John Aldridge fesses up
After starring for Liverpool and Real Sociedad, the goal-getter totally lost it, live on TV, in the Orlando heat at the World Cup
Early in your playing career, you reached the European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals with Newport County in 1980-81. That must have been quite an experience?
Yeah, it was fantastic. In my first season, we were promoted to the Third Division and won the Welsh Cup. Getting into Europe – what an experience that was. We played in Norway, we played Crusaders [in Northern Ireland] and we ended up in the quarter-finals. We were very unfortunate – East Germany’s Carl Zeiss Jena got lucky and we went out 3-2 on aggregate. At your second professional club, you won the League Cup with Oxford United in 1986 – another terrific achievement, considering the size of the club...
We were big underdogs that day. We took on QPR in the final and steamrollered them 3-0. To play at Wembley was a dream, and to win a major cup so convincingly was exceptional. During your time at Oxford, you also scored the opening goal of Alex Ferguson’s reign at Manchester United. As a boyhood Liverpool fan, was that a special moment?
I loved it! We were getting about 10,000 at the Manor Ground and it had a great atmosphere. It was really intimidating. I turned my old pal, Kevin Moran, and he brought me down in the box for a penalty, which I scored. We won 2-0. It was nice to score the first goal against Alex Ferguson as Man United manager. He didn’t concede too many after that, unfortunately! You joined Liverpool after Ian Rush agreed to sign for Juventus. Is it true Kenny Dalglish didn’t give you Rush’s No.9 shirt to keep the pressure off you?
No. Kenny asked, “No.9? What number do you want, Aldo?” I was after No.8 because I loved Roger Hunt as a kid and he wore that. Playing for Liverpool was all I’d dreamed of as a kid – I didn’t bother about the pressure with Rushy because I’d been scoring 20 goals a season for Oxford and knew I’d score more for Liverpool. I was confident in my own ability.
What was it like to be a striker in that great Liverpool team?
It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! [Laughs] There were three players just behind me: Ray Houghton, the cleverest I ever played with; Peter Beardsley, the trickiest I ever played with; and John Barnes, the best I ever played with. I couldn’t go wrong!
Does Dave Beasant’s famous penalty save for Wimbledon in the 1988 FA Cup Final still give you nightmares?
Yeah – I was the reason why we lost. Everyone said not to worry about it as my two goals in the semi-final against Nottingham Forest had got us there, but we’d lost the Double. Losing the Double in the last minute against Arsenal the year afterwards was even harder, because that Liverpool team was so good. If we’d been in the European Cup, we would have been right there with Milan, too. They had Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, but we were more than a match for them.
Later on in your career, you took penalties using a stutter run-up. Was that as a result of the miss against Wimbledon?
I was obsessed with scoring goals – it was an illness – and I loved taking penalties. I worked out that the goalkeeper always dived early, so I came up with this idea that if I could make them move before I kicked the ball, it should make it a bit easier, which it did. I f**ked it up a couple of times, though! I’d stamp my right foot and that made the keeper move. By the time you put your left foot alongside the ball, you could stroke it into the net. A lot of players do it now, but I was the first one to come up with it – I should have patented it!
How did your Real Sociedad move happen? You’d have to ask Kenny Dalglish. I really don’t know. I’d just scored 63 goals in 104 matches for Liverpool and he decided to sell me, which I was very hurt by. But I loved Real Sociedad. I played at the Camp Nou on three occasions: we drew 2-2 and I scored twice, we drew 3-3 and I got two, and we won 3-1 and I got two. We also played Barcelona at home and I got two, we beat Real Madrid at home and I got one, and we won away at the Bernabeu and I scored. All of those things meant a lot to me. Is it true you were the first non-basque to play for Sociedad in many years?
Yeah. When I went, 80 per cent of the people didn’t want me there. But scoring my first two meaningful goals against Barça helped clear the way for me. I loved all the Basque people. They’re like the Irish and the Scousers: proud and passionate about what they stand for.
“I WAS THE FIRST TO DO A STUTTER RUN-UP PENALTY – I SHOULD HAVE PATENTED THAT!”
The Republic of Ireland qualified for USA 94 after a decider with Northern Ireland – how politically charged was that game?
That night was what football should never be about. Tensions in Belfast were very high back in those horrible days, and we felt it. It was an eerie atmosphere: we weren’t allowed to have any tickets, so the Republic fans had to sit on their hands. Thankfully, Alan Mcloughlin came off the bench and got us the draw we needed. We did celebrate, but with dignity.
What do you remember about that famous moment when you completely lost it before coming on to face Mexico at the World Cup? Well, just making a complete and utter t**t of myself! [Laughs] I was waiting to get onto the pitch. Two men had come off – Steve Staunton and Tommy Coyne – and only Jason Mcateer had been allowed to go on, so I was stuck off the pitch. We were 2-0 down in the heat, and the ball didn’t go out for a long time. That was when I went into the rage. Unfortunately, the cameraman wasn’t filming the game; he was just filming me, with all these obscene words coming out of my mouth. It was the first time my mum had seen me swear: I’d never sworn in front of her before, and that’s God’s honest truth! But hey, I showed a bit of passion – then I scored the goal that got us into the last 16, one of the most important goals of my career. The fourth official got me up for it! Myself and Jack Charlton received fines for our outbursts, $2,500 for me and $12,500 for him. The people of Ireland were so annoyed, because it wasn’t our fault, that they raised £96,000. It went to charity in the end.
You scored 476 goals in all, more than any other player in post-war English football. Why do you think that’s often overlooked? Jimmy Greaves had 468 and I think I overtook him late on when I was at Tranmere. But I’m not from London, am I?
Dave Challinor’s long throw became a big weapon when you managed Tranmere. Do you think opponents dreaded facing you? They hated it. At first the long throw didn’t pay off, but one night when I couldn’t sleep, I came up with an idea. I used to watch cricket, where the field moves in. I took our midfield back 15 yards and got them to start moving in slowly when he took the throw-in, so they’d meet the second ball. Suddenly we started scoring from 20 yards. We’d beaten teams psychologically before the game had even started – especially big teams from the Premier League, because we kept beating them all. We got to a couple of FA Cup quarter-finals and the 2000 League Cup Final: Leicester beat us, but it was brilliant to see 30,000 Tranmere fans at Wembley. We had great times in the cups. Unfortunately we didn’t do ourselves justice in the league.
Why didn’t you go back into management after leaving Tranmere?
I became disillusioned with football and was worn out. Also, I was waiting for Man United, so I could take them down! [Laughs]