GREEN MAESTRO
Liam Brady reflects on his Ireland years and his regret at how it all ended
IN front of adoring Irish fans in his hometown, Liam Brady was substituted by Jack Charlton in the first half of his final two games for his country. If the initial withdrawal against West Germany in September 1989 was akin to a public execution, the second, against Finland prior to the 1990 World Cup finals, was bearable.
By then, Brady had accepted his time was up in the green jersey he graced 72 times.
He knew Charlton’s route -one style didn’t play to his strengths and a part of him was surprised he’d continued to be part of the international set-up for so long under the Geordie.
For the very first game of the Charlton era, against Wales on a bumpy Lansdowne Road pitch in March 1986, Brady sensed the worst.
‘When Jack got the job I thought that was me gone. I knew his style of player. He laid out his plans for the team as soon as he got the job. I thought I might get left out,’ recalled Brady.
‘We played against Wales here in Lansdowne, (Ian) Rush scored, the pitch was terrible, the game was terrible, I was terrible. I thought, “Next time round, I probably won’t be in the team”.
But when the 1988 Euro campaign kicked off, Charlton, the great pragmatist, found a way of spinning Brady’s velvet oil into the iron cogs of the new-look Irish machine – even though he confused him with Ian Brady, the infamous Moors murderer.
‘When we played Belgium away in September, I fully expected not to start. So when he said “Ian, number six”, I said “Thanks Jack, I’m glad I’m playing but my name is Liam”.
‘I played that game, and the team played so well, he really couldn’t change it, you know?
‘It was a great start (2-2 draw) as Belgium were third in the 1986 World Cup. Remember that Maradona goal against Belgium?’
Brady started all eight qualifiers as Ireland reached a major tournament for the first time, a contribution that is overlooked more than his absence from Euro ’88 where a harsh twogame UEFA ban was rendered irrelevant after he sustained a serious knee injury.
‘People say I didn’t play in a major championship and while that’s a huge regret, I did help the team get there, however.
‘I hadn’t been able to do that before, so that was an enormous satisfaction to get the team to Euro ’88, albeit it happened in unusual circumstances.
‘We couldn’t celebrate when we won our last match against Bulgaria because we simply didn’t know whether that was going to be enough.’
BRADY was invited by Charlton to travel to Germany where he was given ‘an impossible job’ of getting his team-mates to bed by 12 as they celebrated beating England 1-0 in Stuttgart. Even so, the clock was ticking down on Brady’s career.
Between 1974 and 1987, he missed only three competitive qualifiers but after the final Euro qualifier, when he was sent off against Bulgaria for retaliation, he would play only five more times for his country.
I pointed out to Brady that the players Charlton appeared to take down were not only home-grown Irish heroes, but mostly ball players, namely Brady himself, Dave O’Leary, Frank Stapleton and Ronnie Whelan.
Did Brady feel Charlton lacked trust in him, and the others?
‘I honestly don’t know. It seemed like it was a case of we didn’t fit into his kind of style. There was no doubt Jack got on very well with Kevin (Moran), he was his kind of centreback.’
But that West Germany humiliation, when substituted for Andy Townsned in the 35th minute, didn’t look good, did it?
‘I didn’t think so. I felt exactly the same. I retired on the spot,’ explained Brady. ‘I didn’t want to be sat on the bench.
‘In that World Cup campaign, there was a game against Hungary. We were winning 2-0, there was about 10 minutes to go and Jack turned to me and said “Can you do this?”
‘I said “Jack, don’t worry, I’ll be fine”. That tells you you weren’t in the plans.
‘When I got the call-up against West Germany I was surprised. The Saturday before I hadn’t played well. I wasn’t in the best of form. Maurice Setters was at the game. I was a bit shocked that I was in the team against Germany.
‘Frank reckons that was our swansong under Jack, for me, him and Tony Galvin.’
When Brady returned the following May for his final appearance, again subbed by Townsend in the first half, he’d reconciled himself with missing the World Cup finals.
Journalists publicly pleaded for Charlton to reconsider, pointing out that Brady was not only held in high esteem in Italy, but he’d just completed a full season for West Ham.
At 34, he was no back number. Charlton made a 11th hour call but it was the late Alan McLoughlin who got drafted in, to the exclusion of Gary Waddock.
Would Brady agree that he might have made a contribution in Italy?
‘It’s not for me to say. What I would say is that if Johnny Giles had been manager, I would have been in the (World Cup) squad.’
Even so, Brady holds Charlton in esteem for his feats as Ireland manager.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I’d a great time with Jack. Those games we had, we qualified, we were in contention. I really enjoyed my time under Jack. It didn’t end up well but I’d nothing but respect for him,’ he said.
Where Giles was concerned, there was, and is, undiluted admiration.
As a kid, Brady would hop on the bus from Whitehall to Dorset Street and walk up the banks of the Royal Canal to see Giles play at Dalymount Park. ‘I was only 10 or 11, when you think of it,’ he says.
Brady loved the way Giles picked the ball up deep, initiated attacks. His touch on the ball, his eye for a threaded pass, a shot at goal.
He took all that with him into battle, from the time of his Ireland debut alongside Giles, aged 18.
‘We had a great start, beating the Soviet Union as it was then, with Don Givens scoring three goals, Johnny Giles was manager – I idolised him as a player.
‘I watched the teams we played under John, on poor pitches at Dalymount and Lansdowne Road and we passed the ball through the field. Eoin (Hand) was a bit of a mixture, Jack was the total opposite.
‘(As a player) I tried to emulate what Giles had done with the Irish team, the way he wanted the team to play.
‘John was probably the most instrumental giving me good advice down through the years. One of the wisest men you’d ever meet. He’d always say: “Be professional. Enjoy yourself at the right time, but you’ve got to be fit and ready to play”.
‘He advised me to get Ronnie Teamon as my solicitor, rather than having an agent, and that was a great help to me.’
Such is Brady’s legacy that when Ireland fans gather over a beer on away trips and compile their greatest all-time XI, it doesn’t count against Brady that he missed out on a tournament final – Giles never played in one either.
For most of his 16-year involvement, the Irish team was always better when Brady, wearing the No 6 jersey, was playing. How we could do with a player of his skills and vision now.
Along the way, Brady was not only a captain, and the conductor of the orchestra, he also contributed vital goals, notably match-winners against France and Brazil in Dublin – the latter in 1987 made up for the low point of losing 7-0 to Brazil in the ill-fated South America tour of 1982. In the ballet of the masses that is football, Brady was Ireland’s Nijinsky.