Two very flamboyant coaches take the train
Two very flamboyant coaches take the train
Cast your mind back just 18 years. Christ, is it that far back? A team of young hopefuls (and there, any parallels with our beloved Forest, end) coached by the second most flamboyant manager in the country, had just been promoted to the then First Division as worthy champions.
Of course I refer to Crystal Palace, 'The Eagles', soaring in the top flight at last. This deserved progress into Division One (not Nationwide/Endsleigh/Barclays Division One) prompted some bloke to coin the now infamous phrase, The Team Of The Eighties.
Along with thousands, yes THOUSANDS of Palace supporters, I have suffered the ridicule for almost two decades. I believe it's time to seek out exactly what went wrong. Why did the holders of the prestigious F.A. Youth Cup develop, mature and subsequently die a death in a league populated by teams such as Bristol City, Stoke, and defenders as bad as Wolves' George Berry?
I suggested that the Palace manager, Terry Venables, was perhaps only the second most flamboyant coaching personality around at the time. No, I certainly wouldn1t have wanted Cloughie (not then anyway) but I could have been well pleased to see Malcolm Allison stay a little longer. It was the rock-solid youth policy (envied and emulated since by Alex Ferguson) that Big Mal created in six days, resting on the Sabbath, that propelled The Eagles skywards. That, and the flares, fedoras and pop star haircuts.
Leaving the petty rivalry with village team Brighton to one side, Palace's youngsters got on with the job of rattling the big clubs. Venables decided to bring in some experience and - hold it! Let's just examine those two key signings. Former England skipper Gerry Francis and goal-mungus Charlton stalwart Mike Flanagan. If most players have a 'sell-by' date, then these were beyond their 'free-transfer-by' date. Flanagan's partnership with Dave Swindlehurst bore fruit, but these grapes of glory withered to raisins by Christmas, and worse, limited appearances for Welsh international Ian Walsh who single handedly demolished Stockport in the League Cup in 1980.
Gerry Francis still had it - the bad hair, personality by-pass, the dart thrower's physique. He was a passenger on a young man's train, an inter-city express to Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, and we weren1t stopping for anyone.
Early scalps at Selhurst Park included Aston Villa (they would be European Champions within 12 months) Manchester City (it wasn't as easy then) and an Ipswich team made up almost entirely of international stars under Bobby Robson. The only other time Suffolk had so many established, famous foreigners roaming its countryside, they were filming The Eagle Has Landed.
And back in South London, the Eagles had. But Venables, enjoying his numerous tags (young, stylish, ahead of his time, the hottest management property in England) was already getting twitchy, on the lookout for the faster buck.
This must have unsettled players like Billy Gilbert & Vince Hilaire (later to enjoy a mediocre existence at Pompey), young Welsh skipper Peter Nicholas, Jerry 'Spud' Murphy (kept out of the Eire team by Liam Brady) and, most of all, Kenny Sansom.
Kenny Sansom was the finest left back England have ever had. Perhaps not as committed as Psycho Pearce, but a dazzling beacon in the gloom of an international set-up that afforded Sammy Lee a regular place. He won 86 caps for his country, many of them while he was at Palace. And the combination of the interest in Sansom, together with El Tel's yearning to get on, rocked the foundations of our team of the eighties.
Arsenal came in for Sansom as the third and final part in a bizarre, multi-million pound transfer love triangle, involving other London club QPR, and one Clive Allen. Did Venables pull every string here? I think so.
Queens Park Rangers sell their crown jewel Allen to Arsenal for £1m. Arsenal decide after 4 seconds that Clive Allen is not £1m worth, and Tel then promptly goes to QPR as manager, where there is at least £1m to spend!
He picks up Terry Fenwick cheap (never a first team regular at Selhurst, clumsy defender at best, then turns him into a World Cup international marking Maradona, badly!) and John Gregory, another unusual choice by anyone's standards to play for his country.
Before you know it, Palace are struggling to survive under Dario Gradi (who always had "Crewe Alexandra - There's No Place Like Home" tattooed on his rump. Terry Venables is leading QPR out at Wembley, where it takes a replay, and Spurs (later to employ Venables) win comfortably with a Glenn Hoddle penalty. That was in his pre-spiritualism/natural ability days.
Sansom, had a distinguished international career, but never played in the World Cup (and Terry Fenwick did!!?). Peter Nicholas later joined him at Arsenal, David Swindlehurst failed several auditions in the Eighties for the part of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, and Clive Allen went on to play for every London club, before pioneering the poor punditry that satellite TV sports coverage has since made its own.
In retrospect, in the same way that the Palace Youth Philosophy inspired so many of today's top managers (Ferguson, Strachan, Redknap, Tommy Nolan) perhaps the one lasting contribution the team of the Eighties made was the propulsion of material greed in the English game.
For history repeated itself some nine years later when, after several years of bobbing up and down like Gillian Taylforth's jawbone, Palace once again had formed a side capable of going all the way. European Champions League, World Club Champions....this reporter was already trying to book his passage to Hong Kong for the match against Flamenco.
This time, under our Saviour, Sir Steve Coppell, the Eagles flew to Wembley and were cruelly denied glory against Manchester United. This tumultuous event also signified the start of the, now famous, "the referee looks at his watch, United are a goal behind, let's keep playing until they equalise, oh, good heavens, that's six minutes overtime" routine.
Martyn, Thomas, Gray, Pemberton, Coleman, Shaw, Southgate, Wright, Bright - all sold. Ron Noades should have been shot. All have done well since, but then they would, wouldn't they? They were all fine players. All right, all apart from Geoff Thomas. And Andy Gray.
The Team Of The Eighties are a distant memory. Many of the Team Of The Nineties are still going strong. Palace - taking life one decade at a time.