Whelan in the years

Recalling April 22, 1988

‘And when those special matches come round, and there are medals to be won and the pundits are asking whether the match winner will be Rushy or Kenny or Brucie, then I look past them all towards Ronnie Whelan and think to myself: “There’s our man for the big occasion”. – Bob Paisley

RONNIE WHELAN chuckles at the notion that the manager who signed him for Liverpool from Home Farm would have made such a lengthy speech about any player, let alone singled him out for greatness

‘Bob was a character,’ recalled Whelan. ‘I can’t really remember speaking to him too often. Prematch, he certainly didn’t say much. Once he called me in his office and said, “I hear you think you’re good enough to be in the team?”. When I said yes, he said, “Why didn’t you knock on the door three weeks ago?”.

Whelan didn’t have to argue his case too often for selection at Liverpool where he made 493 first team appearances between 1979 and 1994 and won a lorry-load of major trophies, including six League titles, two FA Cups, three League Cups and the European Cup.

His time spanned the last ties to Shankly and the first to the Spice Boys; Ray Clemence was in goal for his first Liverpool game and David James for his last. The former Ireland midfielder was also captain for two of the most poignant moments in the club’s history, Heysel (1985) and Hillsborough (1989).

In between, he marshalled one of the Liverpool’s finest teams (‘the team with the greatest flair that I played in’) of all the time — that of 1987-88. At 56, Whelan’s in fine fettle. He still enjoys lacing his boots when he can, is a perceptive analyst for RTÉ and plays golf regularly at Southport and Ainsdale on the Lancashire coast. For a while after he retired, he dabbled in management and fared half-decently, too.

In 1994-95, he steered Southend to the top six of what is now the Championship only to lose two centrebacks to injury with ‘no money to bring in replacements’. He also led Greek minnows Panionis to the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners Cup in 1999 and had Olympiakos Nicosia in second place in the Cypriot League with two games to go when dismissed.

The final straw in management came in Cyprus in 2002 when he was stalked after Apollon Limassol games.

‘That was all a bit sinister. Someone was following me in a car from the ground to where I was living. When people are following you home, you start thinking “I’m losing it here”,’ said Whelan who joined Apollon after his two-year stint at Olympiacos. ‘We were second in the League with three games to go and I got sacked. There was a change of chairman and that was it.

‘I was due twenty grand for getting us Europe and I went through the FA to get it. People advised me to let it go but it was on principle.’

Any regrets about bypassing management since? ‘Nah. My ambition was to be footballer, never a manager. I never liked the whole thing of it, press conferences, chairmen, the way you can’t sleep at night and you’re the only feeling bad about it.’

Surprisingly, Whelan, 56, used to get quite uptight before playing. Once at Anfield he even threw up on the pitch during a game and got a laugh out of it when Glen Hysen slithered in it. Hysen was part of the last Liverpool team to win the English League in 1990, a time lapse Whelan finds hard to reconcile.

‘People always ask me why it’s been so long; there’s only one reason – the players have not been good enough. I was delighted when Souey (Graeme Souness) came in as manager, but the level of players seemed to drop from that of the quality of [John] Barnes and [Peter] Beardsley. ‘Also, losing didn’t hurt as much. Back on the bus after away games, I found there was more laughter quicker after defeat than there would have been in ’83 or ’84. “This is not right”, I thought.’ There was little reason to reflect on defeat in 1987-88, though, as Liverpool only lost twice in 40 games and went (then a record) unbeaten 29 games from the start of the season. From the moment new signings Barnes and Beardsley landed running at Highbury in the opening game of the season, Whelan knew the Reds were on to something. Soon after, Ray Houghton arrived from Oxford and the flow of goals became a torrent.

‘Kenny [Dalglish] was clever. He was building a new team,’ said Whelan. ‘Up to then, an old Kenny was playing at 36, Craig Johnson was on the right, me on the left, with Jan [Molby] and Kevin MacDonald in the middle, but it changed that season.

‘You had Ray [Houghton] on the right, Barnes on the left, who was more attacking than I was. Then, you had me and Macca [Steve McMahon] which was more dynamic than Jan and Kevin. No one knew really knew about Aldo [John Aldridge], who had come to the club having stood on the Kop. But Kenny knew he had a centre-forward who would be great in the box. When Rushy [Ian Rush] was sold to Juventus, he had people like [Peter] Beardsley, Barnes and Ray to give Aldo the ball in the box. ‘We noticed the difference early on. We beat Arsenal in the first game. There was a problem with the Kop and we had to play a couple of games away from home early on. We went to Highbury on the opening day, and we won, and we realised Barnes and Beardsley were good. Steve Nicol scored with a header from the edge of box. And it all kicked on from there.’

On a personal level, there was a shift in responsibility. Under Paisley and Joe Fagan, he’d played on the left of midfield from where he scored the majority of his 73 Liverpool goals. But 1987-88 was different, he was anchoring midfield alongside McMahon and he thrived.

We went to Highbury on the opening day and it all kicked on from there

‘It was best time of my career when I moved there,’ he continues. ‘People were looking at me and thinking, “Oh, he’s been playing left side of midfield, he’s going to be in trouble (for his place).

‘I don’t know whether Kenny had been thinking about it along the way and I don’t know if Bob had said anything to Kenny but I was put back there and I loved the involvement.

‘I’d spent my career playing a number of positions and maybe at 26 it was time to go in and have bit more responsibility. ‘If Macca was in the team, he would make the runs forward and I’d sit in midfield and hold, a bit like Fernandinho at Man City now. I’d break up attacks from the opposition and get us going.’

Liverpool clinched the league title 30 years ago today on April 22, 1988, at home to Spurs. The gates were closed an hour before kick-off.

‘I reckon that team would have gone on to win the European Cup but we were banned because of Heysel... I never played another game in Europe after that night.’

The all-conquering Reds ended up with nine points in hand over Manchester United and were odds on to secure the double — only Wimbledon stood between them and the FA Cup. Having played 28 league games in the league that season, this was a Cup final which rankles.

‘Kenny dropped me for the final against Wimbledon. He didn’t think I was fit enough even to go on the bench. I thought it was a load of b ****** s. I’d come back for a couple of league games, came on as sub in one and started another. I was fit.

‘In the week of the Cup final, Spackers [Nigel Spackman] and Gary Gillespie clashed heads in training — they wore headbands in the final. Kenny took a chance on both of them playing and left me out.’

Liverpool lost 1-0 in one of the greatest of Cup final shocks. Did Whelan think he’d have made a difference?

‘We played them (Wimbledon) later that summer in the Charity Shield, and we won 2-1,’ said Whelan by way of explanation.

‘I was going around booting people and getting stuck in. Lawrie Sanchez should have been sent off for doing me in the thigh. Me and Macca weren’t going to back down together. Maybe, there was a bit of that missing in the Cup final...’

There was. It was one of those ‘big occasions’ shrewd Bob Paisley had spoken of.