The Nowhere Men (13 page)

Steve Jones was so insistent, so secure in expressing his admiration, it seemed churlish to refuse. At a time when the tribal structure was being undermined, these were elders, who spoke of, and for, their generation. Each was in, or approaching, their 60s, and had spent a lifetime in the game. Barry Lloyd, Allan Gemmell and Pat Holland represented different clubs – Brighton, Nottingham Forest and Arsenal respectively – but a distinctive, unifying culture.

Lloyd, the former Fulham defender who spent nearly seven years as Brighton manager, had the air of the Commodore of a South coast yacht club. His grey hair was impeccably cut, and lapped gently on to the collar of a crisp blue, shiny-buttoned blazer. Gemmell, a key aide for his brother-in-law Peter Taylor, over three decades, wore an open-necked shirt and could have been mistaken for a university lecturer. Holland walked with the rolling gait of a former footballer whose body was protesting about ancient exertions.

Holland played 245 times for West Ham between 1969 and 1981, and apart from a brief loan period at Bournemouth, was a one-club man. He coached the youth team at Tottenham, and managed Leyton Orient. He had two principal spells as a chief scout, at Millwall and MK Dons, where he underpinned the work of Roberto Di Matteo. Arsenal, through chief scout Steve Rowley, recognised the value of his analytical expertise in the critical 16–21 age group.

The three are sitting around a circular table, crammed with the obligatory sandwiches. The vegetarian platter lacks the appeal of the tray featuring coronation chicken and rare roast beef. These men are employed to have the courage of their convictions. Their verdicts can appear harsh, even insensitive, but strident opinions are their stock in trade. Holland has the floor. Let’s eavesdrop, as the trio do what scouts do best. Talk.

PAT
So it’s the night before we’re playing Liverpool. Jimmy Greaves’ home debut for West Ham, 1970. I’m nineteen. I’m out in the council estate. There’s a knock at the door. ‘Message from the club. Would you come down and play, Pat?’ I said, ‘I can’t. I’ve turned my ankle over.’ So I phoned the physio: ‘You soppy fucking bastard, get down here now.’ I’ve driven down to his clinic opposite the ground. He put a pressure bandage on. ‘Don’t say anything. We’ll see what it’s like in the morning.’ Now in those days you had twelve players – a team and one sub. No margin for error. So I go in the next day, he looks at it and says, ‘I think you’ll be allright.’ Out we go. We win one–nil, and I get the goal. I’m telling the story because of what you said, Allan, about Arsène Wenger saying there’s no technical development in a boy after the age of twelve. Well, against Liverpool that day, I take a corner. I get it to just where the six-yard line is on the first post, the near post. It’s cleared. Geoff Hurst jogs back and says, ‘Son – get it to the far post,’ and I say, ‘I can’t reach that far.’ Allright. Now you’re telling me I ain’t still developing? You know what I mean? I had a chicken’s legs. Now as I got older, twenty-three, twenty-four, I could curl it, fade it. I had length and strength. I know what Arsène is saying but you ain’t half got to be careful with that kind of statement.

BARRY
Look at the stats. In England, the vast majority of players make their debut at or around seventeen or eighteen. You go to France, Germany, Spain, Europe. The average age is twenty-one, twenty-two. So what I’m saying is they actually work harder at developing them before they expose them to the first team. We have kids who drop out when they’re eighteen for various reasons, but if the desire is there, they’ll get picked up two years later through non-league clubs. That’s where sometimes we’re stronger in this country.

PAT
Listen. We let Warren Barton go from Leyton. He was a lovely, lovely little boy. Eighteen and he was tiny. I then get a phone call from Leytonstone saying, ‘Would you take him?’ I said, ‘I’d take him tomorrow.’ Then he goes to Maidstone, then to Wimbledon, and then he plays for Newcastle and England. And I know they’re one-offs, but you can’t just go boom and say players aren’t going to develop – it will kick you up the backside.

BARRY
There is a ninety-five per cent drop-out in the academy at the end of the season. That’s hard to deal with. But the worst thing is what those ninety-five per cent do. Eighty-three per cent never play the game again. Now, you’re not telling me that in that eighty-three per cent of that ninety-five per cent there isn’t real talent. If they’ve got the desire, real desire and the love and enjoyment of the game, they do come through. There are probably three a season who probably come through the non-league route.

PAT
If you look at the process, they are bringing kids in at six years of age. They should be playing Cowboys and Indians. Six years of age. You’ve got that kid for ten years. You see the cycle repeating itself; the disappointment, the failure, the parents. They don’t see the glory of football. They don’t see it at all. They’re not proud. I’ve got to be careful here, because this is a broad statement, but I think at the end of it, they see only a few quid. That’s the worrying thing.

ALLAN
There are no guarantees. Johnny Bostock went from Palace to Tottenham. They took him off us for seven hundred and fifty grand. His career has just dived, from going to Barcelona and Tottenham and all these lovely places. Really he’s struggling like mad. So sad, because he was a real talent at one time.

PAT
I’ve been coaching kids since I was a boy of seventeen. John Lyall got me coaching at West Ham on a Tuesday and Thursday night and I went right through to a man of twenty-eight. But, in all that time, did I really know what the parents said to the kid when he left me? I have to be honest and say no. None of us really know what goes on in the car, or when the boy is at home. All I can do is talk to the parents about how my father dealt with me. My dad was steady. It was either ‘I’ve seen you play better’ when I didn’t do well, or ‘that’s the way you can play’ when I had a good one. That was it. But if he said ‘I’ve seen you play better’ I may as well have run into the broom cupboard, and hid. He never said ‘you were useless’, he never said ‘you should have done this or that’. It was ‘I’ve seen you play better’. And it killed me. I don’t want to sound cynical, but the development of young players is a real issue. We know, because we are out there, that they are not coming through in abundance. If you look at Tottenham – and not only because they sacked me – the last one to come through, over the last five years, is Jake Livermore, who’s a squad player.

BARRY
We went to Spurs Lodge yesterday with our development squad. Beat them four–one. And it didn’t surprise me.

PAT
Yeah. And they say they’re putting youngsters in. There’s always an excuse. I understand it’s a different ball game now. If there’s nothing there you can buy a three-, four-, five-million-pound player. Clubs ain’t going to hang around for the likes of Jake Livermore to develop. You wonder about the quality of player coming through. That’s the worrying thing for me. We’ve watched Ajax bash Liverpool with all the money that’s gone into it, millions. Look at Chelsea, and the money they’ve spent.

ALLAN
Chelsea are buying in all the time. They have just bought Patrick Bamford from us for two million quid. He’s eighteen. They’ve just spent one point seven on an Italian under sixteen goalkeeper. Bamford played Wigan and scored five. The following week he played Southampton in the Youth Cup and scored four. He’s done well, but he ain’t that. He ain’t ever going to play in their first team. Not a chance in hell. But, by buying him, Chelsea are stopping other clubs getting the boy. Pat’s hit the nail right on the head.

PAT
I watched Bamford pre-season at Burton Albion. I thought, right, you’re not bad up front Blondie, not bad. Don’t want to head it, not quick, but you’re a good footballer. We try to keep tabs on him. He’s supposed to be from a nice family. I speak to Allan. He then has this surge where he gets about a hundred goals in four games. So now, our boys go and watch him. And I’m not talking about the scouts, it’s the coaches. They’re saying: ‘Well, he’s only one point five.’ And I’m thinking, it’s as if it’s a drop in the ocean, as if it’s a hundred quid. You have got to be liable for that money; you’ve got to put your stamp on that. Now that might frighten a lot of people. If you said to me, would you pay out that sort of cash, I’d say no.

ALLAN
But is that where we’re wrong now? I think it is. To us, one and a half million for a kid is a lot of money. We know it is a huge gamble. For Abramovich, or someone like him, one and a half million for a sixteen- or eighteen-year-old isn’t a lot of money. I think we’d say we’re not paying that. Are we out of step?

BARRY
My chairman’s got fucking loads of money. We’re the luckiest club alive. We can spend ninety million pounds on a new stadium. If Gus wants something he gets it. We’ve built the EP3 thing, the training ground. Another thirty million quid. We had a meeting with him and the board. We’ve got a five-year plan. We’ve got to have at least five home-grown players in the first team. We’ve got to do this and that. This went on for about an hour and a half. And the chairman said, ‘Barry, you haven’t said anything.’ I said, ‘I’ll tell you what Tone, why don’t you go down the pier, and throw all your fucking money in the sea.’ And everyone fucking looked at me. And they laughed, and Tony said ‘Bal, what do you mean by that?’ I said, ‘Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham. How many players in the last ten years have they actually brought through?’ Straight away he said, ‘John Terry.’ No. They got him from West Ham. ‘Did they?’ Next one? He couldn’t name one. It’s really hard. I’m not being difficult, but you have to be realistic.

PAT
So who is accountable? Does Daniel Levy go to the academy at Tottenham and say, ‘You’ve spent ten million on players, and not one of them has made it. You’re all out’? That’s a lot of dough, ten million. And I know what they’ll come back to him with. It’ll be: ‘Wait until three years’ time. We’ve got a plan’ and all that crap.

BARRY
I think if you’re paying one and a half, two or three million pounds for a player in their mid-twenties, you can put together a case. That is a sellable asset. I went out to the under seventeen World Cup in Mexico last summer and the best team by a mile was the Ivory Coast. I flagged five players. I’ve come back with all the reports, read the paper, and saw that Harry Redknapp had signed one of the players I’d flagged up. One and a half million. Souleymane Coulibaly was his name. Nine goals in four games. He’d come from an Italian club. You see him now, and I’m not saying he’s not worth the money, but he looks a stone overweight.

ALLAN
Patsy asked me about Jamaal Lascelles at our place. I wouldn’t hesitate. That’s the best value any Premier League club would get for their one and a half million. You see, you’ve got half a chance with that lad because he’s gone to Stevenage on loan. So I can now go as a scout, coach, manager, and I can analyse that boy in his football. I’m telling you, he’s got everything. Every little thing. Every little bit needs a bit of development, but he’s got everything. He’s a Rio Ferdinand type. I remember working with the England under twenty-ones and watching Ferdinand, and saying to Pete ‘I’m not sure about him on the old defending.’ West Ham weren’t at the time, to be fair, but he’s gone on to be a top player. Top players have an aura about them. It’s the way they turn up for training. Lascelles is the bollocks. He won’t come in in a pair of jeans. You know how we were talking about discipline? You look at him around people, and you look at him on the football pitch, and it is all ticks. I swear to you.

PAT
And I bet if you look at his school record that would be the same as well.

ALLAN
What do we think of Shelvey at Liverpool, as a player?

BARRY
He’s allright, not bad.

ALLAN
Is he going to be a top player for Liverpool?

PAT
He might train on. I’d say he needs experience.

ALLAN
What I’m trying to say is, he’s got a five-year contract and that boy has never, ever got to work again. I know that for a fact because Phil Chappell told me exactly what the deal was when he left Charlton. So, why should he want to go on and be a top player at Liverpool? He hasn’t
got
to play football. That to me is where a lot of desire and hunger has gone.

PAT
But how do we know that feeling? We can’t know that feeling. So how can we say he doesn’t?

ALLAN
I’ve heard of a young boy, who pays a woman fourteen grand, upfront, to look after his dog. And a month after he gets it, the dog dies. The woman wants to give his money back and he says, ‘Oh, don’t worry about that.’ I’m not sure how much Premier League football he’s going to play, that kid, but he’s loaded. That’s why it’s a big, big thing to find out what a player is like as a lad. If you get a good response when you ask about, you think, ‘Right, he can handle the other stuff.’

BARRY
There’s certain things that they do which draw you towards them. The way they apply themselves to the task is a big one.

ALLAN
And how do we know that, Bal? Because we’ve got experience. I tell you what, there are some young lads about now who I see scouting, and I’m sorry, are you telling me they know what we’re talking about here?

PAT
I think it’s the same in coaching. I know I’m digressing from scouting, but you think, you haven’t got the knowledge. It’s all about personality. I think I’m not bad at spotting the way a boy’s going to be, as a person. I look for triggers. When I had the Tottenham youth side, they had to come to work smart casual. No jeans. The academy director was an academic, a lovely fella, and he went ‘Pat, do you think we should lessen the load a little with them? Can’t they wear tracksuits?’ I said no because I believe you are privileged to be a footballer, I really do. It’s a great career. Anyway, I relented on away days. They could have a tracksuit. But it was shirt in, collar down, boring old Pat. I think they take that discipline on to the pitch. Life’s about discipline. I was on the train today and as I got on, there was a geezer sprawled out. His girlfriend’s got her foot on the seat. So I sit down, and I knock his foot. He’s entitled to say ‘you just knocked my foot’ and I’m entitled to say ‘yeah, you’re in my space, mate’. He never said a dickie bird. And I thought, sit there nicely, behave yourself. Now where is football any different to that? You tell me, because I don’t know. It’s the old farts like us – the new ones want to be with the players – who realise there’s a line. I mean, we come from people like Shankly, Cullis, Greenwood, Busby, Nicholson. They’re the ones who rode over the top of us. I mean, they frightened the life out of us.