TEAMS
Wolves
Southampton
Swindon (loan)
Blackburn
Leicester
Stockport (loan)
Coventry (loan)
Manchester City (loan)
Englandbreak, and if we played tennis he was class.
Al was a hugely motivated, driven individual,
and never had any doubt in his mind that he
would be England’s No.9. You could tell they
were set to have good careers.
After seven years with Saints, you joined
Blackburn for £2.4m – a British record fee
for a keeper. Did the price tag affect you?
I didn’t think about it, so it didn’t bother me –
you can’t control the price. I guess it was the
going rate, because it was the early part of
Sky coming into the higher end of the game.
I was in good form for Saints and clubs were
eyeing me. Blackburn under Kenny Dalglish
were signing great players every few weeks:
Shearer, David Batty, Tim Sherwood, Stuart
Ripley, Colin Hendry, Henning Berg, Graeme
Le Saux... These were top players, so from the
outside it seemed like it was only a matter of
time before they won trophies. Moving there
was a no-brainer for me.
Rovers were Premier League runners-up in
your first season, then won it in 1994-95.
How significant an achievement was that
with a club like Blackburn?
Some of the football we played in that first
year was top class. Then we brought in Chris
Sutton, who was the flagship signing of the
summer, and kicked on. Apart from Leicester
[in 2015-16], the Premier League has always
been dominated by Manchester and London
clubs, so it was a great achievement. For me,
Blackburn never got the credit they deserved.
Jack Walker spent a bit of money to compete
in the marketplace, but he was still attracting
players when those big-city clubs with huge
fanbases and histories were the ones a lot of
players wanted to join.
Two wins in your final six matches nearly
gifted the title to Manchester United, and
you only won it because United failed to
win on the final day. Did the pressure tell?
It was tight, and Sir Alex Ferguson said we’d
have to be like Devon Loch – the horse that
fell at the last fence in the Grand National –
to overtake us. With six weeks to go we were
cruising, but all of a sudden it was harder to
win matches. The more we didn’t get three
points, the more United kept winning. In the
end, they took it to the final game. I thought
we’d blown it when Jamie Redknapp scored
for Liverpool. I was sure United would win at
West Ham, but Ludek Miklosko had a worldie
that day. Still, even if you win it by one goal,
you’re the rightful champions – we deserved
the title and were the best side in the league.
After scraping past Newcastle 1-0 in your
penultimate game, you gave an emotional
interview where you said the team showed
‘bottle’ a number of times. What was going
through your mind?
I don’t think the reporter even said anything
about bottle, but I was so hyped after having
plenty to do. It was a colossal win for us – if
United hadn’t won at home to Southampton
the following night, we’d have won the title
before the final day. On the morning of the
game, Sir Alex had done an interview saying
we’d bottled it, so it was in my mind – it was
just an immense relief that we were almost
there. I was fired up as I walked off the pitch,
then came out with that cobblers – the bloke
holding the mic was looking at me and must
have been loving it.Why didn’t Blackburn kick on following the
league triumph?
At the time we felt we could sustain it, but
things changed. I remember going on holiday
the summer after winning the league with Al
[Shearer] and Mike Newell’s families to Disney
in America. While we were out there, Al said,
“Something unbelievable is going to happen”.
He knew what it was and nobody else did, so
we gave him a few beers to try to loosen him
up, but there was no chance. Of course, the
news was that Dalglish was packing it in and
Ray Harford was taking over. Kenny and Ray
worked well together, and Ray was a terrific
coach and like an uncle to us, but there was
a different dynamic. It wasn’t quite the same.You were regularly involved with England
during this time, going to Euro 96 and the
1998 World Cup. Although you were used
as a backup for David Seaman, what was it
like to be part of the squad?
It was absolutely fantastic. Ahead of Euro 96,
I played against China in Beijing; then we flew
to Hong Kong before that infamous night out[with the dentist’s chair]. Terry Venables had
organised this magnificent Chinese meal on
a barge – 15 courses or something – and you
could see some of the lads were itching to go
out. A few of us, including me and Al, said we
wouldn’t rush off and stayed to eat the food.
Obviously, all hell broke loose the next day
and we ended up going into the tournament
with the public not particularly embracing us
as a team. As the tournament went on, the
country went potty and it was brilliant to be
part of, even if I wasn’t playing. I thoroughly
enjoyed being in a really good group. You’re
a football fan first, so it was unbelievable to
be there. Then two years later was France 98.
It’s everybody’s dream to go to a World Cup
for their country with the pure size of it all, so
it was another incredible experience. I also
played at Le Tournoi in 1997 [which England
won] and still have my medal.You’ve worked as a manager at Barnet and
Solihull Moors – why don’t more keepers
become bosses?
There are fewer keepers than outfield players,
so pro rata there will be fewer coaches. A lot
of keepers probably prefer being a specialist
and teaching what they know, which I did for
a number of years. When you think about it,
a keeper stands at one end of the pitch, sees
all 21 players in front of them, plays behind
different shapes and formations, and knows
the attacking outfits they feel uneasy dealing
with. A keeper being a boss is no different to
a right-back – if you love the game and take
an interest in coaching, watching teams and
tactics, anybody can do it if they work hard.FourFourTwo December 2021 95