was blessed to have two Liverpool legends close to him in positions on the pitch.

  ‘For three years, John Barnes was unbelievable. I knew from day one he was one of the best players in the world. Liverpool liked to play the ball on the ground and pass it with pace, and before my debut I was told this again in the dressing-room. The ball came to me a couple of minutes in, and I was down the Kop end just at the edge of the box. I’ve gone to hit this nice side-foot down the line, and the ball hit a bobble. I could see it going into the Main Stand, but Barnesy came from nowhere, rose and took it on his chest. Not only did he control it, but with his next touch he beat the onrushing defender. I thought, “Oh, yes – I can’t lose here.” Another thing we were taught at Liverpool was that you needed to turn a bad pass into a good ’un. I was lucky in that respect because I had Barnesy in front of me. It meant I could get forward all the time because the oppo only cared about stopping John Barnes.’

  If Staunton was fortunate to have Barnes as an option down the line, he was blessed to have Alan Hans
en inside.

  ‘That was another blow,’ he jokes. ‘Again, how could I lose? If the ball to Barnesy wasn’t on, I had Jocky inside, who was one of the best ball-playing defenders of the previous decade. Then there was Ronnie Whelan on the inside, who in my opinion is one of Liverpool’s all-time most underrated players as well. As a one-touch player in that period, I can’t think of anyone better. Razor [Ray Houghton] was a great player too. He’d make unselfish runs across the pitch just to take one touch and set it up for you. I can’t think of a player who’d do that today – make a 60-yard run just to receive a pass and lay it off first time. All I needed to do was as I was told.’

  Another undervalued performer was John Aldridge.

  ‘Aldo wasn’t as pleasing on the eye as other strikers because of his style, compared to Rush or Kenny, but Aldo was the best finisher I’ve seen. He was better than Rushy. Inside the box, he was phenomenal. I remember once in a game smashing the ball across on the half volley and it was rising all the time. It was head height, but he put it in the net with his right foot. Aldo then comes rushing to me in celebration shouting, “You nearly took my fucking groin off there.” I told the soft bastard it was meant to be for his big fat head! That was him – he had a predatory instinct of where and when to go, and his goalscoring record speaks for itself. It’s better than any other I’ve known.’

  One player that struggled at Liverpool was Swedish defender Glenn Hysén.

  ‘He was clearly more used to playing in a sweeper system – something he’d done at Fiorentina. There’s a big difference between playing in a three or a four. Some of the best defenders who have played in a four all their lives can’t get used to playing in a three and vice-versa. Personally, I can’t understand it, because it’s only a mental blockage. It’s 10 v 10 outfield, but Glenn couldn’t seem to get his head around the way we played. So he found it really hard.’

  Liverpool finished the ’80s with a title – Staunton’s first – but he says the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace had long-term implications for the team.

  ‘It may have been a watershed moment. We were so comfortable against them and 1–0 up at half-time. Then they roared back into the game and we didn’t seem to cope. It was an ageing squad, and I was the youngest player in the team. I remember some of the lads telling me that I would have other cup semi-finals to put right what had gone wrong that day at Villa Park. I got the impression that they were saying it because they knew they didn’t.’

  Liverpool comfortably secured their 18th league title in May 1990 after beating QPR. Yet there was no feeling around the club that more than 20 years later they’d be waiting for their 19th.

  ‘I don’t remember any special celebrations. It was typical Liverpool. Ronnie Moran came in with a box of medals and said, “If you’ve played more than 12 games, take a medal. Make sure you’re ready for next season because it’s going to be a lot fucking harder.”’

  It was. Arsenal cantered to the title with Liverpool finishing second. After a 4–4 FA Cup draw at Goodison Park against Everton, Dalglish resigned as manager, and a month later Graeme Souness was appointed his successor.

  ‘People ask me all the time about the day Kenny resigned, but it was just an average day at training. We were all tired after the Everton match and were preparing to go out when Ronnie [Moran] came in and said Kenny had had enough. We were all shocked, because he didn’t show any signs he was unhappy beforehand. My personal feeling is that he needed a break from football after what had happened at Hillsborough. He took everybody’s problems on his shoulders and didn’t ask for any help himself – at least he didn’t appear to. After the Ibrox disaster, Heysel and Hillsborough, Kenny must have felt the strain. It could have easily broken lesser people.

  ‘When Graeme [Souness] initially came in as Kenny’s replacement, he had some fantastic ideas. Training was a bit different. I was flying the following pre-season, playing in all the games. I’d never felt fitter.’

  Ahead of a flight to Germany for a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen, Staunton was called into Souness’s office.

  ‘Graeme told me to go and speak to Ron Atkinson [Aston Villa’s manager]. I was devastated. It had never entered my head that Graeme was thinking about letting me go. He said that Ron had made an offer of £1.1 million and he felt that because I was going to be classed as a foreigner under new laws (at a time when no team was allowed to field more than four) and because he already had three English left-backs, it represented a good deal for Liverpool.

  ‘So I went down to Birmingham and initially told Ron, “No.” Villa were offering me a big contract and long-term security, but it didn’t bother me – I didn’t want to leave Liverpool. Big Ron told me afterwards that he’d initially enquired about David Burrows but Graeme said, no, he could have me instead. In Ron’s mind, I was twice the player of Buggsy, so he couldn’t believe his luck.

  ‘The whole experience of being let go by Liverpool toughened me up even more. From then on, I always thought about myself first rather than the club, because I realised that any club could dispense with a player at any given moment. Liverpool hurt me, if I’m totally honest, and for a long time I didn’t even bother looking out for their results.’

  Atkinson – originally from Old Swan – had managed Manchester United in the ’80s. He coaxed the best out of Staunton.

  ‘I was 22 when I signed for Villa, and I was only going to improve. Villa probably saw my best years, and now I have just as much affection for them as I do for Liverpool. When Graeme had left and Roy Evans took charge, he tried to sign me every summer and it was always in the papers. It peeved a lot of Villa fans off.

  ‘We played some great football under Ron, and we probably should have won the Premier League. [In 1992–93 Villa finished second behind Man United.] I knew a few of the boys there already and there were some great times.’

  With Paul McGrath in the squad, the craic at Villa was good. When Staunton signed for the club, all the talk inside the dressing-room was of McGrath’s antics on a pre-season training camp in Hamburg a few weeks earlier.

  ‘Everyone knows Paul had drink problems, and it caused difficulties for him in his life. But there were some funnier moments. Around the time I was signing, Ron was travelling to and from Hamburg to be with the team and sign players back in Birmingham. Andy Gray was the assistant manager and in charge of the squad while Ron was away. Andy was a bit of a lad in his playing days but naive to the coaching and discipline side of things.

  ‘One day, Paul went out on a binge, because the tour was basically a big piss-up, and he didn’t turn up for training. Later that night, he turned up at the team hotel and went straight to his room. Andy was trying to bang the door down to see where he’d been, but in the meantime Paul climbed out of the window, down a drainpipe for five or six floors and out to freedom – or at least the next bar. Hamburg has a great nightlife.’

  Ray Houghton, a former Liverpool teammate, soon joined Staunton at Villa Park.

  ‘Ray would moan all day. He had little man’s disease. At Villa, the lads couldn’t understand how we put up with each other. We lived in the same village and drove to training and back every morning. I think the lads saw us as a bit of an odd couple because we’d be arguing all the time. They’d say, “What happens after training, when you’ve had a barney and one of you has to drive the other one home?” I’d tell them that we wouldn’t speak to each other in the car, then eventually one of us would pick up the phone and say, “Fancy a quick pint?”’

  Staunton won the League Cup twice during his time in the Midlands.

  ‘In ’94, we beat United 3–1 and I was marking Andrei Kanchelskis. He was a real flyer and up for player of the season that year. United were battering everybody, and we weren’t expected to win the final. Dalian Atkinson gave us the lead early on, but I was really struggling with fitness after being rushed back for the final after injury. By the end of the first half, Kanchelskis could have walked around me – I was struggling that
much. So I told Ron that I had to come off. Coxy [Neil Cox] came on, and Kanchelskis was giving him the runaround. I was sitting on the bench, and Ron turns to me and goes, “If we lose this fucking game – it’s on your head.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because when Ron lost his temper, you didn’t want to be in the same room as him. Luckily, Deano [Dean Saunders] scored two late on, and Kanchelskis ended up getting sent off.’

  A second League Cup medal followed in 1996 with a 3–0 victory over Leeds United, although Staunton was an unused substitute. By 1998, he was ready to move on, and he returned to Liverpool.

  ‘You always think that you should never go back, but I did. It proved to be the wrong decision,’ he says. Within months, Gérard Houllier was appointed joint-manager with Roy Evans. ‘That was possibly the most annoying part of it all, because I didn’t sign for Gérard; I signed for Roy. I thought the writing was on the wall straight away, and I wasn’t wrong. Me and Gérard didn’t see eye to eye, and he wanted his own men in.’

  Staunton signed for Villa again before moving on to Walsall, where he was on a short-term contract before making his first steps into management with Ireland.

  ‘I didn’t apply for it – the IFA sought me out,’ he insists. ‘I received a phone call and the person on the other end of the line said, “Stephen, would you like to manage your country?” I’d played 102 times for Ireland – more than any other player in history – but it was a huge surprise and a big honour. If I’m honest, I wasn’t all that taken with the idea because I thought it might have come too soon. Then I questioned whether I’d ever be offered the opportunity again, so I had to take it.’

  Life back home wasn’t easy. Only three matches into the job, Staunton was confronted by a man with a plastic imitation Uzi sub-machine gun in Portmarnock, north of Dublin, while the team prepared for a friendly against Holland. Then, he was lampooned by the Irish public for an embarrassing 5–2 away defeat by Cyprus. Ireland failed to qualify for Euro 2008 and at the end of the campaign Staunton was sacked.