AN OASIS OF CALM
Alan was in eye of storm but knew he just had to jet off to Italy when Big Jack told him to Be Here Now
SOME Might Say Alan Mcloughlin had no business being Half The World Away with Ireland, about to embark on a rip-rollicking adventure that would stop a nation.
But the school pal of Oasis star Noel Gallagher (below) knew best to just Roll With It because the political mess he walked into in Malta was, in his own words, “f*** all to do with me”.
Jack Charlton hadn’t named the Swindon midfielder in his squad for Italia 90 but that changed when the axe cruelly fell on Gary Waddock en route to their training camp.
Waddock started the warm-up game against Turkey in Izmir but as Ireland travelled onwards to Malta via Istanbul and Rome, Waddock’s world came crashing down.
With injury concerns to Ronnie Whelan and Ray Houghton, Charlton wanted a more dynamic presence and took a punt on uncapped Mcloughlin, the scorer of 18 goals in the second tier that season.
Waddock was told at the baggage carousel that Mcloughlin had already been dispatched and was about to replace him.
It was the day after Mcloughlin scored the winner for Swindon in their Wembley play-off final with Sunderland – but this wasn’t quite the summer break he had envisaged.
Thirty years on from Italia 90, Mcloughlin – who came on in the drawn games against England and Egypt – told Mirror Sport: “I felt like I’d gatecrashed a party.”
He recalls pulling up to the team hotel in a taxi and as he slipped out, Waddock clambered into the same car bound for the airport.
“I only got the call to join the squad the night before the play-off final so it was a crazy time,” said Mcloughlin.
“It was completely out of the blue, I had no idea what the ramifications were.
“It had nothing to do with me. Jack had put a squad together and decided to change his mind. There were a couple of players not best pleased by it but I’m not going to volunteer to go home, am I?
“Let’s just say it took a good week before I got a decent conversation going. But 95 per cent of them were fine, particularly John Aldridge and my room-mate Bernie Slaven.
“Once we got on the training pitch and got near the tournament, everything settled down.”
With Ronnie Whelan injured, Mcloughlin made the bench for the opening game against England and came on in the 64th minute.
He only made his debut nine days beforehand against Malta but Mcloughlin reckons he was more anxious in training than he was that night in Cagliari.
“It was like gate-crashing a party because I’d no influence at all in the lead up or the qualifying games.
“I felt for Gary but I didn’t know him. I’ve played against him and we’ve seen each other since but we never spoke about the situation.
“Why would we? I’m sure he’s man enough to know it had nothing to do with me.
“I was just happy to be amongst world class players like Ronnie Whelan, David O’leary, Steve Staunton, Andy Townsend, Chris Hughton.
“But the training ground was the most important thing for me.
“Yes, it was lovely to come on and play against England but you had to earn the respect of the other players by training well and keeping the ball.
“I felt more pressure in training than I did coming on against England or Egypt, because I was trying to justify the fact I was there and Gary went home.
“I knew some of the squad were looking at me thinking ‘who does he think he is’.”
Mcloughlin and his partner – now wife – Debbie hadn’t booked a summer holiday of their own as the midfielder was planning to address a nagging injury.
“I was due to have an operation on my groin,” he said. “I hadn’t told Jack and the staff that I was playing through the pain with a double hernia.
“I was in a lot of discomfort over there but it was the World Cup so I held off the operation until I came back.
“Those first few days were insane. It was hard to get my head around it, but once it all calmed down it led to a summer that I could only have dreamed of.”
It’s very hard for me, but I cannot really say anything. I didn’t know it was coming. I wish Alan Mcloughlin all the best