Danny Maddix — Patreon Wednesday, 2nd Mar 2022 11:08 by Clive Whittingham, Patreon LFW’s latest Patreon interview sees us catch up with former centre back Danny Maddix, who played 354 times and scored 18 goals for Rangers in a remarkable 14-year stint, and ask him your questions about his time with the club. LFW has been conducting written interviews with figures from QPR’s past and present for 18 years and publishing them free-to-view. Now, to help support both this website and the iconic AKUTRs fanzine, we’re also making the audio from these interviews available to all three tiers of our Patreon subscribers as podcasts as a thank you for your support. Listen to the full interview via our Patreon by clicking here or read for free below… What are you up to these days Danny, you look like you should still be playing? I’ll come onto that later, I’m sure I look like I could be playing but I could never put on a pair of boots again. I did 'the knowledge' to become a London taxi driver 12 years ago and I love it, I love being my own boss, earning what I need to earn and working when I want to work. It was tough getting the knowledge but I love it now. Do you get QPR fans recognising you? I have had one or two. I sometimes get asked for a picture, or I had somebody ringing their brother because he didn’t think he’d believe him. It’s all good. Part of the job. How did you get started, way back in the day, at Spurs? Back then it was all about playing for your school, your district and your county. There was a scout called David Lister at the time who spotted me when I was 12-13. He watched me in a county game and asked me to come down to Spurs and that’s how I got started. Were you disappointed never to get a first team chance there? Yes and no. Doug Livermore who was at the club wanted to keep me, David Pleat wanted to release me. I was on loan at Southend as a youngster, did really well there, Spurs didn’t want to keep me, Southend did and wanted to prolong the loan but he brought me back because he didn’t want me cup tied. I found that strange because I wasn’t going to be in the first team any time soon. I went back and then they released me. How did QPR come along? Being a youngster at Spurs I had Peter Shreeves there. He was a good man, I found him strange because he was very quiet but he was a good man. When he left there and went to QPR with Jim Smith he gave me a call after my release and asked me to come down for a trial. They signed me after that. Who thought it would be for 14 years? I really enjoyed my time there, Andy Impey, Les Ferdinand, Ray Wilkins, some great players I played with. First impressions, Jim Smith and then Trevor Francis after that? The early days, football back then compared to now there were a lot more characters. Jim Smith was a character. He would just shout. You needed the soft, calming voice of Peter Shreeves in the changing room. He was screaming at you, shouting at you, nothing ever very constructive. He was old school. You took it on board and carried on playing. Trevor was a player manager which was trendy back then but doesn’t really happen now. Yeh it was different. He’d been a player in the squad with us and then became the manager. You had to relinquish the ties you had with the players and for me he went a little bit strange towards the players. I think he took on the Italian style, he’d come in wearing a long coat and sunglasses and watch over training while Don Howe used to do the actual sessions. Trevor would pick the team but Don would do the training. First managerial job, I guess he found it difficult. Because it was his first job I think he tried too hard, and wanted to be ruthless with the players and some of them found that very strange because he’d been very close to them when he played and then when he became manager he put his foot down. At times I think if he’d been more hands on on the training ground he might have got more respect from the players.
How was coming into First Division football as a young player? You had to grow up quickly if you wanted to survive. I had a young family at the time, my boys were quite young and being released from Spurs I wanted to make an impact. I like to think I was half decent to play with the type of players I did. I was a good athlete, very quick, I wasn’t the tallest for a centre back but had a good leap on me, so I used the attributes Do you regret the moustache? Some of the lads called it The Zorro. There were some terrible ones back then. You see them now for Movember. Do you remember a Mark Stein goal against West Ham which you set up with three sliding tackles? Yeh my daughter’s boyfriend shows me these things on YouTube. I like to play golf and I’ve had people come up to me at golf and talk about that one. It wasn’t dirty, just 100%, wholehearted, won the ball, got it wide and Steiny volleyed the cross in so it was a good goal. That’s what I was known for. An honest tackler, and when I did get it I gave it nice and simple. I think that’s why I got on with the supporters at QPR. That and the man marking. Best man marker in the game was your reputation. Did that start with the game against Ian Rush? It’s quite unusual to see that now but it was your speciality, how do you become known for it, what’s the technique to it? Being a good defender, having the attributes I had such as being quite quick, reading the game. Before I was a man marker I’d played in a flat back four and then as managers came and went over the years they started to want me to mark the most dangerous attacker, so there was Ian Rush, Mark Hughes, Gary Lineker, all the top strikers of the time. I felt I got one over most of them. Gary Lineker was always the one where I felt I’d done a decent job on him and then he’d score in the 89th minute when we used to play at White Hart Lane, a tap in when I’ve kept him quiet the majority of the game. That’s football I suppose. Are there dark arts to it? Following them round off the ball, in their ear and so on? Not really. I used to say to myself ‘concentrate’. My job was to stop him scoring. If you stop the danger man, you nullify the goals at source. My method was always make sure I can see their shirt number at all times. If I can see his number I’m marking the right side. Always be touch tight, never let the striker feel you. If they feel you, around the box, people like Mark Hughes would roll you and turn you. I’d go into each game, do my homework before it, who am I against, what are their strengths, and then just concentrate for the 90 minutes.
Mark Hughes obviously not a popular man at QPR, was he the toughest opponent? They were all different in their own ways. Mark Hughes was very strong, he had big thighs, he was powerful, he held the ball up really well. If he held the ball up and knocked it back, then your job is done. If you try and nick it, that’s a bonus. Then with somebody like Lineker if we’ve got the ball and we’re playing, as a defender you’re watching your team play and move the ball around, his strength was moving away from you while you ball watched. Spurs win the ball, suddenly you think ‘where’s he gone?’ and he’s 10-20 yards off you now. You gained that experience, next time you play him ignore what we’re doing when we’ve got the ball, keep your eye on him and make sure you know where he is all the time in case we lose it. Who’s the best you played with at the back there rather than against? Macca obviously, Paul Parker for a little while. Macca. He was club captain. To be honest when I first joined the team it was a changing room full of characters and he was a big Northern Irish international. At first, one of my first games, I was messing about to be honest. Macca grabbed me in the changing room, pinned me against the wall, effing and blinding, and he said very bluntly “this is my bonus money you’re taking here”. Straight away you realise this is serious. If you want to stay in this team, and do it right, then you have to be serious. Other players would tell you about yourself, and you could tell them about themselves. That was the way it was on the field, off the field you came away and nobody spoke about it. We got the best out of each other by having a go. That’s interesting because everybody has an Alan McDonald story, the smoking in the toilets, the practical jokes with David Bardsley and so on, but a winner. We’ve all seen the interview at Wembley, “anybody who says that’s a fix come and see me…” I was going to mention the cigarettes yeh. I changed next to him and you come into the changing room smelling of sweat and stuff like that, he goes in the toilet and smokes and comes back stinking and you’re like “come on Macca do you have to?” Gerry knew what he was doing, he’d hide it slightly and head off into the toilet. You don’t have those characters today. I learned a lot from playing with him. He’d go for the first ball and I’d sweep up on the ground. I was decent in the air but if you’re playing against someone like Brian Deane, John Fashanu, Macca would take care of that. Macca didn’t need to jump really, he’d go in front of them and then at the last second jump back behind them again, lean into them, head the ball. He had a real art of how to do it. What a good player Macca was. Good on the air and the ground. I always remember him v Duncan Ferguson, highlight of the year, and I don’t think he got a lot of change out of us back then. A lot of the guys Macca came up against were good in the air and he would nullify them. He was brilliant. Paul Parker, you say you’re not the tallest for a centre back but he was even smaller but renowned in the air. Yeh, Paul was a very good player. Straight away when he came to the club the fans took to him, the high leap, quick on the ground, skilful. He was a winner. All the players who played in that era with me were winners. So that’s the thing. Don Howe had a great FA Cup run with all the replays, Gerry got to the quarter finals, but we never got over that line of making finals and winning things. That team felt so close. Why couldn’t it make that step? It’s very difficult to say. They were all great players. When we played Liverpool or Man Utd we’d give them a game, but we always, always seemed to draw one of them in the quarter final of the FA Cup. If it was anyone else we’d have beaten them, and then met them in the final. The stumbling block was the quarter final. We never seemed able to get further than that. We just seemed to pull them all the time and they were great teams. I remember watching the cup draw in 1995 and my dad saying ‘anybody but Man Utd’, and then when we were the last two balls left in ‘I still think we’ll beat them at home’ — Man Utd away. That’s the other thing. Always away. The fans’ recollection of that time is we were maybe two players short all the way through, perhaps a world class goalkeeper, a partner for Les, a replacement for Ray short of being a team that could compete for trophies. There was a frustration that ended up with protests that we didn’t just push the boat out a little bit. You guys were winners, a competitive dressing room, was there ever that sort of chat about how close you were? To be honest I thought the players we had were good enough. I didn’t think we did need one or two more. There was an abundance of good players the whole time I was there. Roy Wegerle was such a good player. Clive Wilson. Gerry brought Trevor Sinclair. Flair players, the players at the back, David Bardsley, Rufus Brevett covering Clive Wilson. We had Les, Bradley Allen. A really good squad. Looking at it, I don’t know, a goalkeeper, we had Jan Stejskal who was great, Tony Roberts was a Welsh international and a good goalkeeper. It was a good squad. I think we could have taken that step with a slightly more favourable cup draw a couple of times. It was a good, athletic, mobile team, with goals, individuals. I’m not sure anybody could have come in to take anybody’s place. The club relied on selling a player every summer. Paul Parker one summer, Andy Sinton the next, Darren Peacock. Was that frustrating as guys who wanted to achieve and win, or was it just accepted? You had to accept it. Players wanted to go on to bigger and better things. Being at that club at the time I felt if we could just have won one thing we could have started hanging onto some of these players for another season or two and built. It wasn’t the case. I understand why players had to leave but it became sort of like the end of en era when we lost Les. We then had to try and rely on Danny Dichio and Kevin Gallen. Kevin was proven, Danny wasn’t, they were given a chance, I just felt there were players out there at that time that would have kept us in the top league. It was a big ask to replace Les like that. Did you have chances to go? If there was, my agent didn’t tell me. At the time when I look back I felt I had a good three or four years at the highest level, I felt I could do a job. Looking back I maybe should have left. A lot of people did leave and we relied on kids going through. I could have left, but I didn’t. Do you feel, almost unappreciated outside of QPR? As soon as I said I was meeting you today the QPR fans on our board said you were one of the best defenders they’d seen, get in their strongest eleven. My mates who don’t support QPR had just sort of heard of you. Darren Peacock got a move to Newcastle. When you look back at your career, how do you feel? Look there were times, Kevin Keegan when he went into Newcastle wanted to take me there when he first started. I was happy in London, my kids were young, my wife didn’t want to uproot that far. I was comfortable. I wanted to stay in London, I was happy here. I enjoyed playing for QPR. It was a great family club and I enjoyed playing there. Being the one man back four in Keegan’s Newcastle could have been fun. It would have been a lot of work. I was happy to stay. A good family club, I absolutely loved being at Loftus Road. Memories of playing for Don and then Gerry? How did it change when Gerry came in? Gerry had an eye for a good player. He brought in good players and moulded them well, we had a very good team under him. I enjoyed playing with Darren Peacock, Andy Tillson, Roy Wegerle. I’d had a few run ins with Roy when he played for Luton so I was glad to have him on our team, in training some of the stuff he did with the ball was fantastic. Gerry moulded a good team. He made you feel wanted, but he’d tell you as well if you needed telling. There were big names in the team but Gerry would still tell them. Great times. Great times at QPR.
I suppose we have to talk about Les coming back for the first time, got away from you once all afternoon. Yeh. Look, Les has got more than 100 Premier League goals, every time they show them on Sky you see him outpacing me there and my mates ring me, send me messages and remind me. That’s all people see, him getting away from me that one time. I had a problem in that moment, Warren Barton cleared the ball and when he did it I was on the halfway line and Les had gambled. I initially thought I’m going to head this, and then as it’s travelling I’m thinking ‘I ain’t going to head this’. I couldn’t get to it, so I started to turn, but Les had already got a start on me. If we were both level, or if I’d been goalside, he wouldn’t have beaten me to the ball. He got that start on me and I couldn’t catch him. We get on really well. The problem was the build up for the game I’d done interviews about it, the game started, I’d kept him quiet for the majority of the game, I beat him a couple of times in the air which he’s renowned for. It was only that one moment. As I said earlier, you have to concentrate for the 90 minutes if you’re man marking. You do your homework and you concentrate. I let myself down that day because I thought I could head the ball and I misjudged it and the headstart was all he needed. We talk about it today. People remind me about it a lot. Yeh, sorry about that. How was Ray? Both to play with and have in the dressing room, and then when he came back as manager? Mr Football. I loved Ray. Everybody will say the same thing. I get on well with Paul Murray, he’ll tell you the same thing. Ray made him the player he was. A gentleman. Always came into training in a suit and then off to Sky afterwards to do bits and pieces there. Very early on at QPR I was in hospital, I’d had an operation on my knee, I got a phone call in the hospital which I presumed would be my wife, and it was Ray. I’d only just joined the club, didn’t know me from Adam, but he rang the hospital and got hold of me to say “Dan, get well, we need you back, you’re important to us.” He was just a player at that point. He was the only person who rang me up. It gave me goosepimples. I was like, I can’t believe it, this is Ray Wilkins ringing me up to say they need me back, don’t rush, get yourself right, we need you back in the team. That made me feel important. How was that transition to manager? We’ve already spoken about how Trevor struggled a bit with that. It was different. He was a gentleman. I’m not sure he had that ruthlessness. I was a senior player in the team by that point, we had a lot of younger players in the team and you had to be careful how you spoke to them. With the senior players, like I say, with Macca, we’d swear at each other, drive it, get the best out of each other. Some people are a little bit more within themselves and you have to approach it differently. I felt Ray was a gentleman. Sometimes I was sitting there thinking ‘go on Ray, tell him, scream and shout a little bit’. That wasn’t him. Did it not work purely because he lost Les and didn’t replace him, or more to it? Yeh. I looked at it at the time, I just wish people at the club at that moment… there was Dele Adebola at that time who went to Birmingham City, we could have easily bought somebody like that. We lost Les, we got £6m, he’s not going to cost that. He’s a big lad, powerful, I’d played against him he was quick. They wanted to go down the youth route with Kevin and Danny, if you’d brought somebody additional who was doing it already and then used that experience to bring the younger players on I think it would have worked. I kept thinking ‘why doesn’t the club go for somebody like that?’ I was only a player at the club, I didn’t have the influence to say bring this player in or that player in. A little while later there was a Jamaican international, name escapes me, playing at Bolton, and we were desperate for a left sided player. He was another we could have had. The recruitment let Ray down. It felt like they wanted to keep the money and not reinvest it into the team. We still had the nucleus of a good team even though we were losing players. When we’d lost players previously we’d still brought decent players into the club. Then when we lost Les it just felt like it went downhill. Did you know you were in trouble? Played unbelievably well against Newcastle and lost off a ridiculous backpass gone wrong. Two nil up at home to Spurs Monday Night Football, dodgy penalty decision lose 3-2. Stuff like that happening, did you think you were in the shit? I thought it would be an uphill task when Les left and we didn’t replace him. Before a ball was kicked I thought we’d struggle. Mark Hateley arrived on crutches. You know Mark’s proven wherever he went. I got on well with Mark Hateley. He tried his hardest for us. He wasn’t Les. He wasn’t mobile. He was a lot older. Not as quick as he used to be. Still scored some goals for us, and helped the other young players like Dich and Kevin. Kevin was a natural goalscorer, his injury didn’t help him. We were never going to replace Les, but you could have brought somebody in who was closer to him in style. Having my football brain on I thought we’d struggle from the off. Did you think you’d come straight back up? I still can’t believe that team didn’t come back up. Yeeeeehhhhh. Hmmmm. It’s a good question. We went down, I felt we had the nucleus of a good squad, and some very good players. That doesn’t guarantee you coming back up. I was very nervous. Playing at Loftus Road the pitch was tight, the crowd are so close you can actually talk to people and that’s fine when it’s rocking… I just felt we needed two or three players to give us the chance. Everybody has a chance as the season starts, but I felt we were short. We were short. John Spencer came in and scored a barrel load, Trevor was still there, Macca, yourself, and didn’t even make the play-offs. Houston and Rioch get some grief looking back, an interesting dynamic there with him previously being his assistant. How was that? It must have been very difficult for Stewart to have Bruce as his assistant. They brought some of the old Arsenal players in. We had a very good squad, Trevor and Macca like you say, but bringing the new faces in you had to be kind of careful about how you spoke to them. When I played with les, Clive, Dave Bardsley, we got the best out of each other by being really ruthless to each other. Off the pitch, best of mates, drink in the players’ bar. At Man Utd Roy Keane didn’t take any prisoners, but he was a winner. That team I played in didn’t win anything, but we were still winners. We went on the pitch against Liverpool, Man Utd and gave them a game home and away. We’ve been to Anfield and beaten them, Dennis Bailey scored a hat trick at Man Utd (I was injured that day).
So they brought their own guys in and it didn’t mesh and gel? A little bit. I’m not saying a few of the lads were individuals, we just didn’t play as a team. A few of the lads you had to be so careful how you spoke to them. You wanted that little bit more. It changed me, I couldn’t speak to certain players in a certain way. When we had the nucleus of a good team, good players, new faces came in and we kind of took it easy on them at first but if they wanted to survive in the team they had to roll their sleeves up and show us what they’d got. If you weren’t doing it, Macca would tell you, Ray would tell you, I’d tell you. There were a lot of leaders in that team. Having been there through all those good times, how heartbreaking was it to see the club fall away as quickly and dramatically as it did? Yeh it was heartbreaking. Sometimes I couldn’t watch the games. To see the club nosediving like that. The club when they had players coming in on big, big money and not rolling their sleeves up, and that was the most frustrating thing for me. We had players who weren’t on half the money some of these guys were on and we gave it blood and sweat, and we worked hard for each other. Players, including myself, were playing through niggles and injuries. You never wanted to be out of the team or somebody else to take your place. You wanted to go up against the best — if we’re playing Liverpool, they’ve got Ian Rush, I’ve got a groin strain, but I want to play in that game. Some players paid good money thought ‘I don’t fancy it today’ and that was different from when I played. You’re not going to name names? No, no, no. We had a really bad 1998/99, Gerry came back to try and save us, we stayed up on the last day against Palace, you had a fitness test before that game and I remember it was a big thing for the crowd when you were named in the team. Iain Dowie was at the club at that point, as a player and assistant to Gerry. He and Gerry were coming in to me every day that week saying ‘we need you to play Saturday Danny, we need you to play this game’. I think I was at the training ground every day that week 09.00 to 21.00 every day just trying to get ready, having treatment, hot baths to get the hip flexor right. I was having fitness tests every day and I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t run. They kept me 12 hours every day, more treatment, more treatment. Day before the game they taped me up again, Gerry said he needed me to play, and I said “I’ll be fine Gerry, I’ll play. I’ll play.” How are you now, physically? Playing on the needle, taped up, when you shouldn’t have played. Last October I had a hip replacement. The right hand side has been done and they want to do the left side next but I’ve asked if we can proceed just with injections so he’s going to inject it and we’re going to give it a go that way. Both of my knees will need to be replaced somewhere along the line. Coming back to the start of our conversation, from the look of me I could still play, but there’s no way. I’ve had 18 different operations. You give yourself to football as something you’ve loved from a young age. It’s about being competitive, like the goal against West Ham winning the three tackles, I think some people might shy away from that these days — one tackle, into the next tackle, into the next tackle. They might worry about getting hurt. For me, when I was playing, I didn’t think about it. You’re just going in to win that ball for yourself and your team mates. I’m paying for it now, injuries, surgery I’ll need down the line. You also would have been earning £40-50,000 a week if you played in the Premier League now, does that nag away at all? No, not at all. Not at all. You look back on it and I think back to myself, money was important, but playing was the main thing for me. Playing, the camaraderie we all had, we had such a great changing room, the banter we used to have, that was all part of it and I’d never change any of it. The money the boys get paid now good luck to them, if my son was a professional footballer earning £100k a week I’d say good luck to him. Never, ever resent these guys getting what they’re getting today. We beat Palace 6-0. What are your memories? The guy who played up front for Palace, can’t remember his name, he does a lot of commentary work now… anyway, he annoyed me. (We presume he means Clinton Morrison — ed) My injury went straight to the back of my mind because he’d wound me up. Andy Linighan played as well I think and played really well alongside me. The crowd was right behind us, it was a lovely sunny day. Was it a fix? Not at all. Not at all. I’ve never known a game I thought was fixed. For me to go through what I went through to get myself fit to play in that game, and then play in it, the manager, the coaches, the players saying they needed me to play. London derby. Needed to win to stay up. Didn’t want Palace to roll us over. Just, on the day, every man did better than the man he was up against. Never a fix, no way. This is your Alan McDonald moment. Absolutely. No way. The way the guys were hyped up before the game, they were ready. From the kick off, we were all at it. All at it, to a man. The club ends up on its arse, Ian Holloway comes back a former teammate, I thought you’d be a big figure in that team trying to keep us up but that didn’t seem to be a happy reunion at all, there was a story about him leaving you out for being late for the bus. I loved Ollie. As a teammate he was brilliant. He worked so hard for the team. He was a funny Bristol lad. Brilliant man. I was never really late, I lived in east London and had to get across to west London but was never really late. That day we were playing Fulham and I was late to the training ground for the pre-match meal. Everybody was sitting there, I was five-10 minutes late. Ollie had just got the job, I think he wanted to prove something to the rest of the lads taking action against a senior player. He called me up to the office, he said “Dan, you’re late”. I said “I’m sorry Ollie, there was a lot of traffic, I’m never usually late.” He said “I’m going to have to let you go home Dan.” I said a few things to him. Went downstairs and wished the lads all the best, and Ollie sent me home. Then, I’m on the way home in the car, Gerry Francis rings me. “Dan, turn around, I’ve had a word with him, he needs you to come back.” I said “Gerry, if it doesn’t come from Ollie himself, I’m not coming back”. And he never rang me, so I kept driving. We got beat. Did the relationship recover? Not really. He said he was letting me go because of the finances of the club. I wasn’t on loads of money, it was probably an excuse they needed to release me. It felt hard. Over the years, been there 14 years, all the players I’d played with, the amount of games I’d played, blood, sweat, heart for the club. To feel an ex-player you’d played with is now getting rid of you… that’s football.
You didn’t get the chance some others have had - Marc Bircham, Paul Furlong — to do the lap of honour, the farewell to the fans. I had my testimonial game, but I couldn’t play in that because I’d had knee surgery so I came out on crutches and waved to the crowd. I don’t hold any grudges. People have to move on, there are bigger and better players than me who have been released from clubs. Certainly no grudges towards Ollie. Were you tempted to call it? How did you end up all the way up to Sheff Wed? I got a call from Peter Shreeves again. You get these players who follow managers around and vice versa and he was that for me. He was manager there at the time, he asked if I wanted to come up. Why not. I had two years up there, I found it hard if I’m honest, my wife was pregnant with my son and came up but didn’t want to live there really. My son was born in Sheffield and she went back to London with him. I couldn’t focus. I was trying to commute, two days in Sheffield and three in London, then I lost my license for speeding up the M1 and had to start taking the train. It was a really, really difficult two years, I missed my family. With the injuries, you got involved with Eileen Drewery at some point didn’t you? Can you tell us about that? It didn’t work for some players. She was based down in Kent, I went down with Nigel Spackman and Paul Elliott from Chelsea, Glenn Hoddle put us in touch. She was great for me. I saw medical people who wrote me off and said there was nothing more they could do. She gave me some healing, positive thinking exercises, changes in diet, and I got back playing again. I was at the stage where I’d try anything. Can you try and explain for a sceptic what exactly she does? You’ve just got believe in yourself. She did some healing on your head, and then the problem area which for me was the bottom of my foot. I was seeing her for seven or eight months, I think she contributed to getting me back to playing, a change in diet, better rest. Do you remember Ademole Bankole punching you in the side of the head? Do you know, I can’t remember that at all. He made good connection then. Best memories? I think a lot of ex-players would say the same as me, it’s the camaraderie. Going away with the guys. I had a great bunch of guys to play football with, on and off the field, very individual characters. When I first started young David Seaman was there, Alan McDonald, great players who I enjoyed spending time with. Best manager? Gerry. Over Don? Don was a superb coach. His enthusiasm for getting the best out of players, sometimes you’d be like ‘calm down a bit Don’. He was running around, he couldn’t get his words out. Gerry, getting the best out of the players we had at that time, was the best manager I had. One Jamaica cap? Two. I played against Macedonia and Iran. At the time I was injured, we played Jamaica at Loftus Road for Simon Barker’s testimonial, and they got chatting and invited me to go to Iran to play in a tournament with them. I was injured, it was at altitude which didn’t help, and I didn’t play particularly well in those games and didn’t make the World Cup squad. A lovely experience in Iran though. Why haven’t you stayed in the game? Well, I was at Spurs as a coach. I did the U12s and had Harry Kane in my team. He was a chubby little thing at that point. I had my team on a Tuesday, Darren Braithwaite who sprinted for England was there as a sprint coach and he’d do 15-20 minutes with the kids and Harry would always be last. But he was disciplined, he wanted to listen, he wanted to learn, other kids thought they knew it all. They were quick and good, but then you saw Harry improve over time. Each week he got better, and better and better. You could never play him in a nine role back then, I used to play him in a ten role and he was two footed and just brilliant. People were a lot quicker than him, but he’d come up with some good goals, and his football sense was unbelievable. Why didn’t you stick around? Well you know what football is like, new people come in and want their own people. At that time Micky Hazard was at the club, John McDermott came in and wanted to get rid of me. In his office he said I wasn’t producing players, which I thought was funny because on the wall I could see all his age groups and there were gold stars against my name for producing four or five players more than the other coaches. He said it was his decision, it was his decision because he wanted to bring other people in. That’s fine, I wish he’d just said that. That’s what football is like, mates bring mates in. Opportunities for black coaches feels like the elephant in the room here that I have to ask about. Is that a factor in you falling out of the game? QPR are quite good in this regard it seems. They are. Les is in that senior position of influence and can bring black coaches into the club now. Good footballers, done their badges, and they’re producing good players for the club. There has to be that sort of change at the highest level to encourage more black coaches. Players who are finishing who want to do it, you want to see four, five, six becoming coaches/managers that influence players who are finishing that don’t currently want to become coaches. We’ve disgracefully overlooked your part in the greatest goal of all time. I went down the wing, touched it back I think to John Spencer, he crossed it, and I was exactly level with Trevor as it approached. I just thought ‘he ain’t going to attempt this’. It was coming across at such a height. You see a lot of good overhead kicks but it’s often coming towards them, and at a slower pace. This was coming at such a pace, and an angle, for him to do what he did was unbelievable. I still can’t believe it today. It’s the best goal I’ve ever seen. I was just stationary with my mouth open. I couldn’t believe he’d attempted it never mind succeeded. The pace it came off his boot and hit the back of the net — incredible. Trevor could do some unbelievable things in training, he went on to West Ham and did it there, played a World Cup for England. Who’s the best you played with? There isn’t just one, I couldn’t pick one. Les, obviously. The things Ray could do, a lack of pace but could pick a pass. I thought David Bardsley was a really good player. Clive Wilson could put people on their backsides. Rufus, Andy Impey. That team, that squad, should have gone on and won something. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. 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